Kinderdijk, Netherlands; Cologne, Germany; & Marksburg Castle

Viking has included daily excursions and also upgraded excursions.  We booked two upgraded ones but other than that, we stuck to the daily included ones.  I did wish we had booked a couple of the dinner/drinks excursions as it sounded like it was a lot of fun.  Perhaps next time.

Our first port was in the Netherlands.  We started early in the morning by boarding a bus and taking a drive through the town of Rotterdam to a farm where we signed up to learn about how cheese is made.  This was an upgraded excursion.  We really enjoyed the small farm and the woman we met, who is also a cheese maker.  It was interesting to taste the difference between “mature” cheese, which is dryer and has a sharper taste, than the young cheese.  The cheese made at this farm is Gouda and is either made with milk or goat cheese.  We learned so much about cheese but I do wish we could have tried more of it.

We loaded up on the bus again and arrived at our included excursions in Kinderdijk...windmills!!  

This was an amazing sight to see and I couldn’t wait until we got a closer look.  The windmills were build to control the dams and they are still working today with the help of a “Miller” who lives inside.  We were able to tour inside of one of the mills and see the Miller, who was wearing his iconic wooden Dutch shoes. 

This was definitely a highlight of the trip.

Our second port was Cologne, Germany.  The major attraction is Cologne Cathedral and it was beautiful.

After lunch we went back out on our own so we could place our lock on the Love Lock Bridge.  I had been seeing this on Instagram and came prepared with a lock.  It was so neat to see the millions of locks.

Our third port and highlight of that stop was Marksburg Castle.  It sat up on a hill and we were able to go inside for a tour. 

It was really neat and is currently available to rent as an event venue.  Have you ever wanted to get married in a castle? 

We sailed down The Rhine for the rest of the afternoon looking at castles along the hillside.  We ended our evening in a town called Koblenz, Germany.  Sadly, the cable cars were already closed, which is something I really wanted to do. 

The Land Of Bicycles

Amsterdam, Netherlands was a chaotic city!  There are people and bicycles everywhere.  I felt the bicycles were scarier than the cars but thankfully, we made it through without getting run over.

We were booked at the Mövenpick Hotel, which was close to the port where were were to catch our Viking River Cruise ship.  The hotel was a decent walk into the city center so we sure did earn our steps.  We had a beautiful view from our hotel window and even saw a large cruise ship come into port in the early morning.

We booked the hop on/hop off bus canal and bus tour.  Our travel agent raved about the canal tour and it did not disappoint.  We actually liked the canal portion better than the bus portion.  Amsterdam is such a beautiful city and seeing the river boat/houses along the canal was so neat.  What a way to live.

We popped into the Amsterdam Cheese Museum and tried so many wonderful cheeses.  I have learned on this trip that I don’t care for “mature” cheese which is the harder and dry cheeses.  It is also usually a sharper tasing if cheese too.  You find a lot of Gouda cheese in the Netherlands.

A visit to the Red Light District was quite underwhelming.  We didn’t have the time or energy to book an actual tour, as we had planned.  So, we just set out on foot to see what the hype was all about.  I guess you needed to go later in the evening to see it in all its glory.

After an overnight in Amsterdam, it was time to board the Viking Hlin and set out on our Rhine River Cruise.