Baltic Cruise-Day 18: Going Home - June 4, 2018

Going Home. That can sound good or it can sound depressing. Of course, it can be both. I think it is that last one today. This has been such a great trip, that I am really sorry to see it end. On the other hand, too much of a good thing isn’t good either. So, we’re going home.
When we woke at 7, it was overcast again. That seemed fitting. It was, after all, the way it was our first day in Amsterdam.  Our daughter J came to get us at 8 and we went down to the terrific spread that Mövenpick puts out for breakfast. After breakfast, we went to the shop on the first floor for J and my husband K to buy chocolate for gifts. Then it was back upstairs to get her stuff.

We went downstairs with her to see her off at 9:20, when she got on the shuttle van to the airport. I know I will see her again in late July, but it is still hard to say good-bye to her. Plus, she is a terrific travel companion!
K went to find the computer to print our boarding passes, since KLM, which is checking us in rather than Delta for some reason, insisted we bring boarding passes. When I came back from the restroom, he was still fighting to get it printed. He solicited the help of the Holland America agent, who was in the lobby and she told him to send it via email to the front desk for them to print. At the desk, the guy there said it would print from the other computer and went over and made it happen. That handled, we went back to our room to kill time at 9:50.
We went down for good at 10:50 to check out, as our departure time was 11. However, there was already a van there, so, rather than wait for ours, the HA rep put us in this one and we were on the road at 10:53. The driver was friendly and doing his dream job, he said. We had a good chat with him, which was a great way to get our Holland questions answered.
He had us to Schipol Airport by 11:17, and it was such a pleasant trip that we tipped him 4 Euros.
The KLM line was long, but they opened another and shunted us off to that one, which got us to a counter faster. My suitcase was right about the max, but my husband's was over, so we had to pull things out and stuff them in the extra carry on. At least we didn't get charged any extra and the bags were on their way at 11:30. It took only 2 minutes to reach the security line. While we were in line, I saw signs about liquids and taking out electronics. This concerned me a bit, so, when we reached the guy telling people which line to get into, I asked him, if he knew what a CPAP machine was. He did and told me not to take it out. That made things easier. However, the larger of the two carry on bags required extra security. They even wiped it. Very odd, but they didn't take anything out and we were finished there and through passport control at 11:52.
J was flying KLM, so she'd been in the same area of the airport. There was free WiFi, so she texted with a lunch recommendation.  It was a little early for lunch, so we did a little shopping in a toy shop. They had the cute little Dutch bunny, Miffy, that we'd been seeing around town. I could not resist a small one dressed as Santa for my Santa collection. I texted J a picture of the last remaining one that was for a baby and rattled. After a moment, she decided that I should indeed buy it and she would give it to her friend for her coming baby. We then checked out what was for sale in the Amsterdam store, because we come back here in July. (Our destination will be Belgium and the ClarinetFest, but it was easier to get tickets through here and then take trains.)
At 12:35, we took J's suggestion and went to the Amsterdam Bread Company for lunch. Once we managed to find a table, we took turns holding the fort, while the other bought a lunch. I got Farmer's Ham sandwich for 6,20 and Sea Salt Crisps for 2,50, the latter to share. My large Coke Zero cost 3,55. K got a Chicken, Avocado and Bacon sandwich for 6,75 and a medium Coke Zero for 3,25. I really liked my sandwich, as did he. Signs showed the care that went into the flour and baking and the bread showed it.

Our boarding passes told us to go to one gate and the overhead board said another. We decided to follow the sign, which sent us to D1 for extra screening for the US at an actual Delta section of the terminal at 1:20. They put a purple/pink sticker on the passports and sent us to E8, when they finished with us at 1:30.
We then checked out what was for sale in the Amsterdam store, because we come back here in July. (Our destination will be Belgium and the ClarinetFest, but it was easier to get tickets through here and then take trains.)
We were at E8 at 1:50 to wait. The plane was originally to leave at 2:40, but now it was 3:20. So, we sat and read. When I went to the restroom as boarding time approached, they made an announcement at the desk, which including telling people to wait until called. Folks did not and started getting in the lines for boarding. This upset the agent at the desk, who started ordering them back.

