I’m watching the world pass by as we cruise up the Rhine River on our way to Cologne. But, we had two days more of touring Amsterdam before we began our river cruise.

Rick Steves Walking tour and Mastering the Metro.

Before heading out we stopped on the way for a particularly yummy warm and flaky almond croissant from the local Bakhuys (which means quite literally, bake house).

We don’t really feel like we have mastered a new place until we ride the metro and Amsterdam’s Metro was lovely, and super easy to maneuver. Just like most of Asia you can pay for the subway or light rail with a tap using Apple Pay or a credit card each time you get on and off. Note to Seattle: for goodness sake, time to replace the “honor system” in which so many riders act dishonorably.

After riding the Metro to Central Station we walked and listened to the history of the area and other tidbits from Rick Steves’ audio tour. Although we had walked some of it before, the audio tour connected the dots and helped us understand the city even more.

After using the beautiful hotel pool we rested a bit and then went out for a yummy Italian dinner at a local restaurant we passed the night before. It was a good choice.

I forgot to mention the day before when we were grabbing a late snack in the hotel bar and were entertained by a floating opera singer (who had been engaged for a big birthday bash on the canal).

The Portuguese Synagogue

Yesterday, Monday, we checked out early from the hotel and made our way to the Portuguese Synagogue. If you go to Amsterdam this is a must visit. The Portuguese Synagogue is the largest and oldest in Europe still in use today. It is a Sephardic synagogue built by the Jewish survivors of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions who escaped death by agreeing to convert to Christianity (the “New Christians”), but then converted back to Judaism after immigrating to Holland where “freedom of religion” was a radical new concept.

Next door to the Portuguese Synogogue is an Ashkenazi Synagogue (for Jews from other parts of Europe). It was also built with wood, a few years after the Portuguese Synagogue.

Both Synogogue’s survived the Nazis because Hitler wanted them to remain as a museum of the “extinct” Jews.

Although 90% of the Jews in Amsterdam (including Anne Frank) died in the Holocaust, on the first Sabbath after Victory in Europe Day on May 8, 1945 (80 years ago), there were still enough Jews to reopen the Portuguese Synagogue which continues in active use today.

Sadly, so few Ashkenazi Jews survived the Holocaust that their 17th Century Synagogue is now a museum and no longer actively used for worship.

The energy in the Portuguese Synagogue is quite peaceful. Someday we would like to attend a service here. Although it has no electricity or heat, it is lit at night by 1000 candles along the pews and in giant hanging candelabras.

When we visited during the day, sun was shining in through the high windows, ighting the pews as we sat and listened to a recorded Shalom meditation on our EarPods.

The “treasures” vault of the Ashkenazi Synagogue Museum preserved many old artifacts, including Torah Scrolls, candelabras, and clothing.

We learned that the symbol of Jews in Amsterdam and other places around the world was the mythical Phoenix bird, which rises from the ashes of its own death. Which of course makes perfect sense, because Jews were always rising from the ashes of the most recent pogrom.

The MS Joy

From there we walked back to the hotel to catch a bus to the ship. Our luggage was in our room (308) when we arrived on board. This is our first cruise of any kind, other than our personal cruising of course. I must say it is a real convenience to unpack and know that we won’t have to move our luggage for 14 days.

Our stateroom is lovely and comfortable. The ship felt a little strange to me at first, I can’t even explain why. Maybe a little claustrophobic, but it is plenty big for the 115 guests on board.

We’ve quickly acclimated and connected with many of our fellow passengers forming new friendships. Our room is on the starboard side and at our dock in Amsterdam our view was industrial. So opening the sliding glass outside doors for sleeping really wasn’t a choice. But once we were underway Monday night the joy of the view bloomed and I was able to open the windows to lots of fresh air.

But before leaving Amsterdam we had one last touring day in Amsterdam. Although there are very few cars driving around, there’s an enormous number of bikes. So you need to be very careful crossing the many bike paths which crisscross the city. All of the cars and buses are restricted to a very slow speeds (about 20 mph) to create a safer environment for the much more numerous the cyclists.

