June 23  Today is a day of doing our own thing and 4 of us decided to take a City Tour on an air conditioned bus. We had to be fortified by a beer first.

 They have been having a heat wave here with 90+ temps and high humidity.  Not much fun for those of us who melt in the heat,  Marc and his family came to the hotel again and hung out until our "get acquainted" meeting was over.  Tomorrow starts the portion of the trip that is organized by Vacations by Rail.  No more hauling our suitcases on and off the trains.  Jack and Dianne are happy!!

June 22.  Another train day but at least we could take our time getting to the train since we didn't pull out until about 10:30 AM.  We also did not have to change trains and went from Hamburg to Zurich on the same train.  We arrived in Zurich and it cost us 48 euros to get from the station to our hotel.

Marc and his family came down to the Hotel and we went to dinner close by.  It was good to see him, Livia, Jonah and Levi.  Levi is 7 mos old and quite inquisitive.  Jonah is becoming more independent and refers to the English language as "Harriet's Language".  I didn't know I had one all my own.
These pics are on my phone and I haven't figured out how to get them off so will have to add them at a later time.

June 21

Day 2 of the museum.  We had a "Behind the scenes" tour that was very interesting.  Again, I lasted until the end of the tour and I'm sure Dave & Angel are still there.

They have scenes from all over the world and are working on adding more.  If you are ever in Hamburg be sure and see this Museum

June 20    

Today is day one of seeing the Miniature Train Museum.  It is a fascinating display of miniature trains.  It even has a airport where the planes take off and land.  There are sections for various countries and, of course, a large display of Hamburg. 

By the time I was ready to venture down to  the next floor Dave & Angel were still in the first display.  I hope they will get thru it in 2 days.  Dianne decided to take another tour and relax since here back was bothering her from her disaster on the 18th.  Jack, Pam and I stopped for a light lunch and then came back to the hotel.  I decided this was a good time to catch up on the blog.

June 19

Today is a free day so everyone could do what they want and we all found ourselves on the Hop On Hop Off bus to tour the city and then we did a boat ride to see it from the water.  Dave and Angel went on their own but we kept running into them at various places.












 After lunch at the Rock Bottom Cafe we went back to our hotel to recoup.  It was quite hot and humid and I was feeling like I had been put thru a ringer.

 Dianne and I joined Dave & Angel when they went for dinner but all we had was Apple Strudel.

June 18

Back on the rail system for our next leg of adventure from Amsterdam to Hamburg.  We have discovered that the signs in the station that tell you where to stand for the 1st class train are not always correct.  In fact, I have decided to stand in the middle so I only have to run down half the train to find our car instead of from one end to the other.  The trains give anywhere from 2 - 5 minutes to get on and a group of senior citizens running for the train might be quite humorous - for some.

Dianne slipped between the cracks (literally) helping Angel with getting her luggage on the train and ended up on the tracks.  Fortunately all she got was a few scrapes.  European train travel is not for sissies.

Dave, get on the train!!!

 

 Checked into the Ameron Hotel Specherstadt which is close to the Miniature Train Museum.  We found a lovely Beer Garden for dinner.

June 17

We hung around the hotel until Dave and Angel, who had been on a river boat trip from Basel to Amsterdam with Connie & George, met up with us.  We then proceeded to the Hop On Hop Off for a tour of the city.

Ann Frank House - it was too crowded so we didn't go in.

 After lunch we went on a canal tour to see Amsterdam from the water.

In the evening Dave, Angel and I took a walk down some of the side streets and found some very interesting souvenir stores and Pot Dens.  I think we had the opportunity to see the future Denver and I think I can live without it.