Easter Sunday on Amalegro

After a good night sleep, we awoke Easter Sunday and had breakfast in Amalegro's main Restaurant. The Restaurant featured a full buffet breakfast each morning. Most mornings the buffet breakfast was served from 7:00 AM - 9:00 AM. Early risers could find pastries in the Lounge from 6:00 AM.

The breakfast menu included a large selection of pastries and breads, fruits, scrambled eggs, sausges, bacon, hashbrowns, cheeses, cold cut meats, various breakfast fish dishes, and a featured menu item. Other selections included omlettes made to order and waffles. Of course there were a variety of juices, milk, coffee, and teas to chose from. This isn't the complete menu, but it gives you an idea about the range of choices each morning.

Following breakfast, we met in the reception area for our first excursion. We departed at 8:30 AM by motorcoach for an Amsterdam City Tour followed by a Canal Boat Cruise. Local guides accompanied each group, explaining the sites along the way.

Amsterdam is known as "The Venice of the North". Canals encircle the city center like a spider web. The best way to enjoy the beautiful homes that line the water is by canal boat. The canal tour passes through all of the major canals the encircle the city. In the picture below, I've included one of the popular sites, Anne Frank's House. You'll see a long line waiting to get into the house. You can bypass that line by booking online in advance. Doing so you'll avoid the wait time of 45 minutes or longer to get in.

On a previous visit to Amsterdam, we took the Hop on Hop Off Canal Boat tour. A canal boat tour is a must see when you are in Amsterdam. This was one of the included tours on our river cruise.

At the conclusion of our canal boat tour, the motorcoaches were waiting to return us to the ship which wasn't far away. Everyone was back on board Amalegro by 11:45 AM and we then sailed for Volendam. Since it was a beautiful day, most passengers were on the sundeck watching as we sailed away from Amsterdam.

Lunch was served at 12:30 in the Amalegro Restaurant. Following lunch, at 2:00 PM, there was a mandatory Safety Drill by the Captain. After the drill, our Cruise Director, Bartel Tourny, gave a briefing about the afternoon activities. I'll continue the adventure in my next post.