Antarctic Cruise Days 1-2/40 - travel to and day #1 in Amsterdam - we left a hurricane for rain, rain, rain, and more rain

Antarctic Cruise Days 1 & 2 / 40 - We arrived in Amsterdam

Trip day: 1 & 2 / 40

Port days: 1
Sea days: 0
Countries: 1
Continents: 1
Ports: 1

Today begins another adventure for us.  North America - we live there.  South America?  Just did it.  Aisa?  We've been on the continent. Europe?  Covered a bunch of countries.  Africa?  Hit both sides.  Australia?  Briefly, but did have boots on the ground.  Antarctica?  Nope.

Well, that changes now!

Viking has just completed building their second expedition ship, the Viking Polaris, at the Fincantieri's Vard shipyard in Alesund, Norway.  For a while now, it has been moored near Søvik, Norway.  The plan is to move it to Amsterdam for her maiden voyage.

As I was typing this, I checked Cruisemapper.com and saw that she is finally moving.

And that means she is on her way to Amsterdam.  That's good since we're already in Amsterdam awaiting her arrival.

Let me back up a moment...

A few weeks back, we got an email from Viking marketing the inaugural voyage on Viking's newest expedition ship, the Polaris.  Viking Polaris is an ice-strengthened Polar Class 6 vessel with a longer hull, straight bow, and state-of-the-art fin stabilizers to provide the calmest possible journeys in remote regions. We liked the thought of visiting Antarctica.  Even more, we liked the opportunity to be on the first sailing and bring the ship from Europe to the Antarctic region.  We signed up and booked the voyage you see at the top of the page.  We will spend time in Amsterdam.  We will visit Madeira (Funchal), Portugal.  We will visit São Vicente Island (Mindelo), Cabo Verde.

OK - side note.  Cape Verde, Cabo Verde.  What's the difference?  Turns out that there isn't any. Here's some information from Michigan State University 

The group of islands was named Cabo Verde, meaning Green Cape, by the Portuguese in 1444. As time passed, the name was anglicized to Cape Verde. Since 2013, the government decided that the Portuguese Cabo Verde would henceforth be used for official purposes, and requests that the rest of the world respects this name change.

So there you have it - it should be called "Cabo Verde" since that is the country's official name.  Are you listening, Viking?

After Cabo Verde, we'll sail nine days through the Atlantic and two more in the South Atlantic before three stops in the Falkland Islands. Then we will hit up Ushuaia, Argentina for a couple of days  We’re looking forward to that as we made a technical stop for fuel in Ushuaia on the World Cruise but we were not allowed off the ship.  Next up is a transit of the Drake passage south to Antarctica. We'll have seven fun-filled days exploring the Antarctic region before heading back to Ushuaia and our return flights home. The Drake Passage can be notoriously rough.  We’ll go through it twice so the odds are pretty good that we will get tossed around a bit.

But, to make this all happen, we needed to get to Amsterdam.  

Here are our bags, anxiously awaiting the arrival of our Creative Concierge driver, Christopher, Monday at 8:20AM.  Then, we went to Terminal B, Gate 78 at Orlando International Airport.  If you ever get the opportunity to fly out of here - don't.  It was awful. Overcrowded, no seating, screaming kids, multiple gates crammed together, simultaneous announcements - awful.

Our flight to New York JFK was completely full and that meant no overhead storage.  Since we were relegated to Main Cabin 3 status, there was no room for our carry-on bags so they had to be checked.

The flight to JFK was uneventful.  We had a very short layover which was nice.  We boarded our flight to Amsterdam.

We scored exit row seats with essentially unlimited legroom.

We also got to chat with our friendly flight attendant, Kelley, during takeoff and landing.

The pilot seemed to be flying it like he stole it as we arrived in Amsterdam a full hour ahead of schedule arriving just before 5AM Central European Summer Time (CEST - GMT +2). That puts us six hours ahead of home - Eastern Daylight Time (EDT - GMT -4). We cleared Customs easily, our bags came out quickly, and our transfer driver was waiting for us as soon as we walked out of the terminal. The hotel even got us into our room early, which was nice.

