by Jim Bellomo | Sep 8, 2022 | Food Experiences, Photography
The Sail In
On Tuesday morning, I (and a lot of others on the ship) were up early for an incredible sail-in to our next port, Kotor, Montenegro. Check out this map to see where we had to sail in order to get from the Adriatic Sea to our pier in Kotor. 
It takes about two hours to sail-in from the sea to the port. Along the way, you can see so much, and it takes place during my favorite time of my photography day—the golden hour. Without further ado, here are my photos from the sail-in. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
We start the trip in from the sea
All along the way you see buildings like this along the way
Even salt mines
But it is truly beautiful
There are some pretty ritzy homes as well
I mean this is a nice place.
Plus plenty of industrial apparatus
We would pass boats from big to small
And village after village
Churches and castles
A crowd grew in front of the Explorers Lounge
More churches
Another photographer set his glass on a railing so I took this shot to salute the morning.
Hotels and resorts
Ferries criss-cross the sound
Roads run up and down both sides of the sounds
Two small islands in the middle of the sound. One with a church and one forested.
People on the roads stopped to take pictures of Viking Sky as we sailed in.
Loved this castle
Sometimes you have to see what’s behind you.
I love this castle.
Castles on the bluffs
Beautiful villages
The church and the forest as we pass.
Loved this church and the colors below it.
Just going to let you look at the photos
These blue windows gave me a great reflection.
Olives
We had signed up to do a tour of an olive farm and check out their production of olive oil as well as other things. Kathleen was still resting after her bout with food poisoning, so I went off on my own. We drove up a severely twisted, bumpy road to a beautiful olive farm owned and run by three brothers. The far had been in their family for nine generations. He told us his ancestors planted the first olive trees there more than 250 years ago. Those tress still yield as many olives as they ever have.
We started our visit with a traditional Montenegran sweet donut that is dunked into honey. Then we tasted two of their newest products; a wonderful brandy and a kind of sickly sweet liquor made from the brandy and a cocoa-type plant that also grew on the farm. After that (and an encounter with their donkey), we walked about 500 meters to their production facility, and our host showed us their method of picking and pressing the olives. We tasted their olive oil (it was outstanding) and then they served us a “typical” Montenegran luncheon in the room where the old olive press was still in place. The food was “fine” but I did enjoy the tour. Then we were back on the bus and headed back to Kotor. Here’s the photos from the Olives part of the day. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
Our guide Veronica at one of our stops
DONKEY!
Donuts dipped in honey
The donkey wants some.
200+ year old olive trees
Brandy and chocolate liquor
Holes for new trees to be planted. They won’t bear fruit for 12 years
Showing us how they pick the olives
A three stage press. First the olives are washed here
Then sorted here
and fnally pressed here. The olive oil goes in the silver container
Smart chickens
The door to lunch
In a very dark cave with the old olive press
Lunch time
They also grow pomegranate
Figs
Flowers
And grapes that are almost raisins to try their hand at making Amarone wine.
Kotor City and my hill climb
After my tour, I came back and went to lunch with Kathleen. She was feeling better (this was before they imprisoned her) and needed to get something in her stomach. After lunch and some time in the stateroom, I wanted to walk back into the city. Since we would be there until 10:00 pm that night, I thought I could go walk into the city in the afternoon and gauge how long a walk it was and then talk Kathleen into coming in after the sun was down and the temperatures were more moderate.
So I wandered through the city (see pics) and took a bunch of photos, and then at one point, I found myself in front of a shop talking to a local artist about their work (I eventually bought one of her smaller pieces), and I asked her where the path up to the old church on the hill started. You can see the old church and its relationship to the city in the picture on the right.
She replied that it was right behind her shop and that if I decided to climb up, I should be very careful because there were at least 15 falls a day going up or down, and there had already been 11 that day. I asked her if I did go up and if she had any tips for me. She had one, “Stay on the steps, stay off the stones.” She was right. The stones that made up most of the path (you can see them next to the steps in my photos) were mostly old granite and marble that had been worn down to a very slick surface meaning that on the way up, it was very difficult to climb and on the way down, it was a real fall hazard. But I decided to try it using those steps. I should let you know that climbing the wall costs 8 euro (I think they should pay you! ?). The climb itself was a good one. And in the heat, while I didn’t regret doing it, I wouldn’t do it again and wished I had done it in the evening.
