I never did finish the stories of our weekend dash to The Netherlands or our time in Paris. So here goes. We decided after the Van Gogh museum to do the old favourite - a boat trip on the canals. In fact I never did one of the those when I was in Amsterdam previously and if Richard did one before, it was as a boy. So we duly embarked on one of those glass-roofed flat boats that you see in all the promotions of Amsterdam and set off for an hour on the water.
At every turn there is something new and picturesque to see and the cityscape is as lovely and historic as ever. The scale is small and personal wherever you go - you feel a bit like you are in Lilliput but it's a positive, embracing feeling. The elegance of the gables seems out of sorts with the view - perhaps mistaken - of the Dutch as a nation of hardy, upright, Spartan, frugal citizens.
Then again perhaps that's exactly it - that all the creativity and playfulness comes out in the expression of self via the public, impersonal face.
When you get out to open water and look back at Central Station, the Science Centre NEMO designed by Renzo Piano who delights in disturbing the city skyline, makes a giant green assault on the senses, berthed like an ocean liner at dock. One day, when my niece is living in Amsterdam we will visit the inside.
Other highlights of the tour were the various locks and mechanical bridges which are a necessity in a city of canals and while not as picturesque as Venice's are much more technically interesting.
After our boat ride while taking the direct route back to Central Station - really - we found ourselves in the red light district which we should have guessed we were approaching when we kept on bumping into groups of rowdy Englishmen out on the razzle. I understand it has been recognised that this canal-side walk is in fact one of the gems of Amsterdam and a cleanup will take place. But I have no hard evidence of this.
In the late afternoon we bade my niece and her friend a fond farewell, leaving them to visit the "coffee shops" and other seamy delights of Amsterdam and travelled by train to visit our friends Trix and Chris in Aerdenhout, which is near Haarlem.
We spent a wet and windblown day around and about Aerdenhout and a small number of rises in the landscape towards the coast only serve to emphasize just how flat the land is. The beach rather suprised me - I didn't really expect to find surf that looked suitable for surfing. Mind you, you'd want to be dedicated in those temperatures. The town of Haarlem is historic and delightful with a large town square that on a bleak winter's day drives you into one of the historic old cafes to sit sipping hot chocolate and observing the cathedral and mediaeval buildings from the toasty warmness of inside. It's clearly a merchant's city of old. We saw several of the historic women's residences now turned into trendy housing for those who can afford inner city living in low-rise around a pretty courtyard. Walking the streets is walking history.
Still, the overall impression until the sun comes out is a soft greyness, which is perhaps why the Dutch became a nation of tulip growers. The dazzling patchwork of tulips fields are a necessary brilliant counterpoint to living constantly with shades of grey. The strange thing is when I look at the pictures of the canal trip there's a lot of colour so I am not quite sure why I think of The Netherlands as grey.
We left from Amsterdam station on the overnight train to Zurich. Our second class sleepers were cramped (couldn't sit in them with the beds down) but the service was excellent and the beds perfectly comfortable and after dinner we amazed ourselves by sleeping all night until we reached the outskirts of Basel in the morning. Definitely a way to go.
We are looking forward to returning to Amsterdam for tourism and good times with friends and family.
At every turn there is something new and picturesque to see and the cityscape is as lovely and historic as ever. The scale is small and personal wherever you go - you feel a bit like you are in Lilliput but it's a positive, embracing feeling. The elegance of the gables seems out of sorts with the view - perhaps mistaken - of the Dutch as a nation of hardy, upright, Spartan, frugal citizens.
Then again perhaps that's exactly it - that all the creativity and playfulness comes out in the expression of self via the public, impersonal face.
When you get out to open water and look back at Central Station, the Science Centre NEMO designed by Renzo Piano who delights in disturbing the city skyline, makes a giant green assault on the senses, berthed like an ocean liner at dock. One day, when my niece is living in Amsterdam we will visit the inside.Other highlights of the tour were the various locks and mechanical bridges which are a necessity in a city of canals and while not as picturesque as Venice's are much more technically interesting.
After our boat ride while taking the direct route back to Central Station - really - we found ourselves in the red light district which we should have guessed we were approaching when we kept on bumping into groups of rowdy Englishmen out on the razzle. I understand it has been recognised that this canal-side walk is in fact one of the gems of Amsterdam and a cleanup will take place. But I have no hard evidence of this.
In the late afternoon we bade my niece and her friend a fond farewell, leaving them to visit the "coffee shops" and other seamy delights of Amsterdam and travelled by train to visit our friends Trix and Chris in Aerdenhout, which is near Haarlem.
We spent a wet and windblown day around and about Aerdenhout and a small number of rises in the landscape towards the coast only serve to emphasize just how flat the land is. The beach rather suprised me - I didn't really expect to find surf that looked suitable for surfing. Mind you, you'd want to be dedicated in those temperatures. The town of Haarlem is historic and delightful with a large town square that on a bleak winter's day drives you into one of the historic old cafes to sit sipping hot chocolate and observing the cathedral and mediaeval buildings from the toasty warmness of inside. It's clearly a merchant's city of old. We saw several of the historic women's residences now turned into trendy housing for those who can afford inner city living in low-rise around a pretty courtyard. Walking the streets is walking history.Still, the overall impression until the sun comes out is a soft greyness, which is perhaps why the Dutch became a nation of tulip growers. The dazzling patchwork of tulips fields are a necessary brilliant counterpoint to living constantly with shades of grey. The strange thing is when I look at the pictures of the canal trip there's a lot of colour so I am not quite sure why I think of The Netherlands as grey.
We left from Amsterdam station on the overnight train to Zurich. Our second class sleepers were cramped (couldn't sit in them with the beds down) but the service was excellent and the beds perfectly comfortable and after dinner we amazed ourselves by sleeping all night until we reached the outskirts of Basel in the morning. Definitely a way to go.
We are looking forward to returning to Amsterdam for tourism and good times with friends and family.
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