16 September - 16 September - Amsterdam

After four weeks on the road, today we reached the main point of our trip - our river cruise ship in Amsterdam. This morning, John and Sandra collected us from Haarlem, and I drove the last leg of our hire car to Schiphol airport where we were due to drop the car off. Thanks to Google maps, our drop off point was easy to find and before we knew it, the four of us had to work out how to get ourselves and our bulging luggage to the dock in Amsterdam where the Monarch Queen was tied up.
It took a bit of doing but finally we arrived dockside to behold a marvellous view.

We were welcomed aboard with very little formality and within a half hour we were in our cabins to find our luggage already in our cabin (314). The Queen is a beautifully appointed river cruiser and we spent the afternoon attending general and safety briefings before heading off to dinner at 7pm. Dinner on our first night was magnificent and all wine and beer is complimentary with dinner. It was very noisy in the dining room as I think all passengers were pretty excited about finally being on board. The ship will stay here overnight in Amsterdam and our included guided tour tomorrow will include a bus, walking and canal tour of the city taking up all morning. Then back for lunch and we sail at 6pm tonight.