Caribbean Cruise - Day 2

CARIBBEAN CRUISE - DAY 2 - AT SEA

Sunday, November 30th. we went to bed early on Saturday night, Saturday had been a long day and we were still tired from our adventure on Friday, so we slept soundly in our state room on deck six on Saturday night while the night owls and revelers partied the night away on deck seven, two decks above us.  we did not hear a thing. I was up at 6:00 AM and made my way to the fitness center on deck twelve. I walked up the seven flights to deck seven as a warm up for my practice. What struck me was the absolute quiet. The only sounds that I heard was the muted sounds of the board as it sailed through the Caribbean. I guess all the party goers were sleeping off the effects of Saturday night. When I got to the fitness club there were already a few people waiting to get in ahead of me, that was a bit of a surprise. I guess not everyone was hanging out at the clubs the night before. As soon as I walked up to fitness center the door opened and we all went in. everyone went for the machines, I went into the aerobic studio and closed the door. I had the entire studio to myself. I went through Yi Jin Jing  Yijin Jing as I would on the weekends followed by a slow Taijiquan  Tai Chi practice. Typically, I would also do my sword practice  Taijijian after Taijiquan. As I did not have a sword with me, I did not think that  US customs would like the idea of bringing a practice sword on a cruise ship, I thought I would go through my sword practice without a sword, after all, I practice with a sword every day. \i figured that the moves were ingrained in my muscles. I was surprised to find out that after the opening salutation, I could not do it. it seems that the sword is an extension of my hand and arm and when the sword is not there, the memory of the moves is not there.

After my practice I went to the Garden Cafe to get hot water with lemon for my wife and I, we drink hot water with lemon every morning before breakfast as a cleanse. Wen went to the Garden Cafe for breakfast, they had fresh fruit, baked goods and a lot of other things. There as no lack of things to chose from for breakfast. A breakfast, I saw an elderly Chinese man with a cane that had a dragon's head on the top, now that would make a great substitute for my sword!

After breakfast, we did a couple of tours around deck 13 for exercise, 2 2/3 around the deck is supposed to equal one mile. It was warm and sunny outside but it was also very windy on deck 13. After out walk we went back to the Garden Cafe for a drink then we went to the theater for a presentation on all the things that you could do in Cozumel, Mexico, mostly they revolved around shopping. After listening to everything that the presenter had say about Cozumel, we decided that there nothing that we were really interested in doing. either the trips were too long, some lasted the entire day or we were just not interested in the tours. We wondered if we didn't go on the tours, could we still go ashore? I had a lot of misgivings about tours with dolphins and stingrays. On the one hand, visiting with dolphins  Dolphin and stingrays Stingray  may be the only chance that they will ever have to come in contact with nature. On the other hand, I don't like the idea of taking wild animals and forcing them to do tricks, especially dolphins who are, apparently, very intelligent animals with highly developed social and linguistic structures. It seems to me that it is insulting and abusive to treat dolphins like carnival animals. As for stingrays, I think that it is insane to treat stingrays as if they are house pets! Stingrays are wild animals that could, without warning, turn on you and deliver a lethal dose of toxins that could kill a person.

At 10:30AM we went to a cooking demonstration for sushi, my wife was particularly interested in attending this session as she is with everything about cooking and food. The first part of the session about sushi was okay, the presenters gave  a simple demonstration on how to make sushi. The bonus was that they had plenty of samples to hand out. The second part of the presentation was about Teppanyaki. It seemed to have more to do with cooks entertaining the crowd with their cooking utensils than it did with actual cooking. We watched the entertainment for a while then we left to go to the next presentation.

At 11:30AM, we went to a talk about reducing toxins in the fitness center on deck 12. It was a good talk but for us it was preaching to the choir. The speaker was one of the trainers at the health club. He gave the group information about the perils of toxins in a simplified form but still, a lot of the people there simply did not get. I is amazing how little people know about their own bodies and what can happen to their bodies if they do not take proper precautions.

After lunch we went to an art auction that was presented by Park West.  Park West Gallery The first night on the boat we were invited to attend the art auction. We thought it would be something interesting to see even though we had no intention of buying anything. On the other hand, if we did see something that we absolutely had to have we might have considered putting in a bid. As we walked around, glass of champagne in hand, we looked at all the art that was on display before the auction. Truthfully, we did not see anything that we considered to be a work of art that we absolutely had to have, so we left.

