Well Amsterdam was everything it is cracked up to be – well except the nightlife which we more or less failed at. Can’t take the pace these days. Couldn’t seem to escape the “Lad” culture, exacerbated by the European Cup, which dominated most of the bars.
Amsterdam City camp is just across the water from the city centre and accessed by regular free ferries. There is a tunnel under the water but apparently can’t be used by foot traffic and cyclists so they put on all these frees ferries. Very convenient. Rode our bikes to the ferry but didn’t have the courage to use them in the city. Have never seen anything like it. Bikes everywhere. We thought Strasbourg was Bike city- is not a patch on Amsterdam.
For 4 days we walked, bussed and boated for miles, just soaking in the sights. Visited the Van Gogh museum which we found really interesting, following his tortured life with so many of his paintings which he turned out at one a day in one period. Also the national Rijksmuseum and the Moco which had a Banksy/Andy Warhol exhibition. We did a Street Art walking tour in Berlin a couple of years ago. We were a bit sceptical thinking it was just going to glamorise graffiti. But it was very enlightening and we learnt a lot about Banksy and we like his work. Hardly a street artist these days. He is worth many millions. The Rijksmuseum has been upgraded in recent years and was magnificent but very confusing to navigate. We spent hours there viewing Dutch art in a completely distorted chronology. Middle ages to 20th century to 17th century. Had no idea what we were doing. Kept arriving out at the exit and had to reenter the museum. I think we were tired but we weren’t the only ones doing it.
Of course we had to visit the Red Light district and sample the waccy- baccy. The red light district is very tame compared with what Joanna remembers from 40 years ago, however one of us was impressed with the display. As for the waccy-baccy, we have definitely decided that alcohol is our drug of choice. Hard to beat a good wine really – or a cheap one in France! Interesting to see the coffee shops(Marijuana cafes) in action.
Sampled the local fare – well pancakes and Nieuwe Hollandse (raw, new season herrings, with chopped onion.) Can be eaten chopped or just hang it above your head, look up and take bites. David couldn’t get enough of them, and has been able to have them almost every day since. There are seafood street stalls everywhere, with kibberlings of course, smoked eel and other assorted goodies. Our Dutch seafood vocab is developing quite well.
Headed north for a bit of well earned country life after so much energy spent in the Big Smoke. Visited a series of little ex-fishing villages on the Markermeer and Ijsselmeer (what used to be the Zuiderzee until they closed it off, starting in 1920 and turned it into a huge lake!) The changes to the landscape, or seascape in this country are phenomenal. The Afsluitdijk or giant dam was put in nearly 100 years ago, an amazing engineering feat. Similar to the Delta Project that we saw further south, but that one allowed the tides to flow in and out.
Visited a live museum at Enkhuizen. a bit dinky but still very interesting. Everywhere we go we see hundreds of old Baltic traders with magnificent wooden masts and spars and leeboards. David is entranced. We keep seeing more and better ones – so more photos. In fact so many photos he has finally given up. Most are used for tourism these days, but some just seem to be lived on. Our favourite photo of the many boat ones was captured on a hazy sea, in fact we could hardly see it, almost worth framing.
Meanwhile we are busy clocking up the kms on our bikes. Have settled into a couple of camp sites for a couple of days, get the local cycling map and off we go. Love it. Racing along dijks, canals, bouncing over the cobbles, lots of coffee, herrings and Amstel.
The weather has been pretty good to us up until today – apart from the first few days in Calais. We are at Giethoorn – the complete heart of tourist tweeness. Actually it is very pretty and the rain has been a sort of blessing because most of the tourists have kept away. Not us though – braving the elements on our bikes.
It’s nearly time to leave Holland – should call it The Netherlands. We have great memories of water, ships, and cycling with little souvenirs from Delft (plus discovered some of the famous KLM delft houses in a junk shop) and of course herring and other fish from stalls, even cigars for David. Might go north to Groningen, or if the weather doesn’t improve just head east to Hamburg, then up to Denmark. My weather app tells me that the sun is shining in Copenhagen!
