We arrived in Amsterdam on Monday and it’s been lovely! But this morning we woke up to rain and WIND. Our hotel is in the De Pijp neighbourhood which isn’t central but is close to the Museum district. We had 9:00am tickets for the Rijksmuseum this morning so at 8:00am headed down thinking we would grab a coffee at a cafe before heading over. The wind and rain was INTENSE and we are close enough that there is no transit. We made the very wet walk (about 800m, so not a big deal normally) to the museum and all the cafes around it are closed because of the weather.

So we head over to a cafe that is open but a couple blocks away. We get an amazing coffee and then walk back through the rain to wait for the museum (and our timed tickets) to open. As we are standing in line (thankfully under the amazing covered courtyard) the wind is picking up and the rain is intense. Then everyone’s phones started to sound an emergency alert. The translation came through a couple minutes later as intense weather and that everyone should remain indoors and not call the emergency line unless there is a life threatening situation.

We had a lovely time in the museum, but could hear the wind and driving rain outside almost the whole time. It turns out that it was a very rare summer storm, and the worst one on record. Trees are down all over the city. Cables for the trams are down. All public transit is shut down until at least tomorrow but possibly longer. The airport came to a standstill. Apparently it’s a named storm: Poly. This isn’t something I’m used to growing up in the Midwest!

We managed to find a cab and make our way to the Viking cruise ship where the slightly frazzled crew was extremely lovely and welcoming!

We sail at 11:30 tonight. I expect some folks won’t make it to the boat since there are so many flight delays!

Yikes. Hopefully the rest of your trip isn't quite as eventful. Happy and safe travels for the remainder.

Good story.
Glad that is over and that you have a good place to go.