But the views! What incredible views. Take a look at the photos. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
The ship tied up at the only pier in Dubrovnik.
Always good to know where you are.
The moat around the old city
The gate into the old city
Above the gate, this guardian
The old clock tower. A great story is behind it.
The piazzas looked a lot like Italy
A different view of the clock tower
Love the streets in the old cities
The cathedral
Did I mention I love the streets
And the stairways
I begin the climb
At this point I thought about turning around.
Getting higher
Halfway to the church
An old guard post on the fortifications
From the guard post turnaround
Finally at the church
An incredible view.
Everywhere I looked
The church itself from closeup
My brother Steve is taking my picture from his verandah
See if you can spot him
The Sky is a pretty ship
Move views from above
This cat was lying on the stairs and just would not move. About 20 people had to go around him.
Cracked me up completely. Just glad it was at a point where the stairs were side
On the way down.
Got to the bottom, talked ot my new artist friend and took a pic of her cat.
Love this arch
And this building. Just intersting.
As were many other parts of town
Seems there are umbrellas all over the world. First saw this in Québec
I liked the lighting on this pizza place
And had to shoot the local farmer’s market just outside the city gates.
And night descends in Kotor
After dinner on the aft deck (which looked like a commercial for Viking), we headed back to the stateroom. Kathleen had not yet been confined and was feeling great so we watched a little TV before I went out on our verandah and saw the beautiful lights of Kotor come up. I shot a couple from our verandah but then decided to go up to deck seven to what has become my favorite place on the ship, The Explorer’s Lounge. There is a forward-facing open deck in front of it that is the perfect place for taking photos, and that’s when I got these other shots, one of which may move into my top 10 shots I have taken in forever. We shall see. Make sure you look at the last photo in this group at full screen.
Just from our verandah
From the front of the ship
I truly love this pic. I literally shouted when I saw it on my Mac screen for the first time.
Report from onboard!
That about covers Kotor. Had a marvelous time. Back on the ship, this was the day before Kathleen’s quarantine confinement, so we had all our meals together. Again both lunch and dinner were in the World Cafe (buffet), and they were excellent. I just happened to be grabbing a dessert at that section of the buffet when the head pastry chef was there. I got a chance to tell him about how I am not a chocolate lover, but anything he has made with chocolate in it has been incredible, starting with the Amarone and chocolate dessert in Manfreddis. This particular night they had announced a Montenegrin dinner featuring local dishes that turned out to be 90% seafood. Kathleen stuck to the bland stuff, but I had seafood salad, prawns, king crab legs and some of the best mussels I have ever had. Oh, and I forgot to mention that at lunch that day, they had a Barolo braised short rib that was sooooooo good that as Primo said in The Big Night, “I have to KILL myself.”
A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.
—Robert Orbin
by Jim Bellomo | Sep 7, 2022 | Uncategorized
I am going to go off on a
RANT right now and come back with some happier thoughts about Kotor, Montenegro later. But here goes.
Right now, I am LIVID at Viking. LIVID! PISSED! TICKED! MAD AS HELL!
As you know from yesterday’s post, my wife had food poisoning. We knew it was food poisoning because no one else in our party of six was sick. No one else on the ship is sick. Four of us have been traveling together for almost two weeks, I have been at her side for almost 25 years, and not one of us is sick. It is NOT a virus. She was feeling great this morning. We went to Mamsen’s for breakfast and had one of their wonderful waffles. Then we went back to our stateroom to get ready to go into Dubrovnik. My bride decided that she would go down to medical to see if they had any Imodium. She didn’t feel she needed it but thought since we would be in town, it would be a good preventative. So off she went while I got ready for the rest of our day.
Half an hour later, she came back from the medical office, where she told me that as soon as she asked for the Imodium, a nurse started asking her questions but would not listen to her answers. The nurse barely spoke English that my wife could understand, but she did not want to hear a thing when my wife tried to blame her illness on swordfish served in Manfreddis. Instead, she sent her back to our stateroom with two things—2 Immodium tablets and a quarantine notice to stay in our stateroom for at least 24 hours after her last symptoms. Not for COVID but just for gastrointestinal problems. As I said, she felt great. She only wanted the Imodium as insurance. They would NOT LISTEN TO HER because (I assume) she was blaming it on the ship’s food.
