Back into the blogs, but since it is nearly a month ago we won’t remember everything about what we did so bear with us as we try to recall our movements.
Sunday 7 June
We went back to Delft to have another look around. This is such a lovely town. We enjoy going into the touristy shops selling dutch foods and enjoying samples – particularly of the different cheeses, they have delicious gouda. I am sure Scot’s doctor would be shaking her head at all the cheese he is eating and the potential cholesterol increase – but maybe it isn’t doing anything.
We were impressed with the Delft pottery – it is the blue and white pottery made locally, but they send the individual items off to many highly trained painters around the country who paint the strict Delft style on all their different pieces. Because each piece is individually done they aren’t cheap to buy and having a look at very old pieces for sale around the town and in one particular shop the prices were extraordinary. Some were up for sale for over 10,000 euro – although most of these pieces were over a hundred years old. The painters are chosen based on their painting ability and are trained for a considerable amount of time before they are given pottery that is to sell. I had to buy a gorgeous little cat skilfully painted as my souvenir from Holland.
We enjoyed the usual beer in the market place watching the happenings of people around us.
We saw some boots I was particularly keen to check out so decided we needed to come back in on Monday morning before leaving to have a closer look. So on Monday morning we biked back into the town and discovered that virtually nothing opened on a Monday here. Strange, but I guess they open on a Saturday so Sunday/Monday is their weekend off, so the boots were a no go. We did find a couple of charity shops open to have a look around though. On our way out of town I stopped to pat a pussy cat sleeping on an outside window sill. He was very friