On 27th April Susan and I set off on the first part of our 11 day cruise on the Canals and Rhine commencing 28th. We had to make our way to Ashford International and one of the Ashford hotels where we would make a connection with the bus. The hotel we selected or rather I selected was the Ashford Holiday Inn on the A20 at Ashford. No complaints about the hotel, in fact it was a good hotel to stay, clean, cheerful and value for money.
At 09:15 on Friday 28th we boarded the coach which would take us via Euro Tunnel to Amsterdam and our ship the MS Arlene. Excitement mounted in both of us as we headed to Folkstone and the 10:20 Euro-train – what fun 
. A quick 30 minutes Journey from the hotel and we were soon at Folkstone and boarding our Euro-train. On arriving at the embarkation point we were advised to change our watches to advance 1 hour – blast I was going to loose 2 hours this year – well until I returned from this trip. Central Europe time is one hour in advance of UK time.
Calais France – Arrival, straight out of train onto the Autobahn system heading north with a 7 hour trip to Amsterdam. I do not like long coach trips as Susan found out as she is now the proud processor of a series of pictures of Walter going through France, Belgium and Netherlands – dozing away . After 2 comfort stops and a lunch stop we finally arrived at the Port of Amsterdam and said a temporary farewell to the bus and embarked on our floating hotel for the next three nights the MS Arlene.
After a meet and greet coffee and welcome drink we made our way to out cabins to have a little rest before diner at 7:30 pm. So here we were at Amsterdam and what does one do there – thats right we made our way to the town and all the tourist sites.