 After a while, even though they hadn't called people to get in line, it became obvious that we needed to get in line or risk fighting for overhead space, which I abhor. Holland America had gotten us Zone 1 boarding, which was nice. So, we got in line at 2:40 and at 2:50 we were seated in seats 31F and G onboard Delta Flight DL 127 to Orlando.
After doing my usual wipe down of everything with hand sanitizer, I started looking at entertainment options. I was already watching The Man Who Invented Christmas (quite good, by the way), when the plane pushed back form the terminal at 3:25. We had to do a heck of a lot of taxiing, which was scenic, out to the farthest end of the airport. We took off at 3:50.
The attendants brought around headphones and menus.  Before bringing around the food carts, they brought us hot towels to wipe our hands, which I really like. For "dinner" around 5, I chose Chicken Piccata and Spinach Mushroom Risotto and K chose Cappelletti with Four-Cheese Stuffing and Pesto Genovese. The dessert with both was Black Forest Mousse.  It was a pretty good meal.

I long ago developed the ability to watch TV and do counted cross stitch at the same time. On a plane, it's just a matter of it being a movie instead of TV. After my first movie, I saw The Hitman's Bodyguard (funny!), then Bad Moms (also funny). They brought around a snack box and we had ice cream and pizza twist.

I also managed to see Bad Moms Christmas, in spite of trouble I was having with my screen. The thing kept freezing. Then, it would pull up the control panel and ask if I wanted to exit. Eventually, it froze for good. I couldn't even turn on my light or press the call button. I got K to do the latter, but after no one came in 10 minutes, I went to the back to ask for a reset. It worked through the end of the movie, but at 1:34 into Will & Grace, it froze again! I got them to reset it one more time, but the guy said that if it didn't work, there was nothing he could do. You know, they used to carry little entertainment centers in case this sort of thing happened.
The flight was relatively smooth. There were only a couple of times, that they had to put on the seatbelt signs. Coming into Orlando, the view out the window was pretty.

At 7:03 pm EDT (or 1:03 am Holland time), we landed at OIA. I realized that they never gave us the customs form to fill out. In the terminal, there were no kiosks for Americans to use, just for folks with Global Travel status, which they'd paid for. Instead, we got in the US passport line at 7:22. It was very hot, because OIA continues its construction and obviously does not care what the first impression of America is for foreign travelers. I felt sorry for them in their very, very long line.
The Border Patrol agent asked us if we had any food and I mentioned the chocolate and jam. That was it and he stamped the passports. I asked if I could ask a question and when he indicated I could, I brought up the cheese we'd seen in the Amsterdam store in the airport. "You can bring that back," he said before I could ask. It's only runny cheese that you can't bring back. So, I'm taking advantage of that on the way home next week.
We waited an awfully long time for the luggage. I wound up in conversation with a young man, who was a government contractor in Afghanistan. He'd already been a Marine there and didn't look old enough to be a contractor now.
At 7:55, we finally had the luggage and K texted his friend who was picking us up. I caught this lovely sunset that was welcoming us home. We were in the car at 8:11 and home before 9 pm.
Fantastic trip!!

Baltic Cruise- Day 17: Arrival in Amsterdam - June 3, 2018

We awoke at 7 to find ourselves docked in Amsterdam. The cruise was over. We visited 6 countries in 14 days and started and ended in a seventh.  It was the longest cruise any of us had ever taken, but that was not an issue. It was so nice not to have to pack and unpack all the time. My daughter J and husband K had to get back to work, but, being retired, the only thing pulling me back home was a lack of clothes to continue on.

It was overcast and cool, much like our first day in Amsterdam. We looked out our veranda to see a ship below us pumping fuel into the Koningsdam. We went to breakfast at 8 and had one last terrific meal and went out on the Lido deck to see them loading fresh food for the next cruise and the buses for those they had to transport. We went back to the cabin to wait at 9. We checked the temperature and it was 63.7, which was the coolest it has been for a while for us. 

   

At 9:20, we went down to the Queen’s Lounge to wait for our group to be called. But, there were so many people in there that we went to the Ocean Bar across the hall, where they had these lovely flowers. We saw a couple with Gator gear and it turned out they were from Jacksonville. I continued to marvel that there were people from our area who had all decided at the same time to travel across the ocean to be on this cruise.

At 9:35, we were called and we went with our hand luggage to be scanned at the gangway one more time. We were off the ship at 9:42. There was a nice little Amsterdam display in the passageway at the terminal and I had J and K pose. We got a better view of the food that was being loaded.

