Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1 – In Search Of Tulips & Windmills: Zeeland (May 4, 2026)

Where We Spend The Day Learning About The Flood Of 1953

And The Netherlands Water Management System

What I really like about this itinerary is how well it’s covered the whole of the Netherlands. Previously, I’ve only been to Amsterdam and Kinderdijk. Today we were in the southern part of the Netherlands.

A good chunk of the Netherlands is below sea level. Over the centuries they’ve figured out an extensive water management system that is mostly made up of dikes. Dikes are constructed using dirt facing the dry side and layers of sand and rocks facing the water side. BTW, the difference between a dam and a dike is: a dam has water on both sides, and a dike has water on side and dry land on the other.

In 1953, there was a literal perfect storm on January 31 into February 1 in the Zeeland, the southern part of the Netherlands. All the water management systems failed, causing a huge flood that destroyed everything in its path, including over 1800 people. This is known as the North Sea Flood. The devastation was so great, to this day people refer to “before flood” and “after flood” times.

Our excursion ticket just mentioned visiting the Flood Museum (the Dutch are not creative when naming things). Turned out we had two more stops.- which made sense, because we couldn’t figure out what would take us 5 hours at a flood museum.

The museum’s building itself is made up of the 5 original caissons used to stop the flooding at this particular spot. For all the other dike breaches, repairing the dike fixed the problem, but the damage was so great in this location that fixing the dikes wasn’t even an option. Caissons – huge, hollow, concrete boxes – were shipped from the UK to the Netherlands and lowered into the dike breaches to stop the flooding. Years later, after new water management engineering was installed, it was decided to turn the caissons into a museum of the 1953 flood. The museum’s interior is a path through all 5 caissons.

This is the entrance to the museum via the first caisson

The destruction was so complete, the outside world wasn’t aware of the situation for 2 days. Someone rigged together a radio out of odds-and-ends to send an SOS.

Most of the museum contained artifacts from people impacted by the flood – both survivors and non-survivors.

The dress below was the wedding dress of a woman who died in the flood with her 2 year-old child. Her husband survived and kept it stored away in an attic. Her husband remarried and had another family. Years after her husband passed away, his children found his first wife’s dress and donated it to the museum.

Woman made this dress herself for her wedding day but died in the flood with her 2 year old daughter. Her husband kept the dress and years later his children from 2nd wife donated it to the museum

There were several memorials throughout the museum. This memorial listed all the names of the victims moving in a continuous loop – the names appear to flow on the waves of the water.

There was a multi-screen film with clips of the flood itself – most of it was hand-held/shaky camera footage, which tends to trigger my motion sickness, so we didn’t watch it.

This monument was just outside the exit of the museum:

Once back on the bus, we headed to the town of Zierikzee. I’ve already forgotten how to pronounce it. This was a little bit of a surprise, because our ticket nor the excursion description mentioned anything about a walking tour.

It’s a very old and cute little town, with a city gate as a remnant of the city wall. The town dates back to the 1400s. It is far enough inland that it did not flood in 1953. There was a cute gift shop, and the weather was beautiful.

Our next “surprise” stop was a photo op by the water. We drove across the Zeeland Bridge, which is 5km long (3.1 miles).

From this vantage point, we had a good view of the Storm Surge Bridge. Each segment of this bridge has a door that can be lowered in 70 minutes to stop the flow of water from the sea to the interior. The Storm Surge Bridge is 8 km long. I remember the tour guide saying that the last time it was used was 1986.

This is a close up of one of the segments. You can see how close the bridge is to the water and how the door would lower if needed.

The doors come down in 75 minutes during a storm surge 1986 built

We were standing directly underneath some wind turbines. It was cool to see them spin up close.

On the way back to the ship, we drove across the Storm Surge Bridge.

We were back at the ship by 1:30, just in time for lunch. The ship set sail a little after 2:00 p.m. to head back to Amsterdam. The adventure is almost over!

Tomorrow: The pièce de résistance: Keukenhof Gardens and the end of the tulip season!

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1 – In Search Of Tulips & Windmills: April 28 (Our Last Day In Amsterdam)

Where We Tie Up Some Loose Ends Before The Ship Leaves Amsterdam

In the morning we had the included canal cruise, which was rated as “easy”. However, it was a 15 minute walk to the canal boat AND entry into the boat included an incredibly steep tiny ladder. Even people with good knees were struggling, and of course, I managed to wrench a kneed when my foot slipped of the last rung. Spoiler alert! Said kneed seems to be cooperating this morning, though yesterday it let me know it was not happy.

