On May 1 we started our two week cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas leaving from the port in Amsterdam. We took the train from our hotel to Amsterdam Central Station and then trundled our luggage along the quay to the cruise ship terminal. The ship left at 6pm and took most of the evening traveling down a canal and going through locks to reach the open sea.
After supper, we had an early night to bed. Our cabin was comfortable and well laid out.
Day two was a relaxing day at sea. We found comfortable seats in the Solarium on deck 11 where we read our books, only leaving for meals and to visit the facilities.
Today was formal night for dinner. After supper we went to the Captains Welcome Aboard Champaign reception and then an excellent performance by the Barricade Boys, four guys that had all performed in Les Mis and numerous other musicals.
I awoke in the morning to the sounds of the boat docking in Skagen, Denmark.
Skagen is a fishing village filled with neat, yellow houses with red roofs.
It started to rain as soon as we left the ship but that did not deter us from walking through the countryside to a church that was buried in the sand dunes, only the steeple was still above the sand.
We walked back into the village and checked out a few shops. Denmark is quite expensive, a small cup of coffee costs close to $7.00.
We walked to the beach and also looked at an old bascule light, a type of lighthouse, that use to warn boats of the rocky coastline. The sun finally came out.
We checked out a hundred year old Protestant church that had a sea theme.
Lastly, we went to the Museum of Local History (Kystmuseet Skagen) where we saw a rich and a poor fisherman’s house from the mid eighteen hundreds. There was also a windmill and many fisherman displays. Then we returned to the ship to relax.