Aboard the Scenic Jade and a tour to Alkmaar

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It was an early start today. Our German cruise director is maniacal about punctuality. We headed out to Alkmaaar - a small town that was the center of the early Dutch cheese trade.

First though, a stop at several windmills a bit north of our destination. I was surprised to learn that about 70% of windmills in the Netherlands were used for pumping water to reclaim land (30% for grinding grain or anything else that needs to be pulverized). Basically, dikes were built and, slowly over time, all the water was pumped out of lowlands and marshes to create farmland. Makes sense but I just never thought it through. It is remarkable that over 25% of the country was reclaimed from the sea in the last 800 years using this and, eventually, more modern methods,

Alkmaar was quaint and the guide was actually from there and met several people on the street who she knew as a child. I am keeping an open mind but I am a bit tired of quaint villages after a week of them. I actually enjoyed the rather wet Dutch countryside where the old windmills were placed to another old town with modern shops and brands. The windmills fell into ruin for many years after they were replaced with electric pumps in the late forties until the government realized that they were essential to the country's brand. Measure's private and public were taken to preserve them.

The Scenic Jade had engine issues and we had a delayed departure after returning from the tour. The cruise director had to scramble to reschedule our shore excursions in Cologne for Wednesday. We had the afternoon off. Nevertheless, at about 2 pm, the engines rumbled and off we went.

Amsterdam is not on the Rhine River and it is connected to it by the Amsterdam-Rhine canal. This canal is about 45 miles long, is tree-lined and straight as a die for most of its length. It has substantial traffic which seems to be mostly other cruise ships and oil, gas and gravel barges. It was a lovely day but cooled off by sunset. Still, it was bracing to sit in the bow and watch the world go by.

Cologne this afternoon and its magnificent cathedral which was literally the only thing standing there at the end of WWII. Rain predicted in the morning which is good for the river levels but hard on the guests.

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