2024 Christmas Markets Rhine River Cruise - Day 0 - Amsterdam

6, 7 and 8 December 2025

We arrived in Amsterdam, Holland a day before our scheduled cruise departure. We'll be hopping from city to city along the Rhine River, mostly hitting towns in Germany, and learning about the towns and checking out the Christmas Markets in each.

We stayed at the Double Tree Hilton Hotel which is about a 10 minute walk from the pier where we’ll meet our boat, the Scenic Opal. The Hotel was very nice and centrally located for seeing Amsterdam.

It was quite stormy on the day of our arrival with high winds and rain. When we were departing from our flight, one of the attendants said over 100 flights into Amsterdam had been cancelled due to the weather. We were lucky to have made it in! Our landing was a little bumpy but our pilot handled the high winds well.

Scenic Cruise Line had a van arranged for us from the airport to our Hotel. The Double Tree is close to the main train station in Amsterdam, and a short walk from the old town.

Our flight arrived at about 7:00 in the morning, but our room wouldn’t be ready until the afternoon. Although kind of tired, we checked our bags with the concierge and wandered out into town to find some breakfast And see some sights while we awaited the availability of our room.

We found a quaint, tiny restaurant with total seating for less than 15 people. The staff were pleasant and my pancakes and Galina’s a croissant with jam were delicious.

We put the Rembrandt House Museum https://www.rembrandthuis.nl/en/ into Google Maps and made the 15 minute walk to that.

As with any new locale, the walking through a new place was half the adventure.

Amsterdam has a mix of new and modern and centuries old architecture. There was a lot of development and construction on our route.

Though not run down, we noted the Dutch don‘t Seem a fastidious as their German neighbors. There was a fair bit of trash on the streets in some areas And quite a bit of graffiti. It somehow didn‘t feel trashy, just notable.

The architecture of the old town with regal, obviously old, but impeccably maintained structures like the Rathaus, kept the walk interesting.

The Rembrandthuis Museum is a restored house partially covered by a modern facade, forming kind of a cocoon to protect the older structure.

We stepped in and paid our admission fee, received our tickets, then headed downstairs where we were asked to put our bags and jackets into free lockers before getting our automated tour devices.

The tour devices were like mini-iPads with headphones. They had descriptions of the rooms, the art work in the rooms, the artifacts and how they were used, and juicy tidbits about the residents.

Had we gone through every audio visual queue, we would probably have spent about 4hours there. We did about two hours worth and headed out.

Here are a few highlights we learned about Rembrandt:

• Rembrandt was a skilled artist who could have made an excellent living had he managed his money wisely.
• He did not manage his money well, and after some ups and downs, he died destitute at 63.
• It seems he had a rather abrasive personality with few friends.
• He made much of the paint used in his paintings right in his own house from raw materials.
• He had quite a collection of skeletons, stuffed animals, sculptures, and paintings. It was an exquisite and varied collection but was also one source of his financial woes.
• After his wife died, he had a dalliance with his house keeper. When she demanded to be more than his housekeeper, Rembrandt had her locked up in a place akin to debtors prison.
• He found a new house keeper, had relations with her, and did end up marrying her, and they had children together.
• His home displayed exquisite paintings by himself, his mentors, and his students.
• Along with his paintings, Rembrandt is also renowned for his etchings. Etchings ale akin to lithographs, with the work being etched onto metal plates which were ink d and used to create many copies of the etching onto paper.
• Rembrandts house was quite large with five floors. His space was almost completely dedicated to displaying and creating art.

Rembrandt had several studios where he painted throughout the house. One is captured below.

Galina likes to check out department stores in different countries and cities, so after Rembrandt House, we stopped briefly at De Bijenkorf (the bee hive in English) Department store. It was a place Galina had heard of and wanted to check out.

We bought a few Christmas ornaments at the top floor Christmas shop and a sheet and pillow case set. By then, lack of sleep was really hitting us, and we were walking around like zombies, so we headed to our hotel to see if our room was ready.

Thankfully, the room was prepared so we were able to shower and clean up, then catch a quick nap before our Light Festival boat tour.

This is the 13th year of the Light Festival. Each year, works of art involving light are placed mostly throughout Amsterdam's canal system, although a few are on land. Gluhwine, hot chocolate, wine, and beer were included in the ticket fare. I had some hot chocolate and Galina opted for Gluhwine.

As with any tour, the tour guide makes it or breaks it, and ours was very entertaining. He was a Law Student from Italy. He and the skipper played off each other and had good synergy. The Light Festival isn't something I'd personally book a trip to see, but if you find yourself in Amsterdam while it's going on, it's certainly worth the ticket price.

We had a bite to eat at the hotel restaurant, then got some much needed rest.