​We woke to another gloomy day still in port.  I could already feel a chill in the air.  We met for breakfast and then headed off ship back to Centraal Station for a morning of shopping.  Lunch was served buffet style at 12:30 and while we ate the ship set sail for Cologne, Germany with no fanfare at all.  If we hadn’t looked up from our lunch, we would never have known the ship was moving at all.  It was a very smooth launch.

​After lunch I went to the cabin to work on the blog.  In the middle of everything, my laptop decided it needed to update.  This took about 2 hours so I missed the Welcome to the Netherlands presentation that the others of our group attended.  While babysitting my laptop, the ship went through the first of 14 locks that we will be going through on this trip.  It was interesting watching this process from our cabin and on the television that showed a view from a camera on the front of the ship. Evie and Linda K. had this experience while up on the Sun Deck, when Evie went to join in the Bocce game fun.  Bocce, for want of a description is a type of lawn bowling.  We met our group in the Main Lounge for cocktail hour.  Linda C. was telling me what I missed during the talk.  She discovered why Amsterdam is said to be in Holland when actually it is a city in the Netherlands.  “Between 1588 and 1795, the area currently representing the Netherlands was the Republic of Seven United Netherlands. The republic was conquered by French troops in 1795 and became the Batavian Republic. Napoleon appointed his brother Louis as king in 1806, turning the country into a kingdom. The Netherlands remained a kingdom after Napoleon’s defeat. At that time, the area called “Holland” made the biggest contribution to the entire nation’s economy and wealth.” (http://tiny.cc/hnes9y) The East India Trading company felt the name ‘Republic of Seven United Netherlands was too long to sign so they just put Holland.  Today Netherlands is made up of 12 provinces.  

​The Port talk with Optional Tour Explanation took place before dinner.  One thing Maarten warned us about was buying beer in Germany.  The deal is that you buy a glass. When that is finished they will come and pour you another glass. This process is continued until you put your coaster over the glass signaling you are finished and wish to pay.  Be careful as you will be charged for each glass poured.   Once the Port Talk with Optional Tour Explanation was completed, we headed down to dinner.  On the way back to the cabin, after dinner, Mom and I stopped to talk to Maarten so that we could figure out the time schedule for Tuesday. Mom had arranged for us to meet with Markus, a family friend, in Cologne.  Nico, the activities director, was standing behind us at the door to the main lounge.  We started talking and he asked if we would be attending the Quiz Challenge Show, the evening’s entertainment with dancing afterwards.  I told him the problem was that I didn’t have a dance partner.  He said he would dance with me.  Mom and I went back to the room until the games began.  A little later, Mom joined the others in the lounge while I put the finishing touches on Monday’s blog.  Linda K. had a seat saved for me which I slipped into just as Nico was explaining how the game would be played.  He asked for two volunteers, one from each side of the room to be the spokesperson for their team.  Linda K. volunteered me.  I was given a pink pig squeaky toy and the other woman was given a squeaky Santa.  A question would show on the screen. If someone knew the answer, they were to raise their hand and the spokesperson would squeak the toy and then give the answer.  The team would earn 20 points for a correct answer and minus 20 points for a wrong answer.  The other team could try and steal the points when a wrong answer was given.  This could go back and forth until all answers were exhausted or a correct answer was given.  Some of the categories were: Name the Icon, Name the Famous Caricature, Name That Song, Who Were They Before They Were Famous.  I ran around all over the lounge collecting answers for our group.  The last category was; What is This Dance.  Not only did you have to name the dance but also show how to do it.  We nailed this category.  On the two that I had to dance and the one that Linda was asked to demonstrate, we made Nico dance with us.  He was very good at dancing salsa.  I was awarded a bottle of wine for being the spokesperson of our group.  Nico then put on music for dancing; disco, salsa, and cha cha; the Latin dances.  I got him on the floor for two more dances.  Then we all headed for bed.