Viking's Grand European River Cruise: Kinderdijk

Viking River Cruise, Day 2:  Kinderdijk, NL (Facebook collage)

(click any collage to enlarge) 

Day 2 of the  Grand European Tour was really the first full day of our river cruise.  And once again, as with our starting point in Amsterdam, we were in familiar territory:  our own backyard, 15 miles from home.  In fact, if it's not too much information, it's where Astrid and I want our cremains placed.  That's how soulful it is to us.  

 We docked at Kinderdijk during breakfast time but didn't disembark till 9:30 a.m.

So Astrid and I went on the top sun deck to get the lay of the land.

We love to see how things work!

You can probably tell which of these images were taken from the sun deck...a new view for us both.

On the other side of the river was the Krimpen aan de Lek water tower, from 1909.

(Most of you know I "collect" water towers and weathervanes!)

Time to get off the boat for our first excursion of the tour.

Time to see what our boat looked like from the outside.

Truth be told, we did NOT take the tour, since this place is "old hat" for us.

We decided to wander off on our own for the 2 hours we had free.

It's almost impossible to get all 19 windmills in one shot, by the way.

 It was a cold, grey winter's day on that Sunday, 17 March, 2013!

[Check out real wintertime at Kinderdijk with snow here and here if you want more.]

Once back on board, waiting for lunch, we watched the pros undock us...

 ...and then backed up on the Lek river to turn onto the Noord river to get us to the Merwede river...

(with Rotterdam in the background and passing the Sliedrecht water tower from 1886)

 ...and then passing Noah's Ark in Dordrecht (yes, you heard me)...

...(how about adding a rain texture to make it look like the real deal!  :)...

...to then actually passing by our own city, Gorinchem, while eating lunch!

That's our Grote Kerk, our water tower (now an aparment building) from 1886,

our De Hoop windmill from 1764, turning as we passed by,

and the Loevestein castle on the other side of the river from where we live.

(I took these pictures inside at our lunch-table's window!)

All of that our first morning out!  Then it was time for fun and games after lunch:

Safety Drill and Dutch Sjoelen (Facebook Collage)

First we had a safety drill, participation mandatory.

Notice how you can pick out the crew from the passengers.

Will those blue vests really keep them afloat???

Then we played old-fashioned Dutch sjoelen, a game Astrid grew up on.

On Facebook I mentioned that of the 10+ players, Astrid lost by only one point.

Here you can see her explaining the ins-and-outs to Alex, our Program Director.
(I'm adding images of passengers who became dear friends.)

What a great first day, after Kinderdijk, to relax while sailing to Gologne, Germany, for our next stop the following day.  It was a chance to get acquainted with the ship and the passengers....

...and Peter, our cruise pianist...

...who entertained us all in the ship's wonderful lounge.

But of all the places I grew to love the most, it was the enclosed Aquavit Lounge

at the front of the ship, after passing through the main lounge.

It's where we ended up eating breakfast every day going forward.

Full of light and charm because of the openness and skylights.

So, how's that for a whip-snorting start!

We even danced our tails off that first night, as I recall.