June 8-9, 2017 Overnight stay in Amsterdam on the Celebrity Eclipse

 

Today we docked in Amsterdam for an overnight stay. This was one of the two overnights on this cruise. 

We have visited Amsterdam before so we decided to take a tour of the Delft China factory.

Weather was rainy  so we dressed appropriately.

Since this was a day long tour we started early by boarding the coach at 7:40 am. 

Amsterdam is city ringed by canals and very bicycle friendly.

Our first stop was at the city of rijnland where we got out to take photos in front of the windmill.

https://qr.rijnlandsemolenstichting.nl/pdf/our-mills.pdf

The city  and countryside was very scenic and pretty as you can see from the photos.

We arrived at the Delft factory at 10 am for a tour and visit. We were able to see the process of creating the beautiful china. I think most of their pieces are hand made and hand painted.

Some of the items that were on display were very interesting.

Of course they have a gift shop and since we have never purchased Delft items before we could not determine if the prices at the factory were lower than at the stores at home. n We did buy a bud vase for a souvenir.

It was a very interesting experience.

Next stop was a coffee break and shopping experience in town. We had about 30 minutes to explore the town. I chose to have a coffee before we got on the bus to go to lunch.

The large wooden shoes are everywhere in Holland.

We had lunch at the De Schaapskooi   (the sheepfold ) restaurant. The tables were all  set for our group and we were seated immediately.  

The lunch included traditional food and dessert and coffee or tea. Excellent meal and great service. If I lived in Delft I would eat here again.

https://www.schaapskooi.nl/

After lunch we boarded the coach for the trip back to the ship. On the way we drove by the Hague for just a drive by - no stop.  

The excursion was very nice in spite of the rainy weather. When we stayed in Amsterdam years before we wanted to go to the factory but we did not have the time or means.

June 9-

We planned to use the second day in Amsterdam as a free day to go out on our own but we did not plan on rain. Since we had spent time in Amsterdam before we disembarked from the ship and wandered around the cruise terminal looking at the shops and then we left the terminal to walk around the neighborhood.

We boarded the ship at lunchtime and had lunch. The ship sailed at 2pm so we really did not have a full day here but the time we had was enough.