100 New Longships | European Holiday and River Cruising Memoirs

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100 New Longships, Amsterdam, Amsterdam Maritime Museum, Amsterdam Pancake Boat, Europe, Keukenhof, Longship, Nemo, Viking River Cruise

Anticipation elevates the excitement of the journey to another level.

Kidazzleink, 2013

Floral Arrangement Keukenhof

With last opportunities for sightseeing in Amsterdam swiftly drawing to a close, our restlessness was once again building. We’d been so looking forward to this wonderfully luxurious 15 day Viking River Cruise. We’d originally booked it so many, many months ago…some twelve months or more in fact; an absolute eternity ago. Ah but finally the big day was drawing near. We would soon be sailing off down the Rhine. Less than 24 hours to go now. We couldn’t wait!

Macro of Tulip Keukenhof

We would soon be boarding our practically brand new Viking Longship called “Tor”. And it had only just been christened in Amsterdam one short month ago. Indeed, Viking had evidently broken all records on March 20, 2013 when they’d christened a total of 10 brand new Longships on the same day. This was reported to be on the back of them having also christened an incredible 8 Longships the previous year in 2012. I believe they’re now striving to break their own record yet again in 2014, when they hope to christen a further 14 Longships.

The world is obviously hooked on cruising…or so it would appear. Only having to unpack the once as you travel luxuriously through the meandering waterways and in and out of so many different countries certainly adds to the appeal for us.

Viking makes no secret of the fact that they are hoping to introduce a total of 100 new Longships by 2020. They evidently have more and more people seeking to cruise through Europe than ever before.

As a lead up to this exciting Holiday (my very first holiday in Europe), dearly beloved and I had already been surfing, bookmarking and watching many of the Viking promotional videos as well as the Longship christening ceremonies of 2012 and 2013. Isn’t the internet such a wonderful medium (when its working properly that is!) It makes it just so easy to get all the information you could ever possibly want within the comfort of your own home. (I’ve actually included some of the Viking promotional video links here for anyone who, like myself, would like to pursue a little armchair travelling.)

More Tulips Keukenhof

I often try to include links to interesting videos, Wikipedia Information and many other major tourist destination websites in my blogs. I do this especially for those of you who might enjoy the comfort of the armchair travel scene. I myself often love to travel to the other side of the globe and back without having to even leave my street let alone the country.

Anyway for today’s blog I’m simply posting the very last of my favourite photos from our sightseeing in and around Amsterdam and the beautiful Keukenhof Garden. I hope you like some of them as well! I’d really love to hear which ones happen to appeal to you the most and perhaps why. Drop me a line …… let me know.