When she told me this, I have to say that I BLEW UP! I went to guest relations and talked to a woman whose badge said she was the head of Customer Relations. She took down everything I said. I asked her why a nurse could make this kind of diagnosis without listening to my wife, without hearing that she and I have eaten just about everything exactly the same except the swordfish. As I mentioned, if this were a virus, the rest of our party and I would surely have contracted it by now. My wife has had food poisoning before, and it is very different from the flu or norovirus. This was POOR medical care. Why is it that medical personnel will not listen before they make this kind of decision? Is it because they heard about food poisoning and that we would blame them and want compensation? We don’t and we didn’t. So instead, they ban someone to their stateroom and make them miss a port or two. Sadly, during this entire 21-day cruise, the only places we had never been before were these three ports, and we were really looking forward to seeing them.
And not only did they make her suffer this indignity, but the nurse gave her a major lecture that if she broke quarantine and stepped outside our room, we would both be thrown off the ship. Then she got a nasty form letter with the same admonition. The letter also stated that if she did as she was told and didn’t make any other trouble, we would not be charged for the medical office visit, but if she stepped out of line, we would be charged for everything they did for her.
Since then, I have been out and about on the ship (I was NOT quarantined—it shows how stupid this policy is) and have heard of at least three other people who ate the swordfish and got sick. When I asked if they went to the medical office, they said, “No! We don’t want to get quarantined.” Well, my advice from this day forward is this: If you get sick and you aren’t dying, stay away from the medical office. They will punish you—for poisoning you.
OK, my rant is over. I am back to working on the marvelous day I had in Kotor and in Dubrovnik. I should be able to get you those tomorrow.
You can’t fix stupid. —Ron White
by Jim Bellomo | Sep 6, 2022 | Photography
A good friend commented on my post yesterday and said that maybe I shouldn’t have walked away from Celebrity so fast. Which made me think that I have been letting you all think I am totally unhappy with Viking. I am not. This is what I told my friend:
No, we will never go back to X. Everything on Viking has been great except the two sit-down restaurants. Hands down the most beautiful ship I have ever sailed on; other than the Neptune Suite, we had on HAL the best stateroom ever, excellent and fast internet, incredible buffet, superb service everywhere except the sit-down dining rooms, and that’s just because their restaurant systems are all screwed up. The public spaces are wonderful. Viking Ocean is head and shoulders above Celebrity. It’s probably just me that has to get used to the Viking ways.
There is a lot to like about Viking, and we are not totally turned off, but at least one more thing has happened that is a kind of a dark mark. Let’s get that out of the way. Kathleen got food poisoning. She was beyond sick last night and pretty much is feeling a little better as I write this on Tuesday in Kotor, Montenegro. The night before last (as you may remember), we went to Manfreddi’s for dinner. Kathleen had the swordfish. It is the only thing she has had to eat for the last few days that someone else in our group has not eaten. It’s not the flu or any other virus. Those aren’t as violent and really mess you up and then just go away. We have been together before when she has gotten food poisoning, and this is what we are sure it is. Bad fish is bad fish. Could have gotten that anywhere. Not really Viking’s fault.
Let’s talk Corfu. We found it to be a pleasant little island. We were doing a Viking-included tour that took us out to one end of the island where we could take pictures of some truly beautiful sites and their airport (located in a truly crazy place) and then back to the center of the city to get out and tour and then walk on our own before returning to the ship. We totally enjoyed Corfu. Check out the pics below. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
The fort at dawn
As well as the harbor.
We have neighbors—a Costa ship comes in.
You know how I love pilot boats
Sitting at the dock by the bay
Two beautiful islands
Downtown Corfu
People lighting commemorative candles
Typical street scene
Old building
Dog
Another dog
Old fort
The other end of the fort
The opposite end of the fort
The harbor
A very old and beautiful tree
The red church
The original palace
This resort just says Mediteranean to me
I Love this church.
More tomorrow. I enjoy some real photo shooting on the incredible sail-in to the port, a trip to an olive farm and a climb to a church high above Kotor.
