Amsterdam is a city which you have to give time to, to let it get under your skin. It is a different city now from the one Alex remembers 37 years ago – but only in that it has modernised and moved with the times. It is still an open city, forward thinking, with friendly people, a sense of fun and any excuse for a party. You have to lock your bike and keep your wallet hidden of course but generally it doesn’t feel like a threatening place.
The first time Alex and Louise came to Amsterdam was by Jet2 for the day in 1997. It turned out to be the Queen of Holland’s birthday – a national holiday. Everyone wore orange, and we mean everyone! All the trams were off and the whole of Amsterdam was having a street party and a canal party. And, it kept raining.
The second time, in 2004, it was March and freezing cold (5oC) so the whole time was spent hopping from café to café to museum to keep warm and back to the airport for our evening meal!
This time, instead of orange for the Queen’s birthday, it is pink for the Gay Pride weekend. Natural justice for Alex I suppose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Louise) Same sort of thing – street party, canal party, no trams, pink just everywhere, and as it turns out, rain! But what a scene! Hopefully the pics will give some idea.
The all-important library is about 1km from the boat. Apparently it moved a year ago from the far side of town – which was where we looked for it, having found it on our map (a kind present from Sylvia and Michael for Alex’s birthday 4 years ago!) to close to our mooring near the Central Station! Not exactly a wasted journey, as you see so much as you go, on a bike.
This iconic building is eight storeys high with a café on the 7th floor with a fabulous selection of food to choose from and an outside veranda with wonderful views of the harbours. On the other floors are, of course, books and videos, but also computer terminals by the hundred. There are sections for your wi-fi laptop, sections with Mac computers, sections with Microsoft computers, sections with USB ports, sections with dedicated library computers etc etc. All free for anyone, resident or visitor alike – just amazing. What a facility!
But – guess what? After hours of trying we could not get our laptop to connect to the wi-fi (blocked by Windows firewall apparently) so we had to use a USB portal computer on the 5th floor to post our blog. So the blog is finally happily posted, but Jamie will have to wait (for security reasons) to have his birthday present transferred into his bank until we can use our own machine!!
Meanwhile the search for a mooring with water and electricity goes on. If we are not on the move we need electricity and we always need water about once a week. Both of these commodities are as few and far between as the moorings themselves here in Holland! But it does give us a goal.
We took the free ferry to Amsterdam North to a yacht harbour – the Six Haven – to see if it might suit. No! As we watched the plastic yachts backing out of the dog-leg entrance, and saw that inside they were moored three deep, we knew it was not for us. So, back over the Het Ij to the Westderdok, but all here was residential. ‘Home’ for lunch via the Historic Museum Harbourmaster’s office for advice.
The afternoon was spent, in the rain, touring round the exteriors of the various landmarks we had ticked off as essential to visit - No 7 Singel, the narrowest house in Amsterdam, just the width of a front door, Herengracht for the ‘swankiest’ houses, coffee in a café while it poured a couple of churches and The Beginhof – a hidden enclave of wonderful houses, some dating from the 1300s (see pics) reserved for single ladies of the city (no, the other single ladies!). Historically, they were for women who wanted to serve the community but did not want to live as nuns. Nowadays, they are reserved for single women on low incomes. Just unbelievable – an oasis of calm in a city of frenetic activity.
Then for a complete contrast we went through the Red Light District – not much ‘doing’ as a Sunday! Then we still had time to go back via the free ferry to North Amsterdam to sus out the further suggestions of the Harbourmaster. Both turned out to be no good but we did happen upon a most delightful village - -at one of the possible mooring places within North Amsterdam. Photos hardly do justice to a truly lovely area, but here they are. Back to base for 6.30pm. (We don’t half pack it in when we are on song!)
Finally we ventured out on to the Het Ij ourselves in search of the elusive water and electricity. Hours later and having trooped up and down the Het Ij, we eventually we found that we could get both diesel and (free) water at a bunker station. So we did that, and then moored up for a hopefully quiet and free night outside the lock onto the North Hollandsche Canal where we travel next, and the travelling will help to top up the batteries.
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