The cruise came to an end today. We’re now in a hotel at the Schipol Airport just outside of Amsterdam and are preparing to re-enter the normal world tomorrow. Our flight leaves Amsterdam at 10:25 a.m. CET (Central European Time) which corresponds to 2:25 a.m. MDT. We’ll arrive in Salt Lake City (if all goes well) about 6 p.m. MDT and then drive to Pocatello. Reality is already beginning to invade our lives once again. At least the weather correlated — it is dark, cloudy, and rainy today, which, according to our ship’s Cruise Director, is normal weather in Amsterdam.

We arrived in Amsterdam yesterday about noon. We set sail from Koeln about 9:30 last night just as we were finishing the “last supper” in the dining room. The food on the ship has been very nice and the only reason I haven’t gained about ten pounds is that we’ve been out walking just about every day for a couple of hours. However, I’m sure I’ve put on five pounds or more on this trip. The soups for lunch and dinner have been very nice with one of the highlights being a carrot soup with grapefruit! That’s not a combination I would have ever in my wildest dreams concocted, but it tasted very good. Our waiter, a delightful Hungarian fellow called Greg, took excellent care of us during the cruise making sure that we stayed “alcohol free” during the meals. He has a great sense of humor, and on the evening featuring the crew show, he played an inebriated waiter in a third-class dive of a restaurant — a performance definitely deserving of an award. By the end of the 14-day cruise we had gotten to know Greg a little bit along with some others on the crew. That certainly added to our experience, bringing another dimension to the cruise. Greg and his fiance Helga both work on the ship and have worked together for several years. It sounds like a very good arrangement for them. We found his recommendations for food and places to visit to be worthy of our attention.

The cruise from Koeln to Amsterdam is completely devoid of interesting stuff, particularly the part we sailed past during daylight hours on Saturday morning. The Rhine River divides just as it crosses the border into The Netherlands and a part goes somewhat northwest. The main part of the river flows into the North Sea at Rotterdam. The Rhine-Amsterdam Canal connects the waterways and canals in Amsterdam with the north branch of the Rhine River. That was the area we cruised through this morning. Quite uninteresting. However, it gave plenty of time to start packing and get other items out of the way in preparation for ending the cruise.

One of the absolute highlights of the trip happened on Saturday afternoon. After a bus tour and a canal tour we stopped at the Rijkes Museum for a brief tour. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and the visit through the Dutch Grand Masters was stunning. His commentary and explanation really brought the paintings to life — and all of them were of the kind that I could have sat and looked at for hours. The tour guide stopped at about five paintings and referred to a couple others in the tour. He compared and contrasted the styles and content and showed the progression of painting through a couple hundred years. A knowledgeable guide like that really adds to the experience.

The Rijkes Museum is being renovated. The main galleries are completely gutted and being rebuilt. Originally the museum renovation was to have been completed in 2005. However, asbestos was discovered and all of that will be removed. Now the projected completion date is in 2008. Meanwhile, a small two-floor gallery has been set up with a couple hundred of the most important works on display. The Night Watch by Rembrandt is, of course, a signature piece of the museum and rightfully so. We saw several other pieces that were also mind-boggling. The museum was definitely a highlight of the entire cruise. As far as art is concerned, the St. Stephens Cathedral in Passau and the Rijkes Museum in Amsterdam top the list. The most interesting city stop was definitely Duernstein, Austria. The most amazing Cathedral was in Koeln. The most interesting museum was the mechanical musical instruments in Ruedesheim followed closely by the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. The most amazing residences were the Prince-Bishop Palace in Wuerzberg and the Schoenbrunn Summer Palace in Vienna. The place I’d most like to return and visit would be Budapest closely followed by Vienna.

Tomorrow morning we’ll be on the airplane headed back to Pocatello, Idaho. I’m going back with a new vision of European history and culture and now need to read up on the Holy Roman Empire and it’s decline. Napolean certainly had a huge impact on Western Europe and probably did more to dismantle Rome’s dominance than anyone else. I’d like to know more about that. Finally, the role of the Bishops and their conflict with the merchants and patricians is very interesting and I’m sure it has a lot to do with the Holy Roman Empire. In addition to this being a vacation, I’ve learned a lot and have had my curiosity piqued. It’s been a great cruise!