The Big Six-0

It was my birthday on Saturday and I turned 60 years old. In fact it was a birthday fortnight as David is 2 weeks older than me. We had a short break last week by going away on a mini cruise, which was to go to Amsterdam and Zeebrugge from Southampton on the P&O ship Arcadia.

We left on the Saturday (21st) and reached Amsterdam on the Sunday afternoon.  At lunchtime we reached the pair of locks to enter the North Sea Canal from the sea.  We were in the bar above the bridge of the ship

Doesn't look big enough, does it, but there was just a few metres either side of the ship and it was bought into the lock at almost walking pace by a tug, the yellow-y coloured mast that you can see in the lower window.

The canal itself is vast  and it took another 2 hours to reach its berth in Amsterdam city centre. Our balcony cabin faced the canal and it was amazing to see the large barges sailing up and down the canal.

We stayed for the Sunday and Monday and in the evening went for an evening canal cruise. That was pretty amazing seeing the city at night and the next day walked our feet off until our return to ship in the evening.

We were hoping to visit Ghent, while docked in Zeebrugge, but unfortunately due to the terrorist threat in Belgium which closed down the public transport systems, we were unable to dock there and the ship was unable to stay any longer in Amsterdam so a day was spent at sea before returning to Southampton on Wednesday.  In spite of not doing all we wanted to do it was a nice break away.

There were further celebrations with a meal out with children and grandchildren on David's birthday and with my parents, my sister and her family on mine and a lovely time was had by all

It was a lovely time to remember.