Along the Kiel canal

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Geo: 54.3227, 10.1359

On our second day in Amsterdam we met our Ozzie friend Jenna who is working there at the moment. She has a lovely apartment overlooking one of the canals. After some celebratory champagne (who cares if it is 11 in the morning!), we took a stroll round her local area - lots of little individual shops and markets- very pleasant. We then had lunch on a waterfront restaurant which has recently opened and Jenna hopes it does well as it is only round the corner from where she lives. (Meneer Nieges on Westerdokdyk 40) Lovely to see her again.
Back on the boat which sailed at 4.30pm we discovered that we had won the daily quiz yesterday. We met friends on the pool deck for a drink and then it was time for afternoon tea followed by the Trivia quiz. We have 6 in our team, 2 Australians and 4 Brits. We call ourselves the Brexits! We came second - must try harder.
In the evening we attended the Captains welcome reception followed by dinner. It was a formal evening so lots of long dresses and tuxedos. At dinner we met 2 more Australians - lots of them aboard. After that we went to the Show which was the Ship's singers and dancers doing all the songs from the James Bond movies and was actually very good. The ship had entered the North Sea and for the first time we felt a slight swell.
Final drinks in the Panorama lounge where we had our first dance to our song "Spanish Eyes". I know , it is a bit naff but it is ours! The following day we were at sea until the afternoon when we entered the Kiel Canal so all the men were on the top deck to watch the intricacies of getting in the lock , the closing and opening of gates etc. I had a brief look and then went for afternoon tea with a friend followed of course by our daily trivia quiz- came 3rd- getting worse.Dinner with yet a different set of Australians and an interesting evening of politics so yet again we were last in the restaurant and missed the show. Would rather have interesting conversation than watch the singers and dancers.

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