Day 2 of 18: Embarking on Vikng Ve

The good news for today is that our flight left Detroit on time and arrived in Amsterdam 45 minutes early. Quickly clearing Customs, our Viking hosts escorted us via EV shuttle bus to the Movenpick Hotel Amsterdam City Center, where lunch and refreshments were served while we waited for some maintenance work to be completed on our ship before embarking on the river cruise. It turns out we're on the Viking Longship Ve, a sister ship identical to the Viking Skirnir that I wrote about yesterday (190 passengers, 53 crew, 443 feet overall length, built in 2015).


Unfortunately, the longship's electrical repairs took longer than expected and we spent considerable time getting to know our fellow passengers while waiting in a Movenpick conference room.


Lunch at the Movenpick turned into a nice Amsterdam canal tour and a very nice dinner at the Movenpick, all courtesy of Viking, with continued delays accessing our cruise longship. 


(L: Muziekgebouw concert hall with Bimhuis venue for jazz; R: NEMO Amsterdam (Science Musieum)

David, our Viking Activities Director (below), did his best to keep us smiling during the delay. Finally, at 10:10 pm local time, we boarded Viking Ve, which was docked a short walk from the Movenpick.

The ship started moving just before midnight and we're on our way to Kinderdijk, where we will take a bicycle tour tomorrow morning, through the Kinderdijk windmill complex, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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