Our travels

Legend of the Seas– April 30, 2014–Amsterdam, The Netherlands–part 2

What an appropriately named private canal boat for our afternoon tour

Locks in parts of the canal system control the water levels. Amsterdam suffers from the same problem as Venice and there are many leaning buildings. Here’s a selection

Notice the top of this building. There is a pulley system attached to all the old buildings to aid in moving furniture in and out.
There’s a modern side to Amsterdam too

Bridges of all shapes, sizes and ages

This is a famous view through several bridges and is often used for wedding photos – we were lucky. This canal was also used in an early James Bond film

One of the famous galleries in Amsterdam

It’s a relaxed way of life living on the canals – whether on a houseboat or in an apartment

We left Amsterdam, as we arrived, in a mizzley evening

We followed the outermost canal to the exit to the sea and had to traverse the lock because of the tide

This was a new experience for our friends who had not been on the ship for the Panama Canal transit. It was a fitting end to a visit to a city of canals.

Legend of the Seas– April 30, 2014–Amsterdam, The Netherlands-Part 1

After a foggy start which delayed our arrival, we headed off the ship for a walk around the city with friends we had met. We were lucky enough to have made contact with someone sailing with us who has a particular interest in Amsterdam. He provided an extraordinary amount of information and material for our day out. We took a tram to the Anne Frank Museum. A very well presented record, in the actual house where she lived, of the lives of herself, her family and others while in hiding from the Germans in WWII. A very moving experience.
Afterwards we walked to the houseboat museum and then on to the flower market, the Begijnhof and finally down one of the streets in the red light district – that was an experience to behold!
In the afternoon we took a private tour on a historic canal boat – the Hildaboot. Hilda was my mother’s name so this was very appropriate. This boat is smaller than the commercial boats so we were able to navigate through many of the smaller interconnecting canals.

AnneFrank House

Quaint shops

Plenty of Dutch cheese on offer

Another iconic Dutch item

Fries Dutch style

Our group – minus Bill who took the photo

The Nieuwkerk

A chance sighting. Next – on the canals

Legend of the Seas– April 29, 2014–Bruges, Belgium

The day started well with our taxi waiting for us when we were dropped off by the port shuttle outside the port gates. We were soon on our way into the medieval town of Bruges. The weather was not bad and we luckily had a day without rain.
Armed with our map we headed for the Belfry. This tower dominates the city and we were looking forward to tackling the 366 steps to the bells at the top of the tower. The queue was not too bad and it was not long before we were climbing the spiral stairs which would take us up for the best views of the town. It was also useful to see the layout of the town before we headed out to visit other parts of the town.
After our visit to the tower we negotiated the winding cobbled streets to visit other sights. Bruges is a charming town and somewhere we would like to spend more time another day.