One really important factoid we learned on this cruise: the term “Holland” applies to two provinces in the Netherlands. There’s the North Holland province (where Amsterdam is located) and the South Holland province. This has always been confusing – learning as a child about a country called “Holland”, only to find out the real name of the country is the Netherlands. Apparently the Dutch are confused about this as well, so it’s a legit confusion.

Here are some assorted “standard” canal views, as we sailed along at 3 kilometers/hour:

The building in white is extremely narrow, dating from the time when people were taxed by the width of their houses.

Anne Frank’s house (No, we didn’t visit during this trip: Andy went the last time we were here, and I went in 1977, which was more than sufficient).

Claude Monet painted this scene

The port-a-potties in this photo was for King’s Day. These served as bathroom access for people who were out and about in little boats too small to have onboard bathrooms.

If you look closely, these buildings are tilting to the side. This is the result of the wooden piles they were built on rotting away. We were assured the wooden piles have since been replaced by concrete. But the buildings still lean.

Other interesting things we saw along the way:

Amsterdam seems to be more interesting every time we come!

After lunch we decided to finish up our Jewish quarter tour by returning to the Jewish museum. We decided to ask the front desk to call us a taxi that would guaranteed drive down the cobblestone ramp to the dock and pick us up right at the ship. Uber drivers might not do that, and require us to meet them up on the street, which would mean I’d have to hobble up the cobblestones. Not ideal.

The taxi worked perfectly, though twice the cost of an uber. We figured on the way back we could guide the uber driver where to make the turn down the ramp to the dock.

If the Portuguese Synagogue represented the Sfardi Jewish experience in Amsterdam, the Jewish Museum showed also the Ashkenazi (eastern European) Jewish experience. The museum building itself is the old Ashkenazi synagogue.

Navigating the multi-floor building required using the convoluted elevator system that seemed to work when it wanted to. We needed museum staff to get us started via the handicap entrance. The staff member had to badge the elevator several times to get it to go, and then he had to meet us on the next floor. It was confusing as to exactly which floors contained the museum itself, and first we needed to buy tickets: our ticket for the Portuguese synagogue included entrance to the Jewish museum, but we lost those tickets, so we figured we had to buy another ticket. The ticket guy told us we didn’t need to pay again once we told him the story, which was nice.

The entrance ticket included the free audio guide like the Portuguese synagogue, though this time we knew what to do. My device spoke in English from the git go.

The first floor we visited was labeled “Religion” that displayed the religious aspect of Jewish life in Amsterdam before WWII.

These are meggilot Esther – hand written scrolls containing the book of Esther. The illuminations were beautiful.

This is a sefer Torah (Torah scroll) set to the Priestly Blessing – at the bottom of the middle column. Perfectly legible and easy to read.

This is a display case containing assorted religious objects, including a huge Hanukkah menorah and Torah covers with silver crowns. The big silver bowl in the lower left hand corner is a bowl to hold water for the Kohanim (men who inherit the priest role from their fathers) to wash their hands before they bless the congregation with the Priestly Blessing (as seen in the sefer Torah). It’s a little hard to see, but to the right of the bowl is a “laver”, a pitcher the Levi’im used to pour water over the feet of the Kohanim before the Kohanim bless the congregation.

This is the original bima (kind of like a little stage) in front of the Ark that holds the sifrei Torah (Torah scrolls) that you can see behind the glass. The menorah on the bima looks like another Hanukkah menorah. A standard menorah would have 7 branches; this one has 9. Up on the wall to the right of the ark is the Ner Tamid – the Eternal Light that would normally be continuously lit in an active synagogue. Before electricity the Ner Tamid would be lit with oil. It represents the continuous presence of G-d.

These are other religious or ritual items.

An interesting shofar – we’ve not seen one like this before. The Shofar is blown on Rosh HaShannah (Jewish New Year)

The next floor described the history of the Jewish community in Amsterdam from its origins in the 1600s as Sfardi Jews arrived to escape the Spanish Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, as well as Ashkenazi Jews fled the pogroms and dire poverty of Eastern Europe. One remarkable note: Jews were given full Dutch citizenship in 1796 with all the rights and privileges as non-Jews. This is a momentous occasion – most of the time, Jews were second-class citizens in the rest of Europe for much longer than that.

