My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

houseboats and barges. We loved to see the flower market with
tulips, the universal symbol of the country, that come in rainbow of
colors. We had a wonderful dinner on a Chinese restaurant
houseboat. The next morning we visited the Mint Tower, the Royal
palaces and other important sites. In the evening we walked all
over the canals to explored Amsterdam’s night life, which is
beyond words! We saw real women inside the store windows, not
mannequins. I had been there before, so I was not surprised, but
the rest of the group where shocked by such a spectacle!
We then continued our bus tour to Cologne in Germany, to see its
famous Cathedral. Then via Bonn to the Rhine Valley where we
embarked on a Rhine cruise. It was breathtaking, seeing so many
vineyards and medieval castles, arriving in Manheim, where we
disembarked and spent the night. The next morning we continued
our adventure and viewed the red sandstone Castle, then on to the
fairytale Black Forest, where cuckoo clocks were invented. We
then entered Switzerland and arrived in the picturesque city of
Lucerne, where we spent two nights. We visited the Chapel
Bridge, the Poignant Lion Monument and the entire city, where we
found a Portuguese restaurant, where everybody spoke Portuguese.
I felt that I was in Lisbon! The next morning, we continued on to
the Swiss border with France. We passed through the Burgundy
countryside, where we stopped to admire the famous French
vineyards at Savigny-Les-Baune and continued on to Paris. We
had all been in Paris before, so we only spent one night there.
Iceland
The next morning we flew to Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland that
I had visited before. For my wife and the Furtado couple, it was
their first time. This was during the month of November and the
temperature was very cold. Sunrise was at 10 o’clock in the
morning and sunset was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Since we
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