When we got to the luggage claim, there was no sign for our group. Finally, K asked someone and they said it was being transported to the hotel, which we’d paid for. So, we went to the hotel, arriving at 9:55. It took until 10:30 to finish checking in, which was unfortunate, because the lobby was way too hot.  We did have time to check in with Holland America to confirm our transfer to the airport tomorrow. J would be leaving before us, as her flight was earlier. Our rooms were not ready, so we put the hand luggage in their storage room, before buying tram tickets for 7,50 Euros each.

We finally headed out at 11:10 and were on the tram to the Centraal Station seven minutes later. On our way, we’d passed the captain of the Koningsdam, seemingly with family. We got out at Centraal at 11:20 and walked down the street. We stopped in a rather warm McDonald’s for a bite ten minutes later. The ordering kiosks worked, but the credit card reader there was out of order, which was frustrating. K got coffee and yogurt with muesli for 5,25 Euros. I got a small Coke Zero and a burger for 2,20 Euros. Unfortunately, K had trouble with his coffee lid and a lot of the very warm liquid got spilled on my leg. Luckily, I was in blue jeans, which protected the skin somewhat.

We left at 11:55 and went looking for more wooden tulips for J to give as gifts. We managed to find some, but then just missed the #16 tram that we needed. Another came at 12:15. It seemed rather crowded for a Sunday. At 12:28, we got off at Museumsplein by the Concertgebouw, our destination. 

 K had really wanted to hear a concert in this building, because it is one of the five best in the world for acoustics. He wanted so much, he was willing to go to a children’s concert. They were doing Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. We had a little trouble finding an entrance, but once we did, K was incredibly lucky to get 3 tickets at 17,50 each. I say incredibly lucky, because once we were in there, it was incredibly packed.

A restroom was the first order of business, because McDonald’s hadn’t had one. They were much larger than normal in a theater. Then, we checked out our seats and took photos of the hall and selfies, before going to get the free drinks that came with the ticket purchase. I decided to try Appelsap-delicious- and K and J had ginger ale. We noticed the Amsterdam shield above one of the lights.

The program began with Romeo, in very modern attire, and Juliet, in a poufy skirt, coming out to talk. It was in Dutch, but they made hand gestures and some of the words were close to English and/or German. Plus, we know the story, so we got the gist. The kids laughed like crazy at the broad acting of the death scene, which was done before the music, not during. The balcony scene was during the music and it was quite funny. I noticed that Dutch is more guttural than German and wetter.

It was finished at 1:55 and when we got outside at 2:08, there were puffy clouds and blue sky. We crossed the street to kill some time by going to the Stedelijk art museum, which specializes in modern art. We showed our Holland Pass to get a discount, but, instead, it was free! That was great, since we had tickets for the Van Gogh Museum at 3:15.

The Stedelijk had free Wi-Fi, which let us post to Facebook and find out that the temperature was now 75. The museum signaled its art focus right away with the escalator. The museum had the kind of art that I love. Not the current modern, but the recent past. 

 We saw Van Gogh’s that I was unfamiliar with, such as this, Kitchen Gardens on Montmarte from 1887. He was trying to appeal to a possible buyer. It seemed a similar style to the Cézanne, La Montagne Sainte-Victoire from about 1888. 

As soon as I saw this next painting, I knew it was a Chagal (The Fiddler, 1912-1913). It is on loan to them. On the other hand, I did not recognize Tableau III- Composition in Oval, 1914 from one of my favorite painters, Piet Mondrian. However, I immediately, recognized Composition with Blue, Yellow, Red, Black, and Gray, 1912, as his. I really liked Gerrit Rietveld’s Red and Blue Chair, designed 1919-1923 and made around 1950.

Leger’s The Three Comrades from 1920, was a very interesting design. I’ve always liked Breuer’s chairs and I am a big fan of Mies van der Rohe’s buildings, so his chair was of interest to me, too.

I immediately recognized this painting as being by Max Beckmann, due to the shape of the man’s head (Double-Portrait of the Artist and His Wife Quappi). It is amazing to look at Kandinsky’s Improvisation 22 (Orient I) and see that it was painted in 1913. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a George Grosz painting with such bright colors (Der Agitator, The Rabble Rouser, 1928).

