Just us 2025

 Overnight and this morning, we travelled 300kms into Germany. A lot of that was fairly uninspiring landscape but this afternoon, we travelled past Cologne and Bonn and towards our destination for the night, Andernach. We all went on an excursion to Namedy Castle , home of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family. We listened to a talk by Princess Heide von Hohenzollern and got to see all through the house and gardens. I really enjoyed looking at all the family portraits around the house. The garden and grounds were also beautiful. Back to the boat for dinner and an early night. The food we are getting on the Solara is spectacular. The quality is top notch but the best bit is that they serve pretty modest portions. Although we are eating 3 course meals most nights, it doesn't feel too excessive. From tomorrow, we begin the part of the tour when we visit one cute German town after another. This is going to be a treat.

 I think we may have died and gone to heaven. Life on the boat is so comfortable that it is hard to believe. Day 2 on the river cruise started with a bike ride in the area immediately outside Amsterdam. It was raining, but somehow, that seemed to make it more fun. We saw some beautiful little villages and countryside. Poor Ian had his e-bike battery die half way through the trip. He had to do the second half on his own pedal power. We ended the trip with a visit to a Street Art Museum which was fantastic. Back on the boat, we sat up on the sun deck and enjoyed the sunshine as we travelled out of the Netherlands and into Germany. Tonight, we were invited to one of the "special" restaurants on the boat. We finished the night dancing to a cover band and drinking Cointreau on ice. Fun, fun, fun.

 We had a gentle start to the day with a late check out of our hotel. Our new home is the APT Solara. The boat is absolutely beautiful. It is a fairly new boat and it looks it. Our room is amazing. We have what they call a Juliet balcony but the name doesn't convey the right image. We have a window that runs the whole width of our room. The top half of the window electronically slides down inside the lower half. That gives us a huge open air exposure to the outside. Right now, that doesn't make a lot of difference as we are still in Amsterdam. When we get going down the river tomorrow, it will be fantastic vantage point. We are getting to know the other passengers. 99% of them are Australian, a few Kiwis and English people. Thankfully, it seems there are no Americans on the boat at all. We are seriously looking forward to the next 2 weeks.

 Last time we visited Amsterdam, we missed out on the opportunity to see the Rijksmuseum . Today, we got our chance. Like all the major art galleries and museums, it isn't possible to see it all in one day. We focused on the 1600s - the Rembrandts and Vermeers primarily. Absolutely brilliant. The museum is in the process of restoring The Night Watch, Rembrandt's biggest painting. It is still on display but they explain the restoration process. It was really interesting. Like lots of other people, I was looking for The Girl with a  Pearl Earring, but it turns out that it is housed in an art gallery in The Hague. Apparently, it is so fragile now they only bring it out on display every 5 years or so. This afternoon, Ian needed some rest so I headed out alone to visit the  Huis Willet-Holthuysen . It was the home of Abraham Willet and Louisa Holthuysen back in the late 19th century. The city council of Amsterdam now owns it and maintains it as an example of wealthy 19th centu...

 We were up at 5 to get our flight to Amsterdam. Lots of queues and patience later, we arrived at our hotel, Max Brown Canal District . OMG! This is the most fun and quirky hotel ever. We are on the 4th floor of a traditional Amsterdam building. The stairs are the narrowest and steepest I have ever walked down. We are on the Herengracht Canal, the 2nd of the 4 rings of canals in central Amsterdam. The view is so picturesque. Once we had settled in, we headed out for a late lunch. We sat at an outside table at de belhamel , overlooking the canal and had some beautiful food and wine served by the world's most amazing waiter. It felt like a pretty idyllic place to be.  After lunch, we did the typical Amsterdam thing and took a canal cruise. We loved the information and the amazing views of the picture perfect streets of Amsterdam. Then, we went home for an early night to catch up on sleep and get ready for a full day in Amsterdam tomorrow.