Flying Home

The next morning we were up for breakfast and checked out of our rooms. It was raining and very gloomy looking, which matched our mood as our holiday finished!  The hotel very kindly arranged our taxi for us and it arrived on time and took us to the airport. We were told at the hotel that it's best not to pick up a taxi on the street as you can get 'ripped off' quite badly.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time for our flight which allowed us to look through the duty free area to finish off our souvenir shopping.  We were soon onto the plane and on our way home and, on reaching Edinburgh, we found the sun again!!

This is a view of Edinburgh as we were coming in to land.

And I think that's the end of my ramblings now!! I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog and that it's been of help if you are considering a river cruise.

If you have any questions, please just ask and I will do my best to help.

Last day in Amsterdam

This was our last day in Amsterdam so after breakfast we went out for a walk around, but we didn't get very far when it started to rain!  We sheltered for a while under some arches, then headed back to the hotel and, after collecting our raincoats and umbrellas, we set off again.

Sheltering from the rain

After a short while, the rain went off and it cleared into a reasonable day, although a lot cooler than it had been over the previous couple of days. Again though, we had nothing planned, so we just wandered around the town and ended up having a look round the flower market and the Christmas shop!  The Christmas shop here is not a patch on the one we saw earlier on our travels, but we still had a look inside and bought more Christmas decorations that I really don't need!!  We found a shopping mall as well so managed to fit in some shopping and had a nice lunch in the rooftop restaurant of the mall, which was a nice bonus.

Here are the last few photos of our travels.

I think perhaps these two chaps were brothers - probably twins. They were just about to catch a tram before I snapped them quickly before they were lost to sight

Flower market

This is the rear view of the flower market

A couple enjoying the view, but the colours didn't quite look right so I converted the photo to mono and I think it works better

From a stall near the flower market

We made our way back to the hotel in the afternoon to start the packing and to rest up a little, then that evening we had dinner once more at an Italian restaurant then it was a nightcap at one of the bars before heading back to the hotel to finish off the packing ready for our flight home later the next day.

Second day in Amsterdam

After a good night's sleep we woke up to another beautiful day in Amsterdam. We had our breakfast and decided on what the day's plans were. We hadn't organised anything at all but, as someone had said to try and fit in a visit to the Zoo, that's what we decided to do. After a quick look at the map, we set off on foot and took a leisurely walk to the Zoo thinking that we'd only stay a little while.  How wrong were we!!  It was just a wonderful place to be on such a warm and sunny day, so much so that we spent around six hours just wandering around, looking at the vast amount of animals and birds etc., and having lunch. The aquarium too was absolutely wonderful. It really is a fantastic place to see so, if you have time in your schedule while in Amsterdam, I would recommend that you try to fit in a visit.

I took loads of photos and have posted the best of them here. It is obvious as to what most of the animals are, but there are some I don't know the names of!

Lioness

Zebra

Giraffe

Penguin

Aquarium

Aquarium

Aquarium

Baby elephant

Red panda

It was so hot that the meerkats were lying flat out trying to keep cool!

Lion

Heron - I have never seen so many herons in the one place!  They were everywhere!

Baby pelican

We then took a slow stroll back to the hotel after our visit to the Zoo and rested up before going out for dinner that night.  I took this photo on the way back to the hotel.

We found a nice Chinese place and had a nice meal there before wandering back to the hotel via a couple of bars for some refreshments and 'people watching'!!  These are some photos I took before getting back to the hotel.

Arrival in Amsterdam

We arrived into Amsterdam into beautiful weather and the first thing that struck me was the amount of bicycles that I could see!  There were hundreds of them parked up all over the place!!

Bicycles on the dockside

Anyway, after breakfast we arranged to have our cases taken up from the cabin and we went outside where staff assisted us to get a taxi. As I said earlier, we had booked our own extension to the holiday on our own, so our transfers were nothing to do with Viking. The taxi that arrived for us took us to the Radisson Blu Hotel and the total cost was 46 Euros. The drive there was quite a short one but, as we had arrived quite early, our room at the hotel wasn't ready for us, however they happily stored our luggage for us and we went out to explore our new surroundings.

As it was such a glorious day, we took the opportunity of taking a trip on one of the canal boats which worked out as 15.50 Euros for a one hour sail, which we thoroughly enjoyed.  However, before that we decided to pop into a cafe for a rest and a cup of coffee but, I expect you've guessed what we done!!  We actually ended up in a cannabis cafe!!  We did get some strange looks from other patrons, however the staff were lovely and we sat and had a coffee before leaving again on our travels.  I must stress that we did only have coffee though and decided not have some of the 'special cakes' that were on offer!!

On our canal cruise we saw that there were bicycles all over the place.  They are just parked everywhere.  all sorts of bikes, every colour under the sun and some very old ones too!!  We even spotted a multi-storey bicycle park!!

As you can imagine I was a bit snap happy in this photographer's paradise, and I took loads of photos, but I will include just a few here to give you an idea of the sights you can see from the canals.

After our cruise we had a light lunch and then we made our way back to the hotel to check in. I took some photos as we walked back to the hotel and came to the conclusion that it would be almost impossible to take photos in Amsterdam without getting a bicycle or some sort of two-wheeled vehicle into the picture!!

How to take your dog for a walk in Amsterdam!

Girlie scooter!

We were allocated twin room No. 635 which was on the 6th floor and overlooked the reception area of the hotel.  It was a nice large room, especially after the cramped conditions of the cabin on the cruise, but it lacked storage space.  Hard to believe I know, but we had more storage space in our cabin on the boat!! However, it was still a nice room and it had the following facilities: over-bath shower, shaving mirror, hair dryer, toiletries, iron and ironing board, safe, fridge (stocked and electronic), TV, tea and coffee making facilities.  There was an ice machine just outside in the hallway.  Now, about the safe - it was in the most stupid place.  It was situated very high up so that a smaller person certainly wouldn't have been able to reach it to enter in the numbers on the keypad. I was able to reach these, but I couldn't see the bottom of the safe and when it came to clear it, I had to stand on a chair and hold a torch inside to make sure I hadn't missed anything! I just wonder how many before before us have inadvertently left articles inside on checking-out of the hotel. There was also a step into the bathroom which was a tripping hazard. There were no drawers in the room and only a limited number of open shelves for storing clothes apart from some hanging space. I have never been in such a poorly designed hotel room anywhere in the world!  Having said all of that, check-in was easy and the staff were friendly and helpful. We requested extra pillows for the room and they arrived literally only minutes after they were ordered. Here are some photos of the room.

After getting the cases unpacked as best we could considering the lack of storage space, we had a bit of a rest then went back out for another walk around. Here are some photos taken during our walkabout.

Colourful 'cafe'

Bicycles of all shapes and sizes and colours!

That's certainly one good thing about the streets here - there are no hills!! Around tea-time we found an Italian restaurant where we had a nice meal and then walked some more before heading to a bar for a nightcap and then it was back to the hotel at 11 p.m. as we were pretty tired by then!

Nightcap!  Cheers!!