Day 6 Cycling ... Last Night Aboard Fluvius

Rainy and windy as predicted...so no cycling and we sail off, arriving in Amsterdam before noon.  We pour off the ship to walk around.

Yes.  We're in the right city...not lost.

More bicycles here than Copenhagen ... and do they zoom along!

The main shopping street with its high-end stores:

A covered walkway:

Lights in the walkway:

A Rastafarian alien greets customers at this store:

Then we run smack dab into a little fair that has a definite Halloween feeling:

There's the famous flower market where mostly bulbs are sold.  Since none of us have gardens we don't linger.  They are the biggest, healthiest bulbs I've ever seen.

So many canals and houseboats, we are reminded immediately of Venice:

A few interesting buildings:

This is the ball on top of the spire of church in the above photo:

Narrow building ... big windows ... great shutters:

This modern building looks a bit like a spaceship:

On the front right on the roof of this building are 2 swings that when they get going you are out in the air:

A close up of the inset figure on the photo above:

Last night is the Captain's dinner ... a 5-course meal...and the Captain supplies the first glass of wine.  He brings out all the crew to thank them & he thanks his passengers.  Captain Arno and Jack our tour guide sit at our table...then after dessert, Arno goes to each table to chat with each person and again thank them.  Arno's wife can join us after dinner and when we leave the next day (Saturday) she is helping the crew clean the ship (she has a FT, M - F executive job).  

After dinner, Jack takes us on one of his walks.  This one to the Red Light District ... where he lived as a young man.

The crew.  The 4 young people are from Romania, very hard working and very pleasant.  The cook is on the far left and the First Mate is next to the Captain:

Jack our wonderful tour guide ... a former social worker for troubled families and teens.  He loves this job and it shows:

Captain Arno and 10 yr old Shadow.  The Captain is a lovely person ... helping the crew with mundane chores, talking with the passengers regularly and giving his narratives of special places we are sailing by.  He got out of a job on a huge cruise ship because there he had no contact with passengers.  He too loves what he does.  A passion is to mentor young people:

Nigel and Claire ... our interesting and well-travelled English table companions for the week.  We have an invite to visit them in the south of England.

Maureen from California and her friend Mary from Michigan:

Maureen being her funny self:

And lovely Carlos and Carmine from Mexico City.  We may get to meet them in Tulum this winter:

On the boat, there were folks from Vancouver, Germany, the Netherlands, other parts of the USA, Brazil and Australia ... 33 of us in all.  

Captain Arno and Jack made us feel like family, the crew attended to our every need and passengers looked out for each other on the road.  We loved every minute of this trip.