Our digs - Movenpick City Center

The room is nice.  It only has 220V outlets but has plenty of them at the desk and on the nightstands. We are on the 19th floor in room 1900. They are highly environmental.  To us, they’ve taken it a little too far.  For example, the climate control can only be adjusted within a three-degree Celsius range, from 16C to 19C.  For the Fahrenheit lovers out there, that is 60.8F to 66.2F.  For these Floridians, that is too cold!  I called the desk and they said they will turn it warmer in the system.  Uh, how about you let me turn the room warmer?  

The view out of our rain-soaked window - the curved building in the distance on the left is Amsterdam Central - the main train station

There are two Viking river boats in Amsterdam today - the Sigyn and Rolf

The cruise dock is right next to our hotel on the opposite side from our room - today, the Viking Jupiter arrived

Since we got into our room early, we took advantage and grabbed a two-hour power nap.

Typical European bed - two twins - not a fan

The weather today is simply terrible.  We left Florida where a hurricane is headed and flew to ...rain.  When the rain stops, then it rains some more.  And that is on top of it being a little windy and temps hovering in the low 40s.  We borrowed a couple of umbrellas from the hotel and ventured out for a walk.

We headed over to Amsterdam Central Station - the hub for all rail services.  From there, we ventured into the old town.

The clock tower on the Central Station

Some of the many canal tour boats

Typical architecture

art'otel Amsterdam

Cuisine?  They've got plenty of them!

More interesting architecture - and construction

Many of the roads were under construction.  That meant mud, narrow sidewalks, closures, and generally problematic walking.

The New Church - now an exhibition space

Do you think that this is where they make coffee?

Cannabis ice cream was all over the place

Royal Palace

Magna Plaza - a shopping center

The back of the palace, New Church, and Dam Square

Looking around Dam Square

Looking around Dam Square

Madame Tussaud's on Dam Square

Sporting our spiffy World Cruise jackets

A pedestrian roadway – you can see the Burger King and McDonald’s on the left – there was a Duncan a little farther down

Beurspassage – a shopping area off of the pedestrian walkway

We stopped at a local eatery for sandwiches for lunch. Then we started heading back toward the Central Station and make our way back to the hotel.

The Central Station

The Central Station

The rain was coming down in earnest again.  Our pants legs were wet, and we were pretty chilled.  We went to our room to rest and warm up.

After trying (unsuccessfully) to warm up in our chilly room, Arlona had planned to venture out again, perhaps around 6PM as the skies had cleared up somewhat.  Good plan, except at about 6PM, right on schedule, the heavens opened again with a deluge.

We were able to watch the Viking Jupiter as she headed out on her itinerary.

Three Viking ships in one photo

With the cold and rain, we decided to just stay in.  Neither one of us was terribly hungry.  We opted to go to the lobby bar and share a small plate of nachos and a couple of drinks.

When we returned to our room, we caught a nice view of the city center.  

We also saw some distant fireworks to the north.  Nothing to photograph, but still fun to see.

We had been trying to plan what to do on Wednesday.  Good thing we didn’t schedule anything.  When we checked in with the Viking representative at the hotel, she let us know that we are scheduled for a one-hour canal cruise followed by a guided city walking tour starting at 9:30AM tomorrow.  That’s a nice touch from Viking, including a tour for us as part of our pro-cruise extension.  We’re looking forward to it.

We’re calling it an early evening as it has been a long couple of days for us.  Tomorrow will start bright and early with showers, the included buffet breakfast at the hotel, and then our tour.  Our fingers are crossed that the forecasted rain gives us a little bit of a break tomorrow.

Our plan was to return to the room, watch a little TV and drift off to sleep.  Ahh, the best-laid plans…

Our TV doesn’t work.  The remote doesn’t work.  Nothing works.  So beyond nearly non-functioning climate control, we also have non-functioning entertainment.  Nice.  They’re sending someone tomorrow.  We told them not to come tonight.

We are off to bed (or beds) for some rest.  Tomorrow should be a fun day.