As the sun sets on the Rhine (Sunday evening)

In all fairness to Amsterdam, I found out why the city was filled with trash—their street cleaners are on have been on strike for the past 4 days. Do you know how much trash piles up in 4 days in a large metropolitan area? So even though I judge the city as dirty, I will have to visit another time when it is at its best.

Tonight we got a taste of what we will experience throughout the week as far as the food goes. Part of the cruise package are the meals. We were a little unsure if this was a good thing since part of the experience of traveling is eating at local restaurants. Well, tonight’s meal on the ship gave us that taste. Uniworld makes sure that we experience the best of the regions we are travelling through and tonight we had a 5-star menu of the Dutch cuisine. Now I couldn’t tell you exactly what we had but some highlights started with deep-fried smoked gouda cheese and ended with a sour cream raisin crepe. Another bonus was unlimited complementary wine during the meal. And for some reason our waiter thought Chris & I needed a full glass at all times. It was all good.

We are watching the sun set as we sit in the lounge listening to a “Charlie”—an enthusiastic Eastern European singing some Johnny Cash and some Tina Turner. Did I mention that we are probably the youngest people on the cruise? But it’s all good. We are meeting people from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Great Britain and Israel. In the words of Charlie— we are “rrrrroolllling down da rrreeva”