More than 2/3 of the Jewish population in Amsterdam were murdered during the Holocaust. There are now about 60,000 Jews in Amsterdam, but most of them live in the outer areas and not in the central part of the city.

When we were finished with the museum, we took an uber back to the ship. We were able to show the driver where to turn to drive down the ramp all the way to our ship. Success!

Tomorrow: Enkhuizen, where we meet our first windmills and tulip farm

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2025 Part 2: To The (Almost!) Bottom Of The World: All Good Things Must Come To An End

January 7, 2026: Where We Have A Few Hours Before Our Flight Home, And We Manage To Get Lost, As Is Tradition

After breakfast, we go back to the room and cram everything into our suitcases. After we check out and store our bags for the day, we venture out to spend just a little more time exploring Buenos Aires.

At the front desk’s recommendation, we take an Uber to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. It is a delightful little museum – all of 2 and a half floors, with a wide range of exhibits: from antiquities, to Impressionist and Modern art.

This guy reminded me of George Burns (z”l)

I liked the iridescent quality of this painting

Hermenegildo Anglada Carnarasa “Los opalos” 1904

These are hair combs – they are HUGE.

Spotted this Dega from across the room.

I felt bad for Jesus in this carving – he’s missing his nose and a few fingers.

Anonymous (Spain 13th Century) “Virgin with the Child”

Here’s the Modern Art

Antonio Berni “Pesadilla de los injustos” 1961

Luis Felipe Noé “Introducción a la esperanza” 1963

And another one that was easy to spot.

Amedeo Modigliani “Bust of a Woman” 1920

I’m not familiar with this artist.

The best thing about this museum was how ramps were built into the design of the entire building. There was no need for any steps at all – ramps were everywhere! Unfortunately, the elevator door had some kind of psychological problems – it always started to close as soon as it was fully open, even if you were standing in the doorway.

When we were done with this museum, we decided to find another small museum. Andy had a reference to a “design” museum that was open 24 hours. We suspected it was an open-air museum. Trying to follow Google’s walking directions, we randomly came across interesting things.

A better view of the monument to Evita Perón

After a while it became clear we had no idea where we were nor any idea where this “museum” was. A kind passer-by stopped to ask us if we needed help. Andy showed her his phone and what we were looking for. She studied it for a couple of minutes and then announced: “This is not a real place.”

So whatever that was, it didn’t seem to exist. We gave up.

We found a place to have lunch. At that point it was time to head back to the hotel, but we had *just* enough time to squeeze in one more stop at Freddo’s for ice cream!

This is the last photo I took in the cab on the way to the airport.

Hasta la vista, Argentina! It’s been a blast!

Coming in April, 2026: Tulips and Windmills river cruise in the Netherlands

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2025 Part 2: To The (Almost!) Bottom Of The World: Buenos Aires City Tour

January 4: Where We Spend Six Whirlwind Hours Racing Around Buenos Aires To See All The Things

We had the first of our three tours scheduled for this week. Today’s was a 6-hour tour of Buenos Aires. Our tour guide’s name was Juan. Very knowledgable about Buenos Aires. He told us about the many courses he had to take to get a degree and certification as a professional tour guide. He was terrific – speaking for 6 hours in a language that is not his native tongue.

First stop – The Floralis Generica. A giant mechanical sculpture that used open and close. Unfortunately, the mechanical parts are broken and somehow a city with a huge college of engineers can’t find an engineer to fix it. Two of the petals were restored to their positions just a couple of weeks before we arrived.

Next photo op: the law school of the University of Buenos Aires.

Faculty of law building at the university of Buenos Aires

And then the seat of the Jose San Martin Institute. San Martin was the founder of Argentina, akin to George Washington for the US.

Jose San Martin Institute – he was the George Washington of Argentina in 1820

Next stop was the Paseo El Rosedal – a huge rose garden. It was too much for me to walk, so I enjoyed the sunshine while Andy and Juan went looking at roses. Here are some of the photos he took.

Here is the monument to Eva Perón – first lady of Argentina in the 1970s and 80s. She is still greatly revered in Argentina

It was fitting that our next stop was the Recoleta Cemetery that is the final resting place for the rich and wealthy in Buenos Aires for the last 200 years. The cemetery is complete – the only way to get buried here is to have a family mausoleum or be somebody incredibly important. In other words – most people don’t rate.

