Amsterdam

Sunday 3 August

Moved to Amsterdam today. A bit over 2 hrs of driving.

On the way two bridges over canals were up so we had to stop. Interestingly our fellow (local) motorists got out of their cars to have a look at each time. We did too and ambled across the motorway (between stopped cars).

The second bridge was very large and quite high with views over the dyke and the fresh water sea behind the main dyke many kms to the north. There were wind turbines along the dyke and as we left the bridge the motorway descended down behind the dyke and below sea level. Apparently 27% of Holland is below sea level, 60% of the people live there and Holland has an average height of 36 metres!

Guess what, about 60km out of Amsterdam it started raining again! Without GPS directions these trips with changes between motorways and rain drops would be quite difficult.

Our camp site is slightly elevated and behind the dyke to the west of Amsterdam. Not sure if we are below sea level and it is blowing a gale (22km) straight off the North Sea about 500 metres away. Dinner in the van for the first time since we left the UK (I think).

Monday 4 August

Much activity today. Arranged, booked and got the tickets for our train from Helsinki to St Petersburg for the Volga cruise. Clearly there are too many old people touring as Rob and I (who just qualify for senior’s discounts) were told that the 30% discount was no longer available!! Bummer.

Off to Kinderdijk to see the wind mills. There were 16 of them in the same state as they were built in 1738. They are kept in working order and are habitable!! They pump water from the polder (low areas reclaimed for farming) and pump it up to river height. Diesel powered screw pumps do the job today pushing 1,500 cubic metres of water a minute but the old wind mills are on standby and capable of use. One is operated for visitors and it does push a very significant amount of water. You can go through the mill and see the accommodation areas and the working wooden machinery. The wind was still very strong and the mill ‘blades’ were really moving.

Lunch at Kinderdijk was followed by a putz to Rotterdam and the Haag. We drove through a very new Rotterdam with very modern and unique buildings. Modern Dutch architecture is very interesting and quite dramatic. Not far from our camp site there is a statue of a seated man about 7-8 stories heigh, nothing special in this normally but this guy was half in and halk out of a glass walled building. Most impressive.

Afternoon coffee at Den Haag (the Hague) and a walk around where a mixture of old and new building created a modern skyline over more traditional Dutch buildings bout 300 yrs old.

A good day followed by a crock pot tea that had been cooking all day.

The ambiance at the campsite lacked a little savoir fair and even though the skies were there was a very strong wind. We erected a wind break and set up the tables behind it and had a great meal. Spaghetti bolognaise, red/white wine and good conversation. The wind was cool and while we were OK behind our screen others were not and this led to degradation in the cultural level of the conversation. We found ourselves talking about headlights, not the automotive kind, and tried to work out if the specific local conditions created high or low beam. You are probably thinking this was what the boys were talking about but let me assure you the conversation was pretty equal amongst the 4 of us. Did I mention the Spag Bol was great, nothing like a bolognaise that has been cooking all day.

Tuesday 5 August

A busy day.

First it was an early start to the Flower Market, breakfast at 7.00am!

An amazing place. The self guided public tour covers only one ‘shed’ and that was impressive. The Alsmeer Flower Market has a turn over of 6 million euros a day and about 1,500 million euros aech year. It really does influence world prices. 1,900 people work there driving electric trolleys to push / pull long trains of carts stacked with 2 to 3 levels of flowers, ride push bikes, push flower trolleys and keep an eye on what must be an extensive computer system.

The auction system enables transactions sometimes 3 per second. It is a Dutch Auction system with a count down clock that is stopped by bidder members who have an extremely quick and accurate button finger. All flower lots are entered into the computer the day before and the humans just stop the bidding clock and runs trains and push carts according to what the computer says to break down the growers lots into individual ‘punnets’ to make an order for each buyer. The computer does the hard thinking and the workers get fit and have fun pushing trains and carts.

Voldendam was next. It is a little fishing village north of Amsterdam. It is a tourist trap with coffee shops, souvenir stores and food stalls all along the waterfront. Outside these areas it is still quaint. Lunch today was tourist rolls and cakes. Woops we let our standard drop momentarily. I had a herring roll, very nice.

Edam, a little further north was much better. Few tourists and it was a pleasure to walk around the quiet streets along the canals.

A little further north to Hoorn. A bustling town with proper shops (selling boots, clothes etc.). Tourists and locals mixed and as with most Dutch towns there were hundreds of bicycles and motor scooters. The bike tracks in Holland parallel the roads, often on both sides and whenever you make a turn when driving you have to watch 2 lanes of bikes and one road of cars all of them with 2 way traffic. How we have not hit or been hit by a bicycle when driving or walking is simply amazing. We have had lots of close calls and only been saved by 4 pairs of eyes.

Last event for the day was a drive to the middle of the dyke just a few more kms north. The dyke is 30km long and was built by 5,500 men between 1927 and 1932. It now has a 4 lane motorway (2 in each direction), with a speed limit of 120km/hr. As you will have guessed there is a separate 2 lane bicycle track on the land side as well. On either side of the dyke there is nothing but water for 10s of kms and the cyclists must hope for a tail wind.

Wednesday 6 August

Went by park and ride to Amsterdam, our car and a Dutch tram. That cost a princely 6 euros for all of us. We wandered around for a bit, taking in the sights and having a morning coffee in the centre of town. We were disappointed that the que for Ann Frank’s was a couple of blocks too long for us.

We got tickets for a hop on hop off canal boat and toured the city. In between we walked the red light district (not all of it) and had lunch by a canal.

The Dutch resistance museum was very interesting particularly after our conversation with the sales man at Harlingen. The Dutch were initially not treated too badly by the Germans in WWII and even some things improved. Dutch people even went to Germany to further their careers. After the Germans started to round up the Jews the Dutch generally were outraged and went on strike. Trains and trams stopped and workers left the factories. Many factory owners went out with the workers and when asked by the Germans to report those on strike they stated that everyone was at work. The Germans reacted and you know the story. I found it most interesting that the Dutch were unified to action by the Communist Party who promoted the strike.

The stories of the resistance activities were as gripping as those in Hungary (Budapest), Chez Republic (Prauge) and Berlin. In Holland young resistance members cycled regularly on message runs over 60kms per day!

With our walk around town and the canal boat we saw most of downtown Amsterdam. We all thought it was a bit ‘grubby’ and disappointing. There was a lot of construction near the station for the metro and this did not help our attitudes walking over construction areas and going around construction barriers.

Thursday 7 August

Rained all day. We caught up on our itinerary and brought forward the channel ferry to 10 August, so off to Calais tomorrow.

The Ws went on errands for the group going to the supermarket, post office, Vodafone and got bread rolls for lunch.

The Es went to a leather shop and bought 2 very nice new jackets, one each.

Friday 8 August

Moved to a campsite between Dunkirk and Calais. This was one of the few times we actually did some ‘Australian‘ miles. Nearly 350kms and 4 ½ hours. It rained as you are now expecting. Very heavy rain at times which with trucks on both lanes either side of us with their copious amount of spray made it very interesting. We arrived safely and found the intended site completely full despite being told on the phone that we would be OK. Stopped at a less salubrious site about 7km away.

Saturday 9 August

Went to Calais and sorted out our tickets for the ferry. Generally had a quiet day but managed to buy some wine, whiskey and pate to take back to England.