All aboard

The morning found us ready to check out after one of the most pleasing B&B b’fast offerings we’ve ever had courtesy the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam. A convenient Uber ride to Piet Heinkade took us past the Plantage area again, but unfortunately the walk was too far to go back to the Holocaust Museum on foot.  We managed to locate the Viking Honir despite it’s mooring invisible alongside a different Viking Cruiseship side by each - this would prove to be prescient as dock space is apparently dear along the Rhine.  We left our bags assured that nothing could possibly go wrong except what could (my back pack got severed from the rest, but in the end not lost - frankly not sure how it wound up on the correct longship). I should be more skeptical, if that is even possible.  With our stateroom inexplicably not ready until mid afternoon (we had thought this upcoming cruise was to be the maiden voyage for the brand new Honir, but turned out to be the second - thus the delay in state room preparation), nothing else would do but getting ensconced in the lounge at a table with a bottle or two of white wine from the Alsace.  We enjoyed meeting Matti and Jason from Wisconsin who were celebrating her completion of an MBA at Northwestern and travelling with her parents Gary and Karen.   Eventually, we gained access to our stateroom which seems the embodiment of close quarters - very efficient use of space when compared to our last cruiseship sailing through the Dutch Antilles - the Dutch part being the only commonality.  The safety lecture was followed by dinner with a random group of fellow cruisers leading to a lively dialogue about the politics of the day.  Made fast friends with Alberto, Liliana and Antonio all of whom seemed disinclined to restrict our use of the Silver Service package at the bar. The free flowing wine led to an ETB (but not before some immemorable conversation plus apparently another traveller not getting home under his own steam), but now here I am wide awake in the middle of the night posting while listening to K snoring away, apparently turn about is fair play.