A couple of notable mausoleums:

Tomb of Admiral William Brown, founder of the Argentinian Navy

I forgot to make note of who these people are. Juan says this is typical of the interments in this cemetery – the coffins are above ground. The only exception: Eva Perón.

And here she is. Evita is buried underground. Other family members are housed in the mausoleum.

The Recoleta cemetery was endlessly fascinating, with all the different designs

Tomb of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak – killed at age 26 in an avalanche while she was on her honeymoon

The next few stops were quick ones.

Next up: the beautiful Catedrál de Buenos Airs, where Pope Francis was the archbishop before he became pope.

Randomly, Juan asked us if we were religious. We told him we were Jewish, which triggered a surprise: an exhibit memorializing Jewish victims of the holocaust and terrorist attacks in Buenos Aires. It is the only memorial of a different faith in any Cathedral. The normal requirement to remove your hat inside the cathedral is waived in this nave, because it is Jewish custom to keep your head covered, even inside.

Our next stop was the Plaza de Mayo, the main square in Buenos Aires, created in 1884.

Monument to General Manuel Belgrano, creator of the Argentinian National flag

On our way to the neighborhood of Caminito, we stopped by the market of San Telmo. We had a fleeting thought of getting lunch in here, but that quickly evaporated. We were crushed from all sides just trying to move forward. We didn’t get very far at all before we gave up, turned around and came back out.

Caminito is my new favorite city neighborhood. Home of past generations of immigrants living by the docks, it’s now a lively food/arts/party scene, with colorful buildings, fanciful cartoon figures on the street, street side cafes, and plenty of great shopping. The only problem: the streets are all cobblestone making it very painful to walk, and my transport chair can’t function.

People line up to take their photo under the “Messi” with the World Cup

On our way back to the hotel, Juan pointed out two more interesting landmarks.

Puente de La Mujer – a rotating footbridge built in honor/tribute to women

It was 3:30 p.m. by the time we were back in our room. Juan and his driver had done a masterful job of showing us as much of this beautiful city as can be seen in six hours!

We ended up having an early dinner or maybe it was a “linner”, since we never did manage to squeeze in lunch in those 6 hours.

Tomorrow: Super crazy day – up to Iguazu Falls and back.

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 3: Frozen Edition – A Bit Of Day 7 and All Of Day 8

December 23 and 24

Where We Heard A Wonderful Concert And Had No Issues With The Elevators At The Melk Abbey

Day 7 Part 2 December23

When we arrived at the concert venue, there was a bit of confusion. Mario told everybody who was taking the elevator up to hit the button with the biggest number. A bunch of us landed on the 4th floor, which was obviously wrong. At some point Mario appeared and apologized – he should have told us floor “2”.

We were still seated in plenty of time. Very nice program – a flute, piano, 3 violins, a bass, and a cello. The first half was Mozart, the second half, mostly Strauss waltzes.

I did manage to get lost after the program – I found a bathroom on the 2nd floor with no problem. It was all the way down the hall on the other side of the building. But when I came out of the bathroom, the hallway I came from was blocked by a closed door. I ended up taking the first elevator I found and exited the building – around the corner from the bus. Eventually Mario found me and the bus pulled around. Always something.

Day 8 December 24 Melk

The morning was scenic sailing until we arrived in Melk at about 11:00. Mario told me that the abbey had reported to him that the elevators were all working!

When we docked in Melk, we were ready to go – it was a 10 minute walk from the ship to the bus parking lot.

When we arrived at the Abbey, the elevator was indeed working – but there was still quite a bit of walking to get to the Abbey entrance. Most of the surface was either small cobblestone, which was not suitable for the transport chair, so I did my best to get myself there.

The Melk Abbey is about 1,000 years old – one of the first abbeys established in Europe. There are 21 monks still living in the abbey.

We were not allowed to take photos inside the abbey museum or the abbey itself. The museum exhibits showed items from baroque to modern times, including an example of a reusable coffin that Franz Joseph I instituted as a cost saving method. I found this photo out on the interwebs:

There was a 16-paneled painting – 8 on one side telling the story of the crucifixion, and the other 8 telling the story of Jesus childhood. Below is a post card of one of the baby-Jesus panels

A postcard image of one of the panels of the 16-paneled painting

At some point we were outside on a terrace, where we could take photos of the view.

The Abbey library is stunning. It’s still an active library. There is one book that is almost 1,000 years old.

