Amsterdam

Our first sight of Amsterdam in the very early morning was a long canal into the city, and then a welcome boat creating a happy, welcoming water spray. It was very nice, even in the early light.
With only a few hours in Amsterdam, we wanted to go for a walk in the city and then go for a canal ride. Then, if time permitted, go to the Rembrandt museum. As it turned out, we never got to the museum. We spent the day walking mostly, along with a very nice canal ride.

When we go to a city for the first time, we get a feeling for the place, an overall impression. Often the first impression is not entirely accurate, and changes over time. Still, one cannot help getting that first impression. My first impression of Amsterdam was one of canals, bicycles, and grunge. The buildings are dark. The water in the canals is dark. The clothes the people wore were dark. More than dark, however, I would describe their clothes as "deep grunge". In addition, there was trash all over the place, perhaps because the night before was Saturday night (we were there on Sunday). Small gangs of young men seemed to roam the streets, making noise, many of them drunk. So my overall impression of Amsterdam was not one of beauty, but of grunge. We were very surprised because we expected to see flowers everywhere, even in the Autumn; however, we saw only one flower seller all day. Amsterdam is night and day from Copenhagen or Paris, both cities of light and joy and beauty.
One cannot help but be overwhelmed by the bicycles. There are millions of them. Everywhere. It is amazing to see so many bicycles -- on the streets and parked. Most of them are old and beat up, and we were told that the new ones are stolen quickly, so most people want old ones that are not attractive to steal. This photo shows a bicycle parking "garage". People seemed to take ferries from other places and keep their bicycles at this parking garage to pedal on to their offices. We noticed that few of the bicycles were locked; they were just leaned against something all over the city, waiting for their owners to return.

Dover

The flight on Virgin Atlantic Airlines was more than two hours late, leaving Dulles Airport near 9:30 p.m., rather than 7:00 as scheduled. The Virgin employees at the gate were very helpful, playing games, giving away prizes, keeping the passengers entertained. It was a pleasant wait. We arrived in Heathrow airport in London early on the morning of Saturday, September 10. Unfortunately, two of our four pieces of luggage were not there, so we had to go to Virgin Atlantic Airlines to report on the missing luggage. It is not good to start a 12 day cruise with half of your luggage missing; however, Virgin assured us that they would deliver the luggage to the ship, either before it sailed from Dover, or in Amsterdam. We hoped that they would do it. After filing our claim with Virgin, we looked for the Celebrity representative to show us where to get our bus to the ship. Heathrow was mobbed, at least in part with passengers on our ship as well as those on a Princess Cruise Line ship leaving the same day. All of those cruise passengers were meeting at arranged places to take busses to the ships, and it was a madhouse. Unfortunately, the busses to the ship were not well coordinated, and there was a two-hour wait in Heathrow before the three hour bus ride to the ship in Dover. However, once aboard the bus, it was naptime! We finally arrived at the ship near 4:00 p.m., and it sailed at 5:00. Just time for a couple of photos of the white cliffs of Dover before dinnertime. Also, we reported to the Concierge at the ship of the missing luggage, and the woman said she would contact Virgin to arrange delivery of the luggage. She was experienced and said that missing luggage is common. She knew who to contact at the airline.
The first night aboard ship is one of getting to know the ship a little and getting acquainted with dinner mates. We had requested a large table for dinner, hoping that we would find interesting tablemates. Instead, we were put at a table for six; however, we liked all of the people. One couple was Hans and Monica, from Luzerne, Switzerland, where he is a Swiss banker. They were very nice. Although they spoke English, they sometimes needed us to slow down a bit for them, and sometimes he needed to do some translating for her. Because of the language difficulty, she was pretty silent during the whole trip. The other couple was Jim and Gloria, from Atlanta, Georgia. They were retirees from Bell South, and also very nice. I could tell that at least the dinner partners would be okay on the cruise.
The first night's after-dinner entertainment was a variety song and dance production by a team of singers and dancers contracting with the ship. These productions for all ships are put together in the States (mostly Los Angeles), where the singers and dancers are hired (under contract) and rehearse until they are completely ready. Then they transfer to a ship for a specified period of time -- usually two months -- where they perform the shows that they have perfected during rehearsals in Los Angeles. During the first performance, we could tell immediately that Celebrity had not hired the most talented performers; neither the singers nor the dancers were particularly good. However, I'm sure Celebrity didn't want to pay too much to get better performers; and the better ones would not want to go to sea anyway. I must say, however, that the performers on the Princess Cruise we took in the Spring were much better. Still, there was one young woman who was VERY good. She had a wonderful voice and she really was a great singer. Her name was Dia, and I suspect that we will hear of her again in the future. After the performance, we had no trouble sleeping; we were totally wiped out and ready for sleep. Tomorrow, Amsterdam.