Another morning, another missed breakfast. Good thing they have options at the bistro! I skipped the bubble waffle this morning and instead went for iced coffee. It’s listed as Viennese Eiskaffee on the menu. Yes, you can have ice cream for breakfast! This iced coffee floats between a layer of vanilla ice cream and fluffy whipped cream and is hugged by a generous amount of liquid chocolate. First world problems, it’s a little hard to drink. The ice cubes protect the ice cream from being eaten and the whipped cream is piled so high that you can’t tip the glass without being pied. Don’t worry. I persevered.
We’re docked in Nijmegen which is a very cute town in the Netherlands. Brian has already scoped it out with his morning run and now we explore together by bicycle. The ship offers both electric and regular bicycles. There are only two left and we borrow them. The ship also provides helmets which you may think, of course, but most of the locals here don’t wear them. I typically like to blend in with the locals, but I make an exception to my rule for the helmet. There are many unwritten rules between the cyclists and cars and the helmet provides an easy way to tell drivers that we’re not from here and may do something unexpected. I get the impression that cyclists pretty much always cross intersections and cars stop for them. I’m sure there are exceptions for this so I stop when there is a car. This action seems to irritate locals, but I’m not getting hit by a car today!
We meander to wherever the path takes us while minimizing crossing intersections. Brian tells me I’m breaking his rule of not getting lost by turning every which way. ‘Find the river. Find our boat.’ is my mantra today. We make a circle around a residential area and then boomerang back toward the boat. We then cut into town and master local cycling. We cycle up a shopping district with pedestrians everywhere. I master maneuvering around them and balancing with practically no movement when there isn’t a gap. We didn’t dismount in this section and I call that success. We turn down a tiny alley that heads back towards the river. Here we do have to dismount because there are stairs. Stairs in the Netherlands have special rails on the sides to mount your bicycles. The bicycles can then glide down the stairs easier. We do this and then can ride again back to the ship.
We arrive to the dining room at 1:35pm to find that lunch closes at 1:30pm. Luckily, they let us grab a plate of what’s still available. Apparently our eating schedule isn’t aligned with the ship. They do make adjustments though and tomorrow we have an extra 30 minutes to grab breakfast.
We had a choice of three tours today and we signed up for the castle tour! We take an hour bus ride through the country to the lovely Heeswijk Castle. There are local guides waiting for us and our group is split into several smaller groups. It’s a cool castle and we’re allowed to take pictures inside!
Dinner tonight is filled with amazing options again. I have the duck confit, potato soup, coconut vegetable bowl, and cheesecake. These are all the common names, but the menu lists them in a very fancy way. I found out this evening that there is a page of the menu that I’ve never seen. Apparently, there is a page of items that are available every night such as steak and salmon.
Comments