This morning, Viking Eistla is docked alongside sister longship, Viking Eir, in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Dordrecht is the oldest city in Holland and was once the center of commerce and industry during the Golden Age. We have visited Holland many times, but this is our first visit to Dordrecht.

Today, we are joining the Viking included excursion. a walking tour of Historic Dordrecht.

It is cloudy and cold when we disembark Viking Eistla. We have to walk through sister ship Viking Eir, which is docked next to Eistla, to get to shore. Once ashore, guests from both ships gather with their respective tour groups.

*Guests gather next to the boat for excursions*

Viking divides walking tours into groups of 12 to 25 guests. Local tour guides carry red signs indicating the group number. Our group today is 26E. Each guest has complimentary use of Quiet Vox audio receivers allowing everyone to hear the tour guide’s narration, even if you get separated from the group.

We walk along the canals of Dordrecht and soon arrive at the old city gate. In the past, in order to be considered a city, you had to have walls and a city gate. Dordrecht was granted city rights in 1220 and their gate is impressive.

We walk along more canals and arrive at the Damiate drawbridge, which we cross on foot so we can walk along the other side of the canal. Our guide provided some interesting history about this double iron drawbridge which was built in 1855. Luckily, he waited until we were all across the bridge to tell us about its partial collapse two weeks after construction was completed.

We stopped to admire a Dordrecht landmark: the House with Red Shutters. Early in cities’ history, people were taxed based on the number of windows their house had. The owners of this house found a way around the taxes. Originally, there was no glass in the windows, only shutters which could be opened and closed as necessary. No windows with glass equals no taxes.

We get to step inside the largest church in Dordrecht, Grote Kerk (Church of Our Lady), built between 1284-1470. This church has some beautiful stained-glass windows and also the heaviest bells of any church in Europe. The Church of Our Lady also provided us with a brief shelter from the cold, blowing rain outside.

Our next stop on the tour was Dordrecht’s City Hall with its adjacent statue of the De Witt brothers, both of whom were prominent political figures instrumental in the growth and success of Dordrecht in the seventeenth century.

Our guide led us down local streets decorated for the holidays. We were surprised that more stores were not open since we were visiting on a Saturday. At the end of our walk, we say goodbye to our guide to explore on our own, after which we walked back to our ship. The weather did not cooperate today, but Dordrecht was well worth the visit.

Once back on Viking Eistla, we have lunch at Aquavit Terrace. Rickee ordered a Cuban sandwich and I wanted to try the cheeseburger. Both were good.

This evening, we enjoyed a Christmas Tree Decorating party in the Lounge. Guests were invited to gather ornaments at the bar and add their own flair to the ornaments before placing them on the bare Christmas tree. It was great fun as Ivan played Christmas music on the piano.

After the tree decorating, Program Director, Emma, entertained us with her reading of the Christmas poem, “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”.

It was a great day aboard Viking Eistla and everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit. Tomorrow, we will be docked in Cologne, Germany, where we will visit our first Christmas Markets.

Day 2 - Dordrecht, The Netherlands

Day 3 - Cologne, Germany

Day 1 - Embarkation in Amsterdam