I left the UK yesterday and am now in Amsterdam hanging out on the free wifi in the hostel lobby, waiting for check-in time (another hour or so to go).

Originally I was planning on flying to Amsterdam on one of Europe’s various discount airlines, but in the end I decided to take the ferry across the North Sea. The ferry to Amsterdam leaves from Newcastle, so it ended up being very convenient.

View Newcastle to Amsterdam in a larger map

The ship, the M.s. Princess of Norway, set off a little after five last night, and arrived around ten-thirty this morning. Maybe it’s that I had never been on an over night ferry, or maybe after weeks of shared bedrooms and bathrooms in hostels it was the promise of my own room and bathroom. Whatever the reason, I was pretty excited about the ferry.

M.s. Princess of Norway

Granted it does take awhile longer than flying, but the views make it worth it. Also, having your own room, and several decks to wonder around is far more enjoyable than being crammed into a tiny airplane seat. It’s a lot like being in a floating hotel. It even has its own cinema!

I imagine my feelings towards the ferry might have been very different had the seas been rough, but fortunately the seas were pretty calm.

The ship had plenty to do at night; several restaurants and bars in addition to the cinema, but I decided to head up to the deck and take pictures.

The view was absolutely breathtaking; the night sky looks so vast at sea. It was pretty cloudy, so I couldn’t see a lot of stars, but the moon looked amazing. I don’t know why more people weren’t hanging out on the deck after dark, but it was almost empty up there.

Sunset

Moon over the North Sea

Setting off from Newcastle from Katya on Vimeo.