In Greece, wise men speak, and fools decide. —George Santayana
by Jim Bellomo | Sep 5, 2022 | Food Experiences, Photography
After that long night of lousy sleep due to the firmness (HARD) mattress, I got up and did my usual pre-dawn deck walk. I am a walker and my usual day includes five miles of walking. So I was thrilled to see that the Viking ships have a quarter-mile track on deck 2 all the way around the ship. Did a five miler before breakfast, grabbed my sweetie and we had an excellent breakfast back in the buffet. Above is what the village we disembarked in (Katakolon) looked like.
Then it was off on our tour. We had chosen to go beyond the included tour to do one called, “Syrtaki, Greek Food & Ancient Olympia.” What we got were two tours. One half was the included tour of hell (oops, I meant Olympia) and the other was absolutely wonderful food and dance experience at Syrtaki. Let me explain.
The included tour was just to the ruins of Olympia. Don’t get me wrong, Olympia is fine. But to me, it’s basically another big pile of rocks. I go on vacation for two reasons. To meet people in new places and to take pictures. I am a travel photographer. For this first half of this tour, there wasn’t much I could take pictures of. Rock are rocks. Seen one (like on the Acropolis yesterday), and you have kind of seen them all. I did get a few pics but not great ones. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
Our guide Anastasia
Look rocks
A building made of rocks
Some stacked rocks
A really tall column made out of stacked rocks
This part was cool. This is where they light the Olympic flame every four years.
When I said that our tour of Olympia was “hell” it was because of something Viking could not control—the temperature. It was well over 90 in the shade and probably well over 100 in the sun. My lovely bride does not react well to heat so she stayed at the entrance under a shady tree while I did the Bataan Death March of ancient Greek ruins.
After that we got to experience one of our least favorite things on “luxury coach” tours with a lot of people, we got to wait almost 40 minutes for one couple who was late arriving back to the bus. In fact, our driver drove around trying to find them, thinking they were in another parking lot. Our guide walked all the way back to the ruins (quite a ways) but couldn’t find them. Turns out they had tired out coming back and taken a taxi to our next stop by had neglected to tell the guide or the bus driver. So much fun.
Our next stop was the Greek food cooking and tasting part of the excursion. The place we went was beautiful and they jumped right in pouring water and wine and getting food demos started with six from our group making tzatziki. Then another group made zucchini fritters (deep fried) to go with the tzatziki. Finally, the last group rolled out some phyllo dough to make Greek cheese pies (also deep fried). As soon as they had those done they invited everyone to not only eat those but an entire buffet spread. It all looked incredible but since we were going to Manfreddis that night we decided to eat light. We tried a few things and loved them all.
At this point (realize it is now 5:15 pm and the ship wants everyone back by 6:00) and a troupe of Greek dancers starts to entertain. We thought, OK, they will do two dances and we will be out of here in plenty of time to get back by 6:00 (the ship was about 35 minutes away). But no, they danced right up until 5:45 and the big problem was…they were GREAT! Hilarious. I have to say that everyone had a wonderful time with them. They dragged a bunch of people onto the dance floor and even had some people dancing on the tables. They were outstanding. Here are some very fun pics I got to take. As you can see, I made photo friends with the big guy.
Let the food demos begin
I just buy Phyllo dough. I could never roll it thin enough
Time for dancing
We think the group was a mom, dad, daughter and son-in-law
But who knows for sure
They could really dance
But more than that, they were just fun.
I loved shooting the leader. He has an awesome face.
I will let the next few pics speak for themselves. Just know I loved shooting the action.
This one might be my favorite
We met Susan from Nebraska who was traveling alone. I promised to send her pics of herself.
The buffet they put out was quite a spread. Really only tried an eggplant dish that I LOVED!
Here’s my new buddy in full on action
This man can whistle louder than any human I have ever heard
And he has a one word vocabulary.
Opa!
Opa!
Opa!
Everybody dance.
That’s when we use Kathleen’s hip and my giant camera to get out of stuff
Opa!
Opa!
We finally got out of there at 5;45 and the bus raced (he passed four cars in a BIG BUS) back to the ship where we arrived at 6:15. Good thing we were on a Viking excursion otherwise we might have missed the ship. We would do the second half of this excursion again; just the food and dancing.
Back on board, it was a quick shower and change of clothes to make a 7:00 pm Manfreddis reservation. We thought…this is it. We will really get to see the best of Viking food and service. Sadly, this was not to be the case. Again we were seated and got bread and water and then about 20 minutes passed and we got wine. We were NOT offered a wine list (I will give you that we did not ask for it because our server came to the table with two bottles of Italian wine and said “red or white”). We will ask in the future. We just got wine. The red was a decent Sangovise and the white a decent Pinot Grigio.
About 10 minutes later our order was taken. I have to say one of the things I really do not like is the use of the little iPhone/iPods to take orders. I have no problem with technology, I have made my living using it, but this makes the interaction with the server very impersonal. They are so busy looking at the screen that they never acknowledge things that they might see if they are just jotting things down on a pad of paper. We found out that each thing on their device has choices. For instance, let’s say I order a steak. They click steak. Then they must choose which steak, then they choose how I want it, then if I want a sauce with it. All of these are choices they have to read, rather than me just telling them I want the ribeye, medium rare. That would take two seconds and they could interact with me while they are doing it but with the devices, their heads are buried in them. And if someone else at the table says, “Oh, that sounds good, I will have that too,” it screws up the whole thing. They can’t just mark a 2 next to the order, they have to start all over again. Viking is doing themselves a disservice to be using these.
Again we waited for our appetizers (but not as long as the night before), and they and the entrées arrived when they should. Wine glasses were kept full. The only real complaint about the service was that my brother had been waiting for the fabled Manfreddis’ ribeye and when they brought him his, he got a New York steak. This time, instead of asking for the right steak he just ate it so we wouldn’t have to wait for him to get his order late to start eating. I should also point out that they had three kinds of sauces to go on the steaks. One was a “balsamic sauce” which I ordered. When it didn’t arrive with the steak I asked for it and our server brought me back a small bowl of balsamic vinegar. That’s not sauce. That’s vinegar. I didn’t realize she had done that and poured in on my steak.
Now let’s talk about the food itself. And speaking of the steak, I left about half of my ribeye because a quarter of it was fat and the other quarter was too tough to chew. That’s just sad. I also love calamari. I have eaten calamari as two complete courses in the Tuscan Grille on Celebrity ships before. I was excited to try Vikings. Disappointment! It was beyond boring. It reminded me of an old snack food that was in the shape of a bugle but tougher. And it was supposed to have a balsamic aioli with it but I couldn’t taste any balsamic in it.
I must admit I had a side of risotto with escargot in it that was the best thing I have eaten since we came on board…right up until I tried the chocolate Amarone dessert. It is the hands-down best chocolate I have ever eaten and I am not a big chocolate eater. Deep, dark and rich.
It was then off to bed (I did have a mattress topper but it wasn’t much better). Tomorrow (today as I write this) we are in Corfu and it has been a really nice day. More about that tomorrow…I hope.
I have a long view of history – my orientation is archaeological because I’m always thinking in terms of ancient Greece and Rome, ancient Persia and Egypt. —Camille Paglia
by Jim Bellomo | Sep 1, 2022 | Air travel, Food Experiences, Photography
As I write this we are packing to leave Amsterdam, brave the craziness of Schipol Aiport and fly south to Athens. We have loved staying two nights at our favorite hotel in the world, the Banks Mansion.
Us in our seats. A shot to send the grandkids
We had a fairly uneventful flight to AMS. We were flying in Business Class on Delta—this is what the airline calls Delta One and we were not incredibly impressed. Everything was just “fine” and if you read this blog on a regular basis, you know that “fine” means that everything was OK but nothing that really stands out. We did have decent, lie-flat seats but they were tight with not enough leg room for me. The padding was a little better than we had on British Air on our last foray to Europe in 2019. And they did feed us pretty well as you can see. Not the best airline meal we have ever had (that was on Cathay Pacific) but good and filling.
My appetizers. Small salad, chicken soup and a roll.
My entrée.Pasta with bolognese made with Impossible Meat that was so good you could not tell.
Breakfast: Spinach omelete.
We touched down in Amsterdam a little early and thought how great that was as we taxied towards the terminal but then our pilot came on and said that because we were early, they had no place left for us to park the plane s we would just have to sit there and wait until the plane that was at our gate left. Then we were told that the plane at our gate had a mechanical problem and would not be moving so we had to wait to be assigned to another gate which might be an hour. How fun. In the meantime, I was getting texts from my brother that their experience at the airport (they had arrived about three hours before we came from LAX) had not been a good one. Lots of lines and lots of waiting for luggage. So we expected the worst.
It was not to be. In minutes after getting his text, the plane found a gate, we were off, got to passport control and where we were the ONLY ones in line, got to baggage claim and (after walking by rows and rows of unclaimed bags that did not meet their connections) our bags appeared on the belt within minutes. We grabbed them and were off to the hotel. Where this had taken my brother and sister-in-law (from this point on referred to as Steve and Jamie ?) almost 2 hours to do, we landed, exited the airport and were at the hotel in less time than that. I certainly hope our trip today is as uneventful. But we have been warned to be at the airport EARLY. So we are about to go eat breakfast and head to the airport at 8:00 am for a 12:20 flight. I will pause now and be back to you soon.
And now we are sitting in the Aspire Airport Lounge at Schiphol airport. Getting into the airport and through security was nowhere near as bad as we expected. Our cab came for us at 8:15 and we had an almost uneventful ride to the airport (our driver got pulled over for not wearing his seat belt—which he was—the police just didn’t see it). It was easy to get in and check our bags and then about a 35-minute security line and now we have found a lounge that accepts the Priority Pass that we get free with our Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa cards and are relaxing for a couple of hours before we head to Athens.
A couple of quick notes about our travels so far. Kathleen had recently found us some new, LIGHTER luggage. Our two big, checkable bags had gotten really old and were falling apart. It was time and she found us some wonderful and very LIGHT bags from TravelPro. They come with wheels front and back and are really, really light. But they are plain and boring looking and don’t come in a lot of colors. Basically blue (hers) and black (mine). The problem is, that they blend in with every other bag on a luggage carousel. We used to rely on some orange handle wraps but now everyone has those. And then Kathleen found us some really cool luggage covers and I love them. When we got to Schiphol I can guarantee you there was nothing like them on the carousel. They are made of a lycra-like material with a zipper at the bottom and on the sides and you just pull them over your suitcase and zip them up. For less than $20 they were an awesome find.
Our stop in Amsterdam
Now that you have heard about the trip, here’s what we did in Amsterdam.
Checked into The Banks Mansion located almost in the center of Amsterdam. Steps away from every place. Museums in one direction, the port and downtown in the other. We stayed there before in 2016 and loved it. We literally think it is the best hotel we have ever stayed in. The beds, bedding and pillows are the most comfortable hotel beds ever, the included breakfast is fantastic and very filling and the view of the canal from our (upgraded room) windows was amazing. You can see one of Amsterdam’s largest canals and the street the hotel is on. You can see Kathleen, Steve and Jamie in the window of Kathleen and my suite here. Forgot to mention that the Banks is all-inclusive. No extra charges for everything including the bar in the “Living Room.” And the service is amazing. Ask for anything and it just appears. Like a taxi or a boarding pass printout.- Went to dinner at Moeder’s, a traditional Dutch restaurant. Moeders in Dutch translate to Mother’s and the restaurant is completely COVERED in photos of people’s mothers. They are still accepting them so we could have left one of our Mom’s pics if we had a print with us. The food was good, and the service was excellent.
- The next morning after sleeping off our jet lag Steve and I went off on a pre-dawn Photowalk. Got some great pics of downtown and near the port as a glorious sunrise made our early morning walk worth getting up for. Photos from that walk are below. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
Early morning on the main street to the port.
I love neon…I really love neon.
Looking towards the main train terminal.
The Oden Kirk, one of the oldest churches in Amsterdam, sits in the middle of the Red Light District.
A beautiful old building.
Same building, different light.
Sunrise over the port
Sunrise 2
Sunrise 3
Sunrise 4
The main train terminal (not very busy as there was a rail strike)
A ferry crossing the harbor.
Note the lean in thse buildings.
Sunlight on a canal-side residence.
And a beautiful view of a canal.
- Then it was back to the Banks where after having a wonderful breakfast, we were picked up by Hans from Tours By Locals who took us on a tour outside (mostly north) of Amsterdam. Since we had seen most of the city during the 2016 visit, we wanted to see the outlying areas. Hans did a great job of showing us the countryside including a visit to a still-working windmill (one of the few). See the photos for more info about that tour.
It’s time to head to the gate for our flight so I will have to show you our windmill pics in the next post. See you in Athens.
Air travel dehydrates people. —Michael J. Knowles
