On Wednesday evening, Kathy Cheryl and I had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Cheryl was able to fly home the next day.

Kathy and I needed a few more days to rest, recover, and figure out how to get home as soon as possible. On Saturday, it was time for one final adventure. We took the free shuttle to Schipol Airport then the train to Centraal Station. We exited on the north side of the station and, on a whim, jumped on a ferry that was leaving shortly.

We got off, found an information kiosk and asked where we were on the city map we had. Definitely NOT where we wanted to be so we ran back to the same ferry and headed back to Centraal Station.

Once we exited the south side of Centraal Station, we were able to walk directly to Dam Square. Very crowded today!

The tulips are now in full bloom.

We walked through the Red Light District and made our way back to Centraal Station.

Time to repack our suitcases and get ready to fly home tomorrow!

Overnight, my phone updated. This morning I had to reenter the 6-digit passcode twice. Success until I tried to actually use my phone – the passcode no longer worked. Two online chats with Apple support (about 3 hours) resulted in an appointment with an authorized repair facility in south Amsterdam. The 16-minute taxi ride cost $55 USD. At this point .. oh well. Things were going quite well, the young man, Yosni, at Cool Blue was great. And then …

Beep beep beep went the intercom. “Please exit the building immediately. Use any available exit.” The message continued to repeat. We all headed out. Blue jackets = Cool Blue employees.

However, it was a very tall building and people continued to stream out. There was quite a crowd gathered on the sidewalk.

The next announcement: “Everyone should move to the next block in case the building comes down.” Just one block? No one seemed concerned. Cheryl spotted Yosni in the crowd and asked him if he could continue working on my phone even though we were outside (love you, Cheryl).

Next announcement: “Thank you. This was a drill.” We all headed back into the building, my phone was restored, all data from the cloud migrated back. All was well until we got to the train station which rejected both our cards to get a ticket. We walked back to a grocery store (Albert Heijn of course) to get coins. This part of Amsterdam is quite modern with very interesting and unique architecture.

We were back at our hotel at 4:30. A whole day spent getting my phone back – although it was also a day not spent completely in our hotel rooms. Sadly, Cheryl and I are both still positive and can’t fly home tomorrow as planned. We are both so ready for some good news.

Our Friday evening farewell dinner, fond goodbyes and toasts with champagne:

By 9 am on Saturday, we were all off the boat and headed in different directions.

Four of us went to a hotel near the airport, hung out in our rooms, and tried to get well enough to test negative – a requirement to get back into the USA. Our Amsterdam until that happens:

Most of the group went for a 25-mile bike ride into Amsterdam. The first day with sunshine, blue skies and no wind.

Me? I stayed in my cabin with a positive Covid test.

By barge. At breakfast, Pietr announced there would be no riding to our next destination, the weather was worse than yesterday.

Once in Purmerends, our barge docked before the lock which couldn’t be raised because of the gusty wind.

A short e-bike ride (for some people) didn’t happen either because tree branches blocked the path for the bikes to come off the boat.

We walked into town.

Long ago, this square was for the beef cattle traders:

Vlaamse frites = Flemish fries. Thick-cut, freshly made, salted and served in cones with a side of locally-made mayonnaise.

A lazy afternoon on the boat playing cards, reading or taking a nap in your cabin. A few of us have a bit of a cold – this rest day helped.

A VERY windy day with occasional rain made for a challenging ride. Headwinds at 29 mph slowed some riders to about 3 mph. As we rode toward the North Sea, we had a rest stop in Castricum.

Riding through the forest:

The dunes at Castricum aan Zee:

The North Sea. Kite surfers in the distance.

Our lunch stop. Lee and Amal:

Riding north along the dunes was somewhat better because the winds were from the southwest:

Egmont Huys – the site of a castle first built in the 1100s, destroyed and rebuilt a few times.

We continued on to Alkmaar – another picturesque Dutch town – which we should have explored but most of us were too exhausted. 25 miles today. Tomorrow’s forecast looks worse than today: a high of 49, periods of light rain or showers, winds 25-35 mph with gusts to 50 mph.