Welcome to Amsterdam............

My instincts tell me this river cruise is going to be a very nice trip!  After a night aboard a British Airways direct flight from Austin we did the Heathrow shuffle for a bit and arrived in Amsterdam after a short flight.  After navigating the most congested and claustrophobic baggage claim I have ever seen we are greeted by name by an apparently clairvoyant Tauck representative in arrivals who immediately hands us off to the able Sonia.

Sonia guides us through the airport and into a black Mercedes mini-van and off we go to the dock.
Multi-lingual, she has lived in Amsterdam for thirty-five years and points out the different districts as we cross over the canals toward the passenger ship pier.  Much of this area was formerly warehouses that are now converted into lofts and apartments. Yes, everyone likes to live by the water.  Pulling up to the pier, we are greeted instantly by Peter who hauls all our luggage the short distance to the MS Treasures.

We have never been on a river cruise before and my immediate thoughts go to my grandsons.......this is like a little toy ship, just elegantly fitted out.  Everything is tasteful and sparkling clean.  Our stateroom is small but the storage is good and before too long we are unpacked and headed up to the top deck to enjoy temperatures in the high seventies with a brisk sea breeze.

This is not like boarding an ocean liner.  Everything is very casual and fast.  We are accompanied to our stateroom, given keys and a overview of how to work things and thats that.

We have arrived in Amsterdam during the Europride Amsterdam Gay Pride 2016 celebration and today is their canal parade event.  Scores of barges decked out in pink and purple balloons file by with the boom boxes blaring.  It is a huge event and the barges all sport different motifs...Say your love with Flowers, Make Love not War, We are all Prisoners, *!#* Conformity, all written in English.

Topside, we get quite an eyeful..let's just say there are going to be some uncomfortable sunburns tomorrow if they have been cruising all day in a G-string.

At 5:30 we gather in the bar lounge for an orientation where our cruise director, Yner from Romania, explains how things work and what our days will be like.  The Maitre' D explains in detail the two wine selections he has chosen to accompany our meal, a crisp dry Reisling for the fish and a South African Cabernet for the duck.  We are only 84 passengers on this ship so everyone is falling over themselves to help you.

After freshening up and getting our WiFi in order it's time for dinner.  Now I don't want this to be some salivating food diary but our meal was excellent.  After an amuse bouche of Dutch edam, incredible carpaccio of Scottish salmon with a fennel slaw, green pea veloute with little molecules of still crisp carrot floating in the soup, pink duck breast with current sauce over a cauliflower mash, or a flakey butterfish all follow.  Who has room for dessert..we certainly didn't!

We have met a pleasant, interesting couple from South Carolina during cocktails and had dinner with them this evening.  I'm sure we'll be hanging out with them a lot.  It is after 10Pm and still light outside.  Hasn't bothered Paul who is soundly asleep.