Since it was such a nice day, we went up to deck 13 and sat in deck chairs but it was so windy that we had to move down to deck 12 where it was sheltered against the wind. After, when we were sitting outside the Garden Cafe drinking lemon water, the drummer from the band that was playing came by and sat with us. He was an interesting guy, originally he was from Guyana but now he works out of New York. He was very interesting to speak with.

That evening, there was a fair amount of motion from the boat during dinner. after dinner my wife did not feel well. I think that she had a touch of sea sickness so we went to our state room where she laid down for a while. that was the end of out first day at sea.

Amsterdam - Day Four - Viking

Day four in Amsterdam, October 4, 2013, our last day in Amsterdam but the first day of our Viking riverboat cruise. We wanted to make the best of our last day in Amsterdam. After getting up early to practice Taijiquan by the school I got into the Hotel Fita just moments before it started to pour rain. The rain was coming down hard while we ate our breakfast. It seemed that we would be stuck in the hotel until it was time to check out. That was a depressing thought. However, after breakfast the rain suddenly stopped as soon as it started. This gave us an opportunity to go out and take a few more pictures and spend a bit more time walking around the museum area before we checked out of the hotel and headed down to the port to our boat,

I don't know what this building is but I like it so much i had to take this picture and include it in this post

We managed to get a picture of this sculpture before it was mobbed by tourists

See what I mean!

A picture of the music conservatory which is at the opposite end of the field from the Rijks Museum. It was also a lovely building.

One last canal picture before we headed back to the hotel to check out.

We checked out of the hotel by 11:00AM and made our way down to the dock to our Viking boat, the Atla. The Viking brochure told us that the boat would be moored at one of three piers. Fortunately, all three piers were within walking distance on one another. We disembarked from the tram at Central Station which is almost at the harbour. The problem was that we were not quite sure how to get around Central Station to the water. We stopped and asked a couple of men who worked at the station how to get to the piers. One said go all the way around, the other said walk through the station it was faster. We decided to walk through the station because it was the fastest and shortest route.  Once inside the station we realized that to get through the station one should have first purchased a ticket. We took the risk and walked through. No one stopped or questioned us and we were at the dock in just a few minutes. As soon as we crossed the road to the water's edge we say our boat less than 100 meters away. There was a large red pavilion on the dock in front of the gangway to the boat to welcome passengers. 

Once on board, we were relieved of our luggage, checked in and shown to our room, all in less than ten minutes of setting foot on board. We were informed that there would be a lunch was being served from 11:00AM to 3:00PM. Since we had not eaten since breakfast and had exerted not inconsiderable effort getting to ship we thought it would be a nice idea to have some lunch. We made out way up to the lounge where an extensive buffet lunch was being served. As soon as we entered the lounge we were offered champagne which, of course, we accepted. As vegetarians, we are always interested to see what there is for us to eat. We were delightfully surprised. There were at least half a dozen different salads for us to eat and we sampled all of them. 

After lunch, we were informed that there would we a welcome walk around Amsterdam. We were provided with a local English speaking guide who took us around the old area around Amsterdam. When we were first taken to our room we were informed that there were two receivers that were for our use. the receivers were used to tune into the transmitter that our guide was using. In this way, even if the guide was some distance away we could still hear what they were saying, it was a nice system. We used the receivers for the first time on our last day in Amsterdam. Our guide showed us some of the historic sites in the old city and talked about the history and development of Amsterdam. It was all very interesting, especially so after having spent three days in Amsterdam already. At the end of the tour we returned to the boat in time to take part in a lecture given by a local historian.

The speaker, Ilsa,  started her talk with the story about the cat in the cradle. Apparently, at least two different villages claim to be the village where the story came from. IN Holland, dikes were built up from mats of willow that were built up year after year. Workers would dig ditches to direct water away from the swamp. The rivers would flood the reclaimed land every year. The dikes would sink as the rivers rose. These were challenging problems to deal with, Eventually, water boards were established to manage water issues. A Polder is a district with certain water levels. Each Polder had its own chairman, To become a member of the water board you had to drink a liter of water then write a poem. If the poem was good then you would be admitted to the water board.

In the 17th century the water kept rising in Friesland in Holland, the land was wet. Many people left but those who stayed became experts in managing water. Many technical experts in managing water emerged. There are three villages,  one has experts  in dredging., another has specialists in building floating islands, a third has experts in engineering projects to manage water.

