We left Paris in the morning to catch the Thalys train - a high speed train- that does the journey from Paris to Amsterdam in about 3 1/2 hours. I think it is about 6 hours by bus. It is a very comfortable way to travel and would definitely recommend it.

We board the boat today, but our cabins are not ready until later in the afternoon so we visited the National Maritime Museum and learnt a little about the history of sailing in The Netherlands.

We boarded the AmaVerde and were escorted to our cabins - ours are located on the bottom deck at the water line. They are not huge but are more than adequate for our needs. That evening we had our welcome cocktail followed by dinner. After our meal a group of eight of us walked into Amsterdam to view some of the sights and ended up in the red light district where 'ladies were showing off their lovely underwear'. Also noticed a lot of unusual smells that did not come from ordinary cigarettes.

It was an early start the next day so off to bed in our floating hotel.