European River Cruise

We are in Amsterdam and it is our first night on the boat (Viking River Cruise). We are in bed and asleep by 10 pm.  It has been a long day of travel and we are exhausted. The boat is to disembark at 11 pm.  Around 11:30 I wake up.  No movement detected and I conclude the sailing time must have been delayed. Opening the curtain I am amazed that the world is silently passing by our window. There is not a hint of movement on the boat, just smooth, soft, quiet sailing. We are gliding through the Netherlands with windmills as our morning destination.

 Jan and I are both awake well before sunrise, coffees in hand, camera around my neck. We have a deck off our room so we can hang out there and watch the morning come alive. Here is one of the morning scenes on the river. This image was taken well before sunrise.

Each morning, a little before sunrise,  the mist would begin to form on the river, making for some very nice photo opportunities. Those passengers who sleep in have no idea of the beauty they are missing as these scenes only last a few minutes at most. Here is an image the sunshine began to cast its splendor on a misty Rhine.

This is our first day on the river and we are on our way to see the windmills in the Netherlands.  It was our first day of seeing the countryside and churches.  It all looked so clean and pristine.  I do not recall seeing one piece of trash in the Rhine the whole time we were sailing on it.  Here is a typical view:

And then finally, about mid morning we reach the area where we get to explore the windmills.

I normally take pictures with my Canon 5D Mk III camera. But for this trip, because we were going to be walking a lot, I brought along my much lighter Sony NEX 6. Considering these images (except for the windmills) were taken from a moving platform I thought the Sony did a decent job.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy my post about The East Side of the Sierras