Tower Bridge to Amsterdam

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Geo: 52.3738, 4.89095

The thought of sailing from Tower Bridge was a big draw for us to book this cruise. It took one hour to get to the Thames and then 2hours of crawl through traffic to get to the ship thanks to poor instructions. The Silver Wind was moored alongside HMS Belfast but to get to it we had to be tendered from the opposite side of the river, alight on HMS Belfast and then onto our ship. Finally we were able to have a light lunch on board and relax. Chan the Butler was given his instructions on how to deal with Ted, who was the first to get a glass of champagne. At 6pm the traffic across the Tower Bridge was halted and the gates lifted for us to sail through. "Rule Brittania" followed by "Pomp & Circumstance" was sung with great gusto by all as we sailed underneath it. Particularly apposite following the recent Referendum! The first evening was a great success having a lovely dinner with a bunch of Ozzies. The following day we arrived in Amsterdam and it was my birthday. Thank you to family and friends who gave me gifts and cards which of course I packed and took with me. A big thank you to Peter & Julia for the fabulous bunch of flowers delivered to our cabin. How clever of you to organize that!We went to the Van Gogh Museum in the afternoon. It had been refurbished and was totally different to the last time we had been. It was busy but we had bought tickets on line beforehand so went straight in and avoided the queues. There are 3 floors all well laid out so easy to see all the paintings even with the crowds. A good café for a sit down and drink before we went back to the ship to prepare for my birthday dinner. We had booked the Champagne restaurant which does a special French menu- amuse bouche of 5 little dishes, foie gras, lobster bisque and then I had venison while Stefan had pigeon, soufflé and finally the waiters presented a birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday. We had 4 different wines to help wash it all down. A lovely birthday.

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Comments

[roberta]

it was great receiving your news and i hope you enjoyed your birthday and wishing you a super time on board and on land xxx big hug and see you soon roberta xxx