Follow our journey on this map.

Day 5 was a our last in Amsterdam. What a wonderful city! This is only the second city that we said we could see ourselves living in. The other is Vancouver. We walked a little before heading out to the port to leave on the first of two 11-day voyages. This one is to Iceland.

We boarded effortlessly and went from the hotel to our stateroom in under an hour. We continue to sail on the Azamara cruise line. It's a small format luxury brand with only 4 ships in the fleet. Each is outfitted exactly the same as the others because the concept is after you have sailed once, embarking on a new cruise makes you feel "at home." This is the 3rd ship we've been on and it truly was like we were back at home--we knew exactly where to go for everything.

It's a little confusing to our body clocks to have it become light before 5 AM and for it to still be bright after 10PM but we're loving it. Our understanding is that when we get to Iceland it will be about 22 hours of light a day.

There are only a few photos below. A gratuitous shot of a cheese shop and a view of a picturesque windmill (but not the kind I was expecting). The rest are some random shots around the ship including the al fresco dining area/bar on the stern of the ship where we have lunch daily.

I didn't realize that there were locks in the channel leading from Amsterdam to the North Sea. As we were having dinner, a huge cargo ship came up right behind us.

And of course there's always a food shot; this one is my dinner entree which was calamari, shrimp, mussels and scallops in a delicate red sauce with some seasoned rice.