After four days in London, it was time to board the Zuiderdam for a new leg of our journey. First we had to get there. We checked out of the Holiday Inn Express in London and took a taxi to St. Pancras Train Station. When we have our luggage with us, a taxi is the way to go. We had two large suitcases, two backpacks, and my purse. Despite mailing a package back home after two months away, our suitcases were still very full.
London taxis are wonderful. A cab driver has to go through five years of apprenticeship followed by a very comprehensive test before getting his or her license. Because of this, the taxi drivers know the best way to get everywhere. The spacious black taxis have room for four passengers and their bags. Instead of putting the suitcases in the trunk, they ride in the cab with you. Our cab driver on the way to the train station was a lot of fun. He has a daughter who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, and he loves the United States. He said he would move there in a minute if he was retired.
The cabbie dropped us off at St. Pancras about an hour before our train departed, which was the amount of time recommended on our ticket. We stood in a line to go through security, but otherwise, getting on the train was effortless. We boarded the Eurostar, a direct train to Amsterdam with several stops. It took less than an hour to get out of England and under the English Channel. The Eurostar travels at an average speed of 150 mph.
The French and Belgian countryside flew by. We can always tell when we enter the Netherlands. The Dutch are so neat and clean. There is rarely any graffiti and never any trash, even by warehouses and in run-down areas. There was some kind of problem with the tracks when we entered the Netherlands. Our train slowed down considerably and ended up coming in to Amsterdam about 45 minutes late. It wasn’t a problem for us because we didn’t have any connections to make.
When we reached Amsterdam Centraal we were able to grab our luggage and walk the short distance to our hotel, the Ibis Amsterdam Center. We chose that hotel because it was within walking distance of the train station and less than a mile from our cruise terminal. At least that was the way it was supposed to go. After checking in, we went out for a walk around the central part of Amsterdam. It was a Friday after work and everything was packed with people. The sidewalks, the parks, the canals, the restaurants. Wall to wall people.
It felt a little claustrophobic so Tom and I picked up some supper from the grocery store and went back to the hotel. We noted some stores to come back to the next morning. Our ship didn’t start boarding until noon so we would have some time to walk around without the hordes. We tried watching a little Dutch television. We settled on a 1970’s show that was like Funniest Home Videos. It was all in Dutch, but we had a good time watching the funny things people did.
The next morning I woke up before Tom and headed down to breakfast. I asked the clerk at the reception desk about the cruise terminal – we were trying to decide if we could walk or if we should take a taxi. He asked what address our tickets had. Two months previously the mayor of Amsterdam had moved all cruise ships to a docking area 20 miles outside Amsterdam. What? That would have been a month into our trip and I remembered a news blip about it that I had not paid attention to at the time.
I went back upstairs and checked our boarding passes. Sure enough, they said our port was the place 20 miles outside Amsterdam. No problem, we would just take a train. Nope. None of the trains were running. All the trains were shut down for three days to fix some problems with the tracks. What about a bus? A bus would take close to two hours with several transfers.
Tom and I reluctantly realized that the only way we would get to our ship was to take a taxi. And taking a taxi all that way would run us over $100. Seeing as we had no other option, we gave up on our morning walk around Amsterdam and prepared to travel the distance to our port.
The taxi ride went smoothly and our driver delivered us to the exact spot we needed to be. For the most part, Holland America is experienced enough that boarding goes very smoothly. However, this new port area didn’t have the usual infrastructure in place yet, and we ended up standing in long lines a couple of times. Despite the delays, we were on the ship and in our stateroom by noon.
The first day on a new ship is always a little disorienting. The Zuiderdam is laid out similarly to the Niew Statendam, but is a little smaller. It is close in size to the ship we took to Hawaii. There are 1,900 passengers instead of 2,600. Our cabin is on the opposite side of the ship and it is took me a little while to figure out where I needed to go. But our cabin was very comfortable and we settled in for our voyage.
Unfortunately there was some kind of problem with the Zuiderdam getting under way. I don’t know if it had to do with the new port or with a technical problem with the ship. The captain came on and said we would be delayed by three hours in our departure. The usual “setting sail” party was a “not setting sail yet” party. But it was still a party. The Zuiderdam finally got going about 8:30 that evening. We were supposed to leave at 3. It really didn’t matter to the passengers. We were still able to get food, explore the ship, and enjoy the planned programs.
On to the next leg of our journey. Iceland, Greenland, Canada, and then home. Some more wonderful places to enjoy.