Amsterdam Part 3

After such a replenishing sleep last night we were ready to hit the streets of Amsterdam again.  But, one look outside told us that it was not going to be a pleasant stroll in the park.  It was snowing - again!  Fortunately the snow did not last long so we boarded a "Hop-On-Hop-Off" bus for a trip around the city.  After the bus tour we jumped on the giant ferris wheel for a scenic view of the city - or at least I thought so.  DH was not impressed and slightly terrified!  After that we strolled back to our hotel via the "Red Light" district.  It was very sobering.

Your eyes are not deceiving you - the buildings are sinking.

The floating flower markets.   The boats are painted with murals on the canal side.

Amstel Hotel where all the rich and famous stay.

A slightly terrified DH on the giant ferris wheel

We were high but the people on the "swing chairs" were higher!

The Red Light District.  Under each red light is a little room with a full length window where the prostitutes are on display.  It is very sad.

We are now at Amsterdam Schiphol International airport waiting for our flight to Kuala Lumpar where we have an overnight stopover.  It is 6.36pm and our boarding commences are 7.35pm.  The screen says that it is a 20 minute walk to our gate from the KLM lounge so you can well imagine the size of this airport.  We arrive into Malaysia at 3.00pm Friday afternoon so we hope that will give us some time to have a stroll around.

Amsterdam Part 2

We said goodbye to the Scenic Diamond today.  It has been a lovely journey even though it has been the coldest March on record.  We are thankful that we had snow rather than rain, and that we had a lovely ship to bed down in each night.  We are thankful for the great friendships that we have made and  for the staff that made us feel like kings and queens.
Today the sun was shining in Amsterdam so we took the opportunity to do our canal cruise.  It was a leisurely paced journey that showed Amsterdam of the old and new.  We wanted to have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe but their was a line-up of at least fifty so we made our way around the corner to an Irish Pub for a tasty lunch with Irish Coffees.
We had drinks in the Sky Lounge on the eleventh floor at the Hilton Hotel (where we were staying) just on sunset and elected to skip dinner and head to bed early.

Some skilled riding!

Multi-tasking

You have to cross the streets in Amsterdam very carefully.  The cyclists come from nowhere!

An alternative way to see the canals is by pedal boat

Amsterdam as the sunsets

Amsterdam Part 1

We arrived into Amsterdam at about noon today and everybody is slightly more subdued.  We only have one more night on the ship and tomorrow we will have to say goodbye to all the wonderful people that we have met.  Tonight everybody onboard is invited to Captains Cocktails and Gala dinner.  We will be farewelling the staff who have been so attentive to our needs.
Our tour today was to a cheese-making factory and then on to the windmills and clog making demonstration.  It took us forty minutes by bus to arrive into the Beemster area of the Netherlands.  This area was the first area to be reclaimed from a lake, the water being extracted by windmills.  We drove past the dykes that hold back the water.  The Beemster area is about two metres lower than the water on the other side of the dyke.

The dyke holding back the water in the Beemster area

Another photo of the dyke

Inside the windmill where the flour is stone-ground

Clog making demonstration

  

Cologne & Dusseldorf

We disembarked at Cologne and joined our tour guide for a one and a half hour guided walking tour of Cologne then free time to take in the lovely city.  It's lovely to take photos with a blue sky background and today didn't disappoint although it is still very cold particularly in the wind.  Cologne is dwarfed by the Cathedral standing proudly in the city centre.  At one time it was the tallest building in the world.  We asked why it wasn't bombed in WWII and it is thought that the allies used it as a landmark for their bombings.  Cologne was bombed more than a hundred times during the war.  Once our tour finished we boarded the bus to Dusseldorf and our ship.  Tonight all passengers were taken by bus to Schlossburg Castle for a guided tour, dinner and entertainment.

Lovely Cologne (Koln)

The magnificent Dom

This is called crossing paths!

Inside the Cathedral

Embassy Road in Dusseldorf

Schlossburg Castle

Entertainment inside the castle

Our "Spaceship" docked at Dusseldorf

Ruedsheim/Koblenz

Ruedsheim is situated on the east bank of the Rhine River at the southern entrance to the Upper Middle Rhine Valley.  Ruedsheim is a wine producing area and a ride over the vineyards by Gondola was a wonderful way to see the town and to take in it's beauty.  The day itself turned quite nasty.  It started off at about 2 degrees but by the time we got  back to our ship it was snowing!  When we got back to the ship we set sail down the magnificent Rhine Valley Gorge - well we just have to believe that it is beautiful because it was snowing so heavy that we couldn't really see the castles that line the gorge.  Our cruise director has kindly given us all photos (on USB) of what we could have seen! We arrived in the lovely town of Koblenz in time to take some night photos.

Rudesheim

Arriving into Rudesheim

Gondola ride over the vineyards

Yes, that is snow!

Koblenz at night

Wertheim-Freudenberg

We arrived into Wertheim at 8am and were able to have quick look around the village before departing on our buses for today’s tour to a dairy farm at Freudenberg.  On our way to the farm we passed one of the many solar panel farms that have been established right across Germany.  This one covered approximately 200 acres. 

The solar panel farm

Germany, like Australia, gave out subsidies for people to install solar systems but has now taken away the subsidy.  Germans pay a very high price for electricity.

The dairy farm we visited has installed a Bio-Energy plant and you can tell from this diagram how it works. 

Basically the manure is collected from the cows and pumped into a giant underground tank and turned into electricity.  The young farmer told us that the system cost $300,000 euro or about $500,000 Au$ so it is not cheap.  However the generate a large amount of power which in turn is feed into the grid, for which they are paid.  After our farm visit we were taken to a “wine cellar” where we all enjoyed good food and music before returning to the ship.

We had to wear "booties" on the farm

All cows are shedded during the winter.  The manure is waste is cleared every two hours using the V-shaped implement

Our young farmer guide

Easter is in the air

Photo taken from the bus as we were crossing the river

Poor little puppy was so cold waiting outside for his master who was happily drinking coffee inside!

Lunch in the "cellar"