Canal Cruise

Michael and I always try to do things the "local" way. We don't generally take taxis, we prefer the metro; we don't go to the ticket window, we try to use the ticket kiosks; and we don't ask for directions, we like to use our maps.

Today, however, we've needed to do two of the three. We don't speak Dutch, but when I heard "Berlin" over the train PA system I knew something was wrong. As the kind passenger on the train told us, "All of the trains have been renumbered and reassigned so even the train employees are getting confused" it made sense why we had gotten onto the wrong train (despite the ticket lady's direction).

I really thought we were going to have to go all the way to Berlin before the train stopped, but after 30 minutes we stopped and Michael and I were able to get off and follow the passenger's hand drawn guide back to where we wanted to go. How sweet was he!!

We told him that we wanted to take a canal cruise around the city. He told us how to get back and I felt confident that I understood everything, but right before we got off the train he handed me all we needed to navigate back.

The canal cruise was pretty awesome! It winds through a few of the canals and highlights important spots along the way. You can choose from various cruise lengths and destinations, so we choose the one-hour cruise.

Like normal, I was eager to hear and see everything, but poor Michael couldn't keep his eyes open as the boat rocked him to sleep on the smooth water under the warm sun. A few nudges from me and big bonk on the head from another boat and he was awake. Yes, he really did get hit in the head. I don't know what our driver was doing but he turned off the power after he made a turn and we kept slowly gliding toward boats docked on the side. I thought surely he was going to rev up and avoid hitting them, but NOPE, he just knocked right into a little one and then slid along it to another big boat. That boat was also taller than us so as we slid by it the side hit Michael in the head! It wasn't anything worse than a shock for him, thank goodness!

We spent the rest of our free time, wandering around the canals before we went back to the airport to check in for our flight.

I'm excited to see what other adventures I stumble upon!