Boarded Arcadia yesterday and set sail around 5:30pm.
Sailed through the night while we enjoyed a nice dinner of swordfish washed down by a nice red wine. Went to see a show, three lads singing songs from some of the music legends, but I didn’t recognise most of the songs, bit crap anyway.
I was so tired I left Mrs Fox in the bar with friends and I went off for an early night. The sun streaming through the window at 9:00am woke me up. The weather is amazing, clear blue skies and warm, so Mrs Fox and me did three laps of the promenade deck wich equals a mile…Looking good for tomorrows early morning run.
Unfortunately I’ve not been able to post any photos because the internet connection is a bit hit and miss, so will post them when I get home…Off for afternoon tea now…
Thanks Meg, Mags and Arty, Manage to download a couple of photos.
The first one in yesterday after boarding the ship in Southampton, and the second was parading up and down the prom deck like ‘Burlington Burt’ …
I don’t think the captain would asociate with a poor boy from Yorkshire Arty…Only if I had a spanner in my hand…
We’ve just returned from a thoroughly enjoyable Warner’s Twixmas Break to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. Plenty of entertainment during the days and evenings, including golf, archery, etc outside, quizzes, indoor pool, etc indoors. In the evenings there was live entertainment or a film every night (saw Bohemian Rhapsody on Friday, The Greatest Showman on Sunday), Genesis tribute on Saturday evening.
I wasn’t too keen on Amsterdam, I found it scruffy with piles of cigarette butts adorning the pot holed roads and walkways. It wasn’t the picturesque quaint little town I had grown up to believe it was.
Leaving the coast we sailed past numerous piles of coal heaps, apparently the memo about burning fossil fuels had not reached Holland despite the fact that the UK coal industry had been decimated with several large coal burning power stations now standing idle.
For two hours we sailed past industry of one sort or another before we eventually tied up at the dockside. We left the ship on a bright sunny but excruciatingly cold day, perfect for photography had I remembered to collect my camera off the bedside cabinet…Oh well, there’s always tomorrow…
The pavements were jam packed with tourists and the poorly marked cycle paths invited the unwary visitor to a fate worse than death, or at the least a hail of abuse from an angry local, by wandering into the path of a speeding cycle or motor scooter. We followed the humdrum of people searching for the city centre.
The architecture was good with the station looking more like a palace than a railway station. It was difficult to walk in a straight line as we passed the cathedral and ventured into one of the shopping streets on our way to Dam Square.
The square was crowded by tourists taking photos of nothing special, just a clock and some shops really.
With freezing cold hands and feet we picked our way down a few back streets, passing what I thought were tobacconists, but on closer inspection, sold all manner of cannabis based products. I quickly scurried past into a street with semi naked ladies sat in their windows and staring into space waiting for the occasional punter. I wouldn’t swap Mrs Fox for any one of them.
As we made our way back to the ship I summed up my short visit to Amsterdam…
A city famed for its Beer, fags, drugs and sex…
All the things I had been taught to avoid as a boy…
And not a sign of a tulip anywhere…
I wasn’t too keen on Amsterdam, I found it scruffy with piles of cigarette butts adorning the pot holed roads and walkways. It wasn’t the picturesque quaint little town I had grown up to believe it was.
Sounds charming Bob I know someone who went there on a stag do and said the same thing.
I know someone who went there on a stag do and said the same thing.