Finally, Ilsa turned the discussion to Kinderdyk, our first stop after leaving Amsterdam. The Kinderdyk windmills were designed to pump the water from the canals to a basin to keep the level of the water low in the canals during high tide. When the tide was low the windmills would pump the water back into the canals. In this way the windmills helped to manage the water level in the canals. Kinderdyk was the first area in Holland to have electricity. Eventually, steam pumps replaced the windmills.

Today in Holland, the policy is to have wider and deeper rivers to make the water flow faster. There is also a policy to hold more water in the land. If you take all of the water out of the land then the land starts to sink. Global warming will have a significant affect on Holland in the future as global water levels start to rise. The Dutch government, as are all governments, is dragging its feet in implementing a plan to deal with global warming.

Amsterdam - Day Two

Our second day in Amsterdam started bright and early. I was up at 7:00AM to practice Taijiquan. I tried practicing in our tiny room the night before but it just didn't work, there was not enough room to move properly, I felt like I was in a street fight, not practicing Taijiquan, so I gave up after the second third of the Yang long form. Since the room was too small I had no choice but to go out into the street by our hotel. The Hotel Fita is adjacent to a school so the cross streets are blocked off to automobile traffic although bicycles had free access to both directions. At 7:00AM in the morning the streets were quite, only a few pedestrians and bicyclists passed by and they all ignored me with a studied deliberation that I found to be reassuring. Feeling refreshed and full of energy after half and hour of Taijiquan I headed back to the hotel.

We ate breakfast in the basement of the Hotel Fita. The basement was nicely done, it had a cozy intimate feel. There were fresh croissants and pain au chocolate as well as granola and muesli, as well as fresh fruit. They had a very nice coffee machine that made cappuccino or European black coffee with a nice crema on top. The hotel keeper made us Dutch pancakes which were absolutely delicious.

After breakfast we purchased tickets for the Rijks Museum which was only five minutes from the hotel. We were concerned about standing in a long line for tickets so we bought advanced tickets for a 2 Euro surcharge, it was worth it not to stand in a long line to get into the museum. We arrived at the museum just after it opened at 9:00AM. We walked right in because we had pre-purchased our tickets. The thing was, there was no waiting because there was no long line. We could have saved ourselves a few Euros by buying our tickets at the museum.


We spent the entire day at the Rijks museum. Taking advise from Rick Steve we started on the top floor of the museum and worked out way down that way we would at least have a chance to look at the upper galleries before the crowds caught up with us.

    The museum itself us a magnificent building. It is a testament to the period when Holland was an economically powerful nation. Most of Holland's wealth came from trade and overseas colonies. These two themes are played out over and over again throughout the architecture and art in the Rijks museum.

 This sculpture represents man and the conflict between technology and the natural world.

This aiplane was designed by Frits Koolhoven, a Dutch designer who had a great influence on airplane design in the early 20th century.

The center piece of the second floor of the Rjks museum is Rembrandt's Night watch. It is a truly magnificent painting. You cannot appreciate the scope of the painting until you stand in front of it. I took this picture behind the crowd because there was never a time that there was not a crowd in front of this picture. Just down the hall from the Night Watch there were other great paintings. I spent a lot of time standing in front of some of my favorite paintings by Vermeer.

On the first floor of the museum I visited the library which is a full service research library for the arts. I spent some time there relaxing and looking at a book of beautiful wood sculptures.

There were so many wonderful and beautiful things to see and experience at the Rjks. We could have spent days there but one day was all we could allot for the Rjks. I have to share this picture of a wonderful Guanyin from the Asian pavilion.

This Guanyin was carved in the 12th century in Asia. It is a beautiful example of the incredible craftsmanship of that period.

I cannot do justice to the Rjks museum in this post. The best thing that I can say is that if you find yourself in Amsterdam on business or in transit and you only have one spare day to see the city then you must go to the Rjks museum, you will not regret it.

We regretfully left the museum around 5PM exhausted and dazzled. On the way back to our hotel we stopped at the underground supermarket that was near the Van Gogh museum to pick up salads for our dinner. The store also carried natural juices that were made from organic fruits. The salads and the juice were delicious. In the evening we went out to look around the city. Back at our room we practiced qigong and I went outside by the school to practice Taijiquan. It was a long and exciting and exhausting day.