I’m not fond at all of Picasso’s Nude in Front of a Garden from 1956. It seems garish and borderline obscene. It was cool to look up and see Alexander Calder represented by Mobile XII.V-III.H from 1955 and Suspended Composition of Small Leaves (Four Red Spots) from around 1947. My younger daughter is a fan of Lichtenstein, and he was represented by As I Opened Fire, 1964.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing several Oldenburg pieces over the years, including the spoon with a cherry in Minneapolis. This piece is Saw (Hard Version II),1971. It is impossible to not recognize a Segal, when you see one. His people are iconic. This one is Woman in a Doorway (II), 1965. Jeff Koons has done some pieces I like and some that I don’t get much out of. Ushering in Banality from 1988 is one of the latter.

We’d looked at enough of the museum and took time in the shop, of course. Then, we hurried over to the Van Gogh, which was more or less next-door. We showed our tickets and entered at 3:20. I was not happy to see that I had to descend stairs immediately after the ticket checker.

K checked his bag and we had to climb another set of stairs to reach the exhibit space. Unfortunately, you can only take pictures inside at the selfie wall. Some folks did not obey the rule, but the guards usually caught them. This was done, the museum said, to keep the viewing space in front of each painting accessible to everyone. That’s good, but I do like to take photos of art to study later. The cards in the Stedelijk were particularly informative about each piece of art.

We were able to take elevators to the other floors, but that never put us where we were supposed to be to follow the map logically. We found a shop on the top floor and bought a couple of things. I couldn’t resist a packet of postcards that you color

 yourself. When we got back to the lowest level again, we found a more extensive shop. I needed a new case for my sunglasses and thought the one that is inspired by Irises, would suit just fine.

Luckily, there was an elevator that took us back up to the level we’d entered. It was 6:04, when we exited. At 6:06, we were back on Tram 2. It took only 11 minutes to reach our next stop. We thought we’d have a bit of a walk, when we got off, but were surprised to see Haeje Claes’ back. 

This was the restaurant that had been recommended to me by a guy we’d met on last year’s Luther tour. We had reservations for 6:30. We walked around the side of the building, where there was patio seating, to the front, which was actually three buildings. We went across the street to take better photos, before correctly guessing which door to enter. 

 We had to wait a few minutes for the headwaiter to acknowledge us standing in the small hall. I said that we had reservations, but he did not bother to check on them. Rather, he led us to a table near the open back door. The spot was charming and we had a nice view of the rest of the room.

 Unfortunately, K was coming down with a cold and the air from the door really made him cold. So, J changed seats with him and he found the settle she’d been sitting on protected him from the air. K ordered coffee to warm up and J ordered her usual Coke (2,60). I was intrigued by a Wieckse Rose (3,25), which turned out to be a ruby red beer, that smelled like cranberries. It was awesome! 

 K decided to order the Amsterdam Menu (26,95), which was a three-course meal. It started with a very nice salad with smoked ham and cheese. A wonderful, hearty, warm dark bread was placed on the table.

For his main course, he had salmon. I ordered the seasonal special Classic White Asparagus Dish (21,50)- boiled potatoes, egg, dairy butter and farmer’s ham. It was okay, but a bit too much butter for me. J ordered what she had intended to from the moment she saw it on the menu back home, Sauerkraut Stamppot (17,25). I was glad that she and I had planned to split the meal, because I really liked hers.

K’s third course was Apple Pie, but not like any from home. J and I just had to try the waffles with strawberries and lemon cream. It was amazing!

While we were dining, various people came in trying to get seats. It wasn’t long before they were either told to come back at 8:30 or to look for seats outside.  When we left at 8, there was a tour bus outside and the folks had been seated at long tables behind us. They seemed to be speaking German.

Before the end of the meal, I climbed the killer staircase up to the restroom. In spite of the age of the building, the restroom was quite up-to-date. I peaked in a open door and saw a large dining room, that they obviously had chosen not to use it tonight.

It was still light out, of course, when we left. At 8:05, we caught Tram 5 to Centraal Station. We got there in just six minutes. We went over to the platform for Tram 26, where we had to wait until 8:20. At 8:27, we got off across from the Mövenpick. The walk over took 8 minutes, mainly because my knees were getting angry. As we passed the ice cream shop, I remembered that J and I had planned to get Mövenpick ice cream after the cruise. So, we got 1 scoop of Swiss chocolate in a cup for the two of us to share. It cost 2,50 Euros.

At 8:45, we went to the front desk and got our keys. When we got upstairs, we were happy to see our luggage was in our room.  When J was ready to go back to her room, I was already beginning to feel the sadness of her leaving us tomorrow. So, she let me walk her back. I got this gorgeous picture out her window.