Amsterdam, The Netherlands

 We entered the lock to the west of Amsterdam very early this morning so we woke up to the site of land very close again going by.  We docked at around 9:00 am and our tour started at 9:15.   The weather was perfect, blue skies and a bit warm later this afternoon. This morning we headed to Marken and Volderdam, both north of Amsterdam.  In 1932 the north end of the sea was dammed to protect the land here.  This created problems for the fisherman who now had no easy access to the ocean.  Marken used to be an island in the ocean, then an island in the lake which was created after the dam was built.  In 1957 a dike was built to connect Marken to the land.  It's a cute town of about 2,000 people and there is still some fishing of fresh water fish, but not really commercially.  There's also some tourism, but I think mostly the people commute into Amsterdam which is only about 25-30 minutes away.

Lots of grazing area here for all the cows which provide the milk for the cheeses.  The highest point in The Netherlands is about 1,000 feet high and the lowest is roughly 20 feet below sea level.

This is very considerate to provide clean drinking water for walkers and bikers. You really have to watch out for the bicycles.  Don't ever stand in a bike lane or you can create real havoc.

The homes are traditionally pained dark green and all the ones we saw were kept meticulously.

The next stop was at a cheese and wooden shoe "factory", which does produce those things, but mostly for tourists.  Nevertheless, we did see how wooden shoes are made and got a quick lesson in how gouda (full fat milk) and edam (skim milk) cheeses are made and the various flavors you can get, inlcuding one with cannabis.  This is The Netherlands, after all.

This gal had the cheese-making patter down to a science.  She must do it 20 times a day.

This fellow demonstrated the 2 machines that shape the damp cedar wood into shoes and then cut the holes out of the inside.  They can make 200 pairs per day with the machines, or 2 pairs per day by hand.

The last stop was the village of Volendam which has a nice port and really caters to tourism.  It was nice to stroll along the dike and admire the lovely houses and people watch.

These homes were along the road into town.

Local village church (Catholic).

Here is a Dutch door.  I haven't heard that term in a very long time.  This one has a nice engraving of a fishing ship in the glass on the top door.

We ate a light lunch and had a nice afternoon at the fitness center (Michael) or lounging on the quiet, covered deck on deck 11 at the back watching all of the activity on the canal.  There was a constant stream of barges, tour boats, and small personal boats going up and down, interspersed with ferries crossing back and forth every 10 minutes or so.  It was like watching a ballet.

After a quick dinner on the pool deck, we set off for our Twilight Canal Cruise tour.  The boat was very comfortable and cheese and nuts along with wine was provided.

Some of the homes are VERY narrow.  I swear I saw one that was as wide as only the entry door and had no windows on either side, only 1 on each of the 2 floors above.

The Anne Frank House

This is a replica of an old Dutch trading ship which used to go to the Caribbean and North America.

This is another segment turnaround port so we are spending the night  Nino said we should have just under 400 passengers on this next segment.