Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Day 2)

 Today turned out to be a wonderful surprise.  We were scheduled to go on a tour that was almost the same as what we did yesterday, just visiting 2 different villages and a different cheese and wooden shoe factory.  So we turned in our tickets and made a new plan.  We decided to go to the Rijksmuseum and learned that we could walk to the central rail station and catch the Metro.  When we got there we couldn't exactly figure out the ticket situation and bought a card that could be recharged for $7 each figuring that that should be enough to get us there and back.  We got to the museum only to find that we were supposed to have bought our tickets online for a specific arrival time and now the soonest we could get tickets was for over an hour later.  It was getting hot and we decided to just return to the ship after a little bit of a walk around.  Then we learned that our Metro tickets didn't have enough on them to get us into the Metro.  Huh??  So we bought new regular tickets for one hour for $3.50 each and those got us in and back to the central station.  Guess I needed to do a bit more research on how the Metro works.  

We had a nice lunch with Carl on the Pool Deck (he had the same idea so we shared a table) and then I got myself comfortable around the pool.  For some reason, I decided to check FaceBook and saw that our good friends from Oregon have arrived in Amsterdam to begin their Viking river cruise!  I knew they were doing a cruise, but had never thought to check the dates.  I quick texted them and discovered that, unfortunately, they weren't on the Viking river boats that were docked right next to us, but WERE in a hotel in town until their departure in 2 days.  I couldn't get Uber to find us a car, so we went out of the terminal in search of a taxi only to find one right in front dropping off some new passengers.  Yay!  We met with Don and Brenda at their hotel and had a lovely few hours in the garden of the hotel over some cool drinks just catching up on our lives and travel.  We hadn't seem them in nearly a year.  It was just amazing how it all worked out.  We kept remarking on the string of things that had to have aligned for us to meet halfway around the world by accident.  I mentioned about Uber not being available for us earlier and Don pulled out his phone to see that there were rides available only a few minutes away.  So I checked, and yes I could see them also.  When it was time to go we caught an Uber at about half of what that taxi driver had charged us.  Another lesson learned.  But, interestingly, when we got back to the ship, I checked again for a test ride to the hotel and still couldn't get an Uber ride to show.  I don't know what the problem is, but at least I know I wasn't crazy.  I can't believe we got so busy enjoying the afternoon, that we forgot to get a picture!

But I did get a picture of Nino Libassi, our newly promoted Food and Beverage Manager, this morning in his uniform.  As Restaurant Manager, he always wore impeccably tailored suits and wonderful ties (he has over 90 ties), so it was different to see him in his uniform with his 3 stripes.  But I think he wears it very well.

Nino and Carl

We had another enjoyable dinner with Carl and turned in early.  We sail at 4:00 am and should be in the lock around 6:00 am.  Perhaps I'll be awake to see it - or perhaps not.