Trip abroad - Rhine River Cruise

So, on June 20, my mother and I as part of a group of twenty, flew to Amsterdam. Our first stop was a visit to the Van Gogh Museum which of course was an art teacher's dream. After that, the bus took us to the MS Gerard Schmitter, our home on the Rhine River for the next 5 days. Anyway, I'm going to post a few pictures of our first day abroad.

Yes, not the most flattering photo of me as the sun was in my eyes, but it shows our first glimpse of the famous windmills.

That night I experienced a rather interesting excursion where we took a smaller boat around the canals to see Amsterdam at night. My mother wasn't up for the excursion so I went alone. On board, there were 20 Americans, about 30 French, 20 Scandinavians and a couple from Argentina and one from New Zealand. Well, none of my group elected to go so I found myself among a group of French who spoke little if no English. The guide walked us to the boats and put me on one with the French. The tour was lovely but when we docked, the guide said she had to wait for the boat of Scandinavians before she could walk me back but I was welcome to go with the French.

A small group welcomed me into their midst. So, there was me, the couple from Argentina who only spoke Spanish, and the couple from France. The Frenchman spoke a little English and kept me company while his wife spoke enough Spanish to keep the other couple company, but we struck up a bond of sorts so we always said good morning each day.