Traveling in Europe and Africa – Vandalia Leader

By Rennie Davis

This is an account of Rennie and Joy Davis’ trip to Europe and Africa

Joy, my wife, and I decided to take a trip for our 50th wedding anniversary. We began looking for places we might go several years ago. Several people we had talked with had been on Viking River Cruises and liked them, so we decided to choose that company for our trip. We actually booked the cruises with Viking two years before the sail date because we learned that they sell out quick.

The first was the Grand European Cruise leaving Amsterdam, Netherlands to Budapest, Hungary and the second was Pharaoh’s and Pyramids from Cairo, Egypt to Aswan, Egypt on the Nile River.

Viking was helpful with booking the cruises and all the flights we would need to take for the whole trip.

If you like reading about different travels, then you might enjoy this account of our journey.

Temperatures are listed in Fahrenheit.

We left St. Louis on Oct. 15 on a Southwest flight to Tampa, Fla., for five days. We wanted to go to Florida to check out our house after the hurricane. All was fine with the house and as always we had several things to do while there because had not been there for a while.

We went over our baggage because we were going to be gone for 30-plus days living out of those suitcases. We needed two sets of clothes because we would be in colder weather in Europe on the rivers and another set for Egypt where the weather will be much warmer.

I called our car service on Oct. 20 to pick us up and take us to the airport the next day.

We left Tampa at 12:45 p.m. on Oct. 21on United Airlines to Washington D.C. We arrived at Dulles Airport at 1:15 p.m. and found our next gate. We had a threehour layover and then we left Washington on United Airlines at 6 p.m. for Amsterdam, Netherlands.

With a six-hour flight in front of us, it was good to have first class seats that could be made into beds in a semi-private cubical. There was plenty to eat and drink.

We arrived in Amsterdam at 7:15 a.m. Tuesday Oct. 22. We worked our way through immigration and got our passports stamped for the Netherlands. We were met at the airport by Viking representatives, and we waited for another couple to join us for the 45-minute van ride to the port to board the ship.

The Netherlands is about half the size of Indiana and is home to about 17.4 million people. The language is Dutch, and the currency is the Euro. Few countries have so much land below sea level. About half the country consists of reclaimed land and an extensive range of sea walls and coastal dunes protect the land from the sea while levees and dikes along the rivers protect against flooding.

Also, few countries are as flat as the Netherlands. Our ship was a Viking long boat especially made for the European rivers and the many locks they have to pass through. It’s 443 feet long and 38 feet wide.

We boarded our ship, the Viking Gegon, about 9:30 a.m. It was named for the Norse Goddess of the Plow.

Gegon is credited with the creation of the Danish Island of Zealand. When the ruler of Sweden offers her all the land she and four oxen can plow in a day and a night, she transforms her four sons into beasts of burden. Together, they uproot a swathe of earth from the mainland and deposit it into the sea creating Zealand. This act of might earns Gegon respect among the gods.

The day we boarded our ship it was cloudy and 61 degrees. Our cabin was not ready so we went to the lounge to wait. While waiting, they said lunch was ready and we went to the dining room to check the fare.

Sandwiches, soup, pasta, salads and desserts on a buffet line with water, soft drinks, beer, red and white wine. One of our fellow passengers at the table next to us said they were from Missouri, west of St. Louis. She didn’t say what town west of St. Louis, so I couldn’t stand it. I asked her where they were from. Wellsville, she said. I couldn’t believe they were from Wellsville, and neither could they believe to see people who lived just 15 miles away in the U.S. all the way over in Amsterdam.. It’s a small world!

We finally got into our room about 1:30 p.m. and started to get unpacked and settle in. We also had to sit through our mandatory safety briefing after the 185 passengers were on board. The bar opened at 5 p.m. with live music and a welcome briefing at 6:15 p.m. by our program director, Tessa Jansen and the executive chef, Marc, who told us of the special entre for the evening meal which would take place at 7 p.m.

The ship departed Amsterdam at 11:45 p.m. for Kinderdijk.

Wednesday, Oct.23— We got up early because breakfast was served from 6 – 9 a.m. Breakfast could be ordered off the menu or you could eat from the buffet. Menu items included French toast, eggs Benedict, and different flavors of pancakes. The buffet had eggs too. There were many pastries and about anything you could think of for breakfast and some things you wouldn’t think of!! The ship docked at Kinderdijk at 7:30 a.m. It was cloudy, and 61 degrees for the high. The day started off so foggy that we couldn’t see the windmills just a mile away. There were several shore excursions from the ship. At 8:15 a.m. was “Kinderdijk by Vintage Barge.” Also, at 8:15 a.m. was the “Kinderdijk Windmills by E-bicycle.” At 8:20 a.m. there was “Kinderdijk Windmills” and at 8:30 a.m. there was “Kinderdijk Windmills and Dutch Cheese Making.”

We took the Kinderdijk Windmills tour. Our guide was quite knowledgeable about the windmills. As we walked, we saw lots of bicycles everywhere.

We were told to watch out for them because they have the right of way in the Netherlands and Germany. We set out to walk to the windmills.

Our tour guide told us of the history of the windmills. Each member of the tour had a “whisper” listening device.

Each state room had a charger with two Whispers. This listening device let our guide talk naturally and we can hear through our earpiece up to 100 yards away. They worked well, and we used them the entire journey.

Kinderdijk means “children’s dike” and is located where the Lek and Noord rivers meet. It is a village community in the Alblasserwaard province. This corner of South Holland, part of the scenic Wal and Merwede regions, has long been shaped by Rhine Delta waters. The Dutch countryside would be unthinkable without its liberal sprinkling of windmills that once played a vital role in pumping dry vast amounts of marshland.

The undisputed windmill capital of Holland is the small village of Kinderdijk just a few miles south of Roterdam. Kinderdijk is most known for its 19 remarkably preserved 18th century windmills, all of which are still in good working order. The town is located along low-lying polders, tracts of land reclaimed from the sea by the power of the windmills and enclosed by embankments or dikes.

The dike protecting Kinderdijk was one of the few to withstand the notorious St. Elizabeth Flood of 1421, which that caused terrible loss of life in South Holland.

According to legend, the town got its name from an incident during