Scenic Tours Jewels of Europe cruise #1

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Amsterdam.

The Scenic Sapphire is a 2 year old new ship (but looks new), 135 m long, 11.6 metres wide and has berths for 169 passengers and a crew of 48. It is powered by two 900 kW (1,300 HP) Caterpillar engines driving steerable thrusters. It carries up to 126,300 litres fuel, 363 tonnes drinking water and 694 tonnes ballast and has a draft of 1.6 to over 2 m metres depending how much fuel and ballast is on board. There are 3 334kW (470 HP) diesel generators and one 100 kW (136 HP) standby generator (close to our cabin - I am glad that they did not need it).

We had some spare time in the evening so we walked into the centre of the city. There were men with a water truck washing the footpaths outside the old centre, but they should have been washing some of the narrow streets in the old centre. There was not much on display in the red light district that cannot be seen on any beach on a summer's day!

There were bicycles everywhere - chained to every post or rail or in bicycle racks along some streets or in bicycle parks. One bicycle park was three stories high and packed with bicycles. Some bicycles had been where they were so long that wheels were bent, tyres were off the rims or the chain was rusted solid. About 8,000 bikes are pulled out of the canals each year. The style of the bicycles was different from the Australian bikes, having a more upright seating position. If your bike is stolen you can buy it back at a flea market the next day!

Next day we had a morning canal cruise along 5 waterways and under lots of bridges. If you are going on a canal cruise choose a boat where the roof is clean and clear and there is no window frame where you look up at the buildings. The glass/plastic windows should not create distortions.

The canals were dug in the 13th century to drain the area and are arranged in an arc around the city centre with radial canals connecting them. The water was fresh, being brought from the Rhine and the sea water kept out by barrages. Many of the buildings had been warehouses, but are now houses. Because there was no local stone the buildings were mostly brick, but the rich traders imported stone to impress the neighbours.
There were many house boats and smaller boats along the canals. Some were very nice and some looked ready to sink. One house boat was made of brick!

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