Well after not going on holiday abroad for over 2 years due to Covid we decided so to say dip our toes in the water and took a short break to see how it feels.

We booked a short stay in Amsterdam from the 27 March to the 30^th 2022 and crossed overnight on the Newcastle to Ijmuiden ferry. Arriving at the ship at 4pm and sailing at 5:30pm on a nice sunny evening I pointed out to Jun the old derelict dry dock at South Shields where I joined my first ship on November 9^th 1965 fresh out of Sea Training School. We arrived at Ijmuiden at 7:30 am after we had had a really good breakfast and then boarded the bus to take us to Amsterdam City Centre which dropped us off by the riverside behind the railway station from which we were able to walk to the marina for our stay on a houseboat. After having something to eat we walked back to the train station and took a train up to the airport and then picked up the direct link bus to the Keukenhof Gardens which we both found absolutely beautiful and spent the rest of the day there and also buying lots of tulip bulbs and I bought a small orchid. We caught a bus and metro back to the houseboat and after cooking ourselves a light meal we spent the evening walking around the city centre.

The next morning after breakfast and spending a bit of time talking to the young guy who lives on the houseboat looking after it for the owners, we took the tram up to the Rijks Museum and spent the rest of the morning there before going back to the boat to pack and finding a lovely quirky cafe and second hand shop where we had something to eat and bought an old Indonesian wooden cat that was larger than the one we bought when we were in Indonesia and which we had been looking for ever since, of course it wouldn't go in our luggage so we had to carry it around with us the rest of the day and back to the ferry on the evening. we were picked up by the bus late afternoon and back to the ferry for our overnight crossing still very warm and calm seas although later in the evening it got a bit choppy. we had booked for a evening meal on board which was really nice and such a large selection of vegetarian for me, after which we booked for the 9pm cinema showing of Belfast and as we were the only two there it was like being in your own room with a giant TV.

We arrived back to North Shields at 8am and were on our way back home by 10am, having had a really good break.