On the way to the RIJKS National Museum our bus guide gave us some fun facts. He described Amsterdam as a “Cosmopolitan Village” because it is really pretty small. The plan, a very quick tour of the RIJKS Museum, meandering canal lunch tour and some free time before a coach ride to catch up with the ship.

The RIJKS Museum tour was like an art speed date, and our guide had her list of highlights that she mentioned as we raced through, quickly looking for openings here and there through the crowd. The building itself is quite special. Of course the most famous painting there is Rembrandt’s Night Watch (which is currently being restored).

I learned some fun Rembrandt facts. He always had his light coming from the upper left and shadows on the lower right side of paintings. We could watch the restorers with their computers, microscopes and lasers, painstakingly working on the painting. I found that fascinating and would have liked to talk to the restorers and learn more about what they were doing. I loved some of the Vermeer paintings. We quickly saw some strange miniature houses the wealthy created to demonstrate the grandeur of their house. These are not to be confused with doll houses.

Of course, seeing Amsterdam from the canals is a must. There is nothing quite like it. Our guide on the tour shared some fun facts and history. It turns out that a woman was the creator of the Central Bank of Amsterdam. And although she was not allowed in their stock exchange building, she was very important to the financial success of Amsterdam.

After touring some of the Amsterdam canals by tour boat, we had 2 hours to walk around and Wanda (a fellow passenger) and I went in search of the nearby grocery store to stock up on some needed sundries. I hadn’t seen any grocery store in all our walking around. Unlike most places we visited, there aren’t lots of corner groceries and drug stores. I thought to myself, where on earth are all these people shopping and it turned out it was underground near the museums. We still had time to kill so we grabbed a latte and hung out at a nearby locals cafe.

After a break to wander, we boarded our bus and made our way to meet up with the ship that had been cruising all day to a rendezvous point 50 miles up river from Amsterdam.

Jim stayed on board today because he was feeling a little bit coldy so he missed the canal cruise but he got to experience the first locks and a lovely day healing and napping in the sun.

Unfortunately, the coach hit traffic and took over 2 hours to get to the ship. I really don’t like the coach ride part of these tours, but sometimes they are just necessarily. But once on board I went to our room and showered before a lovely dinner. We disembarked for the overnight cruise highlighted by a stunning sunset.

Overnight away from the dock we opened our doors to the sound of the water, occasionally woken up by industrial activity and barges going by, but still wonderful. This morning after breakfast I did my walk/run on the upper decks while Jim did his stretches. Sun continues to warm our journey and we feel very lucky. We had some touring business to attend to, picking our our excursions for the the rest of the journey.

So we will grab a bite to eat before docking in Cologne and exploring that city.

Cologne:

No rushing out this morning. We enjoyed cruising on our way to Cologne and I got a run in by doing laps around the top deck. The weather is perfect and the experience of running the circle including some steps while cruising was kind of interesting, half against the wind, half with the wind.

We just returned from a special tour by a young local guide, Benny. He was energetic and informative and extremely cute.

You can see Jim in the pictures above walking over some metal boxes. These mark where a “water fence” can be constructed quickly to hold back flooding waters. It was built after three years of big floods in the 1990’s. It’s tested every year but it hasn’t been needed yet in a real flood. It can be constructed in only a few hours by 1200 people.

After the tour we went into the cathedral which is quite impressive. The glowing, magnificent stained glass and its huge size make it especially remarkable. It was built over hundreds of years and was the tallest building in the world after it was completed in the 1800’s until the Washington Monument was built in DC (using the scaffolding from this cathedral). We stopped for some yummy ice cream on our way back to the ship. Our last stop was the main Cologne rail/auto/pedestrian bridge that is completely covered with the thousands of padlocks placed by loving couples who attach their symbolic “love lock” to the bridge and throw away the key into the Rhine River below. Tonight, we get underway again at 6:30 and then will celebrate the evening with local beer, food and music.

Auf Wiedersehen.

Fawn and Jim