The room where Maria Theresa did her entertaining had a trompe l’oeil ceiling that looked differently depending on where in the room you were standing and the angle.

In this postcard photo, if you follow the marble columns up into the ceiling, the painted columns on the ceiling appear foreshortened. When you stand in the middle of the room on the grating, the columns on the ceiling appear much taller

The Abbey’s sanctuary is beyond stunning. Here’s two postcard photos.

One of the side walls with the sarcophagus of Saint Coloman, the patron saint of Melk

Once we were done with the abbey, we retraced our steps back to the bus.

On the way out through the gift shop, I took a photo of this thing that I’ve not been able to identify. Looks like a clock.

We were back in time for lunch, where we were able to watch a lock go by.

We had more scenic sailing for the rest of the afternoon. The sun sets around 3:30 in this part of the world.

Dinner this evening was a celebration of Austria! Which meant: mostly pork. Fortunately, there were alternatives. I had the char (a salmon relative), and Andy had the “taste of Austria” minus the pork sausage.

After dinner, there were assorted Christmas Eve activities. The best part (for me) was Mario showing us his ventriloquist talents!

Our Motley Crew. Doe we look cold? We’re cold.

Tomorrow: Linz

Day 2 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Where We Had Hoped To Go To Burano, But The Weather Had Other Ideas

The marvelous idea of spending the day wandering around Burano was literally drowned out by rain showers alternating with downpours. Somehow the thought of walking around in the pouring rain did not sound attractive at all.

Stefania suggested the Ca’ Presaro International Museum of Modern Art. In theory, a short bus ride away with only ONE bridge. Sounded good! Since we had the time, Andy and I went to their bus stop, because my other favorite European chachke shop, Pylones, was right there at the entrance to the stop. I first saw this store in Avignon in 2023 – somehow managed to not have enough time to shop there.

We had sufficient time for me to find all the items I had hoped to get the last time, without having to pay shipping by ordering online from home.

Our group found us right on time, and we hopped onto the water bus for one stop.

In theory, this museum was almost without spitting distance of where standing. BUT, Venice had other plans in store for us. Off we went following our gps (which works erratically in Venice at best). Toddling along, we come to something that looks like a hole in the wall. The directions said to make a left turn into the hole in the wall. Stefania went first, the rest of us behind her like ducklings. She gets to the end and all she sees is water. Oops. So we all back our way out of the cleft. Then we thought, maybe there was a way to make a right turn? Below is the photo of Tom going down to check. He thinks it’s possible, so we all go back down the cleft. Uh oh, nope, that was wrong. No way to turn left. We back out of the cleft again.

Since this happened yesterday and I didn’t get a chance to write it up, the details of what happened after that are now fuzzy. I do know it involved wandering around, asking a couple very confident sounding people for directions that we tried to follow exactly, but somehow we just kept finding little bridges to climb that took us nowhere.

Such is the magic of Venice – we suddenly found ourselves at the museum! Really not clear how we got there, but it didn’t matter anymore.

It was now late enough for lunch. Of course! We ate in the museum’s cafe. Unlike American museum cafe food which is almost universally horrible, our lunch was great. It’s possible our server might have been a little frustrated with us? But then again, her English was better than our Italian. There was great potential for complete and total miscommunication.

After lunch we finally started seeing the exhibits. The good news is: this museum is only 3 floors. We covered the whole thing in a couple of hours.

Forgot to make note of the artist’s name

I dunno what this was about, but there were elephants involved

This was the view of Venice from the 3rd floor

Before we left the museum, we went back to the cafe to have what was labeled “chocolate gelato”, but there are differing opinions on the accuracy of that statement.

When we exited the museum, we saw a little bridge that looked like it might be the way we SHOULD have arrived earlier. Sure enough, up and over the little bridge, down a cleft, a left turn and we popped out right at the bus stop. Even for those of us taking a little longer on the bridge, it was under 5 minutes.

This is Venice’s charm – getting lost and getting unlost is all a part of the fun!

We hung out a while at the others’ hotel, and then toddled down the street to find a place to have dinner. After dinner, we had to have some REAL gelato at the gelateria in the piazzale. Unbelievably good dark chocolate for me! YUM!.

Even with the rain and the getting lost, it was a marvelous day.

BTW, this is what the entrance to the bus stop looks like. You will notice that there are zero indications that there’s a bus stop down that alleyway. Everybody just knows where it is.

Ciao, Venice, till next time!

Tomorrow: The Ship