Day 1, 2 & 3, March 22, 23 & 24, Dallas to Amsterdam, The Netherlands

It is Easter morning.  This is our first full day on the cruise ship. The day of rest, did start with the sound of nearby church bells ringing  Ingvi is our ship's name.  The Kingdom of Netherlands went on daylight savings time this day. Now we have lost a total of 7 hours. We were up and about for a walking tour that started at 8:30 AM.  We were guided to a functioning Dutch windmill built in the 1600'a. People were definitely smaller then. A wooden shoe attired man, who is a volunteer, guided the tour which lasted for about one and half hours.   We met the miller in charge of caring for this functioning windmill.  Fascinating technology. 

No more activities except eating and resting for us today.  I will fill you in on our activities up to this point in our travels.

Tuesday, March 22, was travelling to Dallas for Sister time with youngest sister.  Thanks to a relaxed evening and morning we started the trip in good shape.

 
Wednesday, March 23, was our flight day, departure time was 5:40 PM, CDT, 10:40 PM, London.   The British Airways personnel could not have been nicer. From beginning to the end in Amsterdam.  Our bags were checked through to Amsterdam so no baggage to deal with on Heathrow. We arrived early at DFW anticipating longer waits due to enhanced security.  It took only about 25 minutes.  It took almost longer for us to get our shoes back on 😃.  Of course both airports had to do pat downs as metal knees do set off the scanners.  Heathrow even picked up the hooks in my bra!  Hubby has a metal knee so pat downs for him, too. We thanked them for keeping as safe as possible. A three and a half hour layover gave us plenty of time to stretch our legs and have a bite.

After a slight delay in takeoff, we left Heathrow for Amsterdam.  Time of arrival was 7:30 AM, CDT, 2:30, Amsterdam time. Another hour was lost upon arrival in Amsterdam.  As we waited at the baggage pickup we were met by the Viking representative.  A second couple was, also, met by the rep. Four young women assisted the four of us with our bags. Eight people and each had two bags of some sort.

Transport to the Mövenpick Hotel and once more everyone was beyond kind and helpful.  A quick visit with the next Viking reps to register our arrival to the hotel. Then to the concierge to purchase tram tickets and we were off to the canal cruise.  Oh, what a terrific adventure.  I have so many photos of the beautiful architecture throughout the canal area. We hopped off to visit the Anne Frank Hais. The line was over two blocks long in a cold, windy rain. We just took photos of the door, the sign and headed for a warm place to wait for the next canal cruise boat taking our tickets.

The canal cruise ended near the Central Station where it started.  It was nearing 7:30 PM, Amsterdam, 1:30 PM, 31 hours since Hubby had slept.  I napped on the Amsterdam leg of the flights. We had not had a meal since arriving, just some trail mix. We grabbed the #26 in the direction of the hotel. A thus began another adventure...  I'll post about that later. My eyelids are heavy and another walking trip is in the morning in Cologne, Germany.