"Blue Hotel" — Arnhem, The Netherlands

Arnhem, Gelderland, The Netherlands
Friday, May 31, 2013

Gayle wakes me just before 7am this morning. I have slept very well.

Breakfast continues the oversupply of calories on offer, with cooked and European cold offerings in the dangerous buffet format!

This morning is a guided road and canal tour of Amsterdam. At this stage, I remember that l once asked to be shot if l ever embarked on such a thing. However my five companions lower the average age and l choose to forget the earlier request. The grey rinse set and we six pile on to three buses.

Well, we shuffle on...

Much of the tour we have covered ourselves the past four day, but the detailed commentary is interesting

. We have earpieces attached to a radio unit that lets us hear the tour leader up to 100m away. They are an ingenious device that allows us time to stop for photographs or to drop back if something special catches our eye, yet miss nothing.

We return at midday and depart right on time. The boat is exceedingly smooth and quiet as it manouvres its way out of its berth, into Amsterdam harbour then west to the Rijnkanaal canal. We sit for lunch at 12.30... only four courses this time - buffet salads, two soups, three mains and dessert cakes or fresh fruit!

It is exceedingly pleasant dining as we glide through the Dutch countryside, through Uttrech towards tomorrow's stop at Köln (Cologne). There is an endless and fascinating procession of barges of all types heading back towards Amsterdam.

I am intrigued - although l shouldn't be surprised - to see milage markers alongside the canal and 'street name' signs left and right where the canal divides.

The countryside is populated by contented Friesans being stripped grazed on verdant pastures, the occassional modern white wind turbine, large flocks of ducks, fat rabbits and numerous bridges - all modern in this man-made canal

. Alongside us the entire way is a bike/footpath, shaded by an endless avenue of elm trees.

We are fascinated when we reach the first of what will be many locks over the next two weeks. It is a huge, concrete split lane structure - one upstream, one down. A small tug, a large petrol tanker and two canal cruisers (including us) pack into the space before being raised about 3m over an impressively short time. Most of the passengers are on the sundeck to watch this manoevure.

With afternoon tea and live Muzak now on offer, we continue through the flat polder landscape of southern Holland to the town of Arnhem.
We are faced with another four course dinner before tonight's entertainment: a Dutch folklore show. Predictably, audience members are dragged up to participate in the dances. I fail to escape in time...

Some time around 11pm, we enter the Rhine proper and spend our first night sleeping in this mobile hotel.

"Blue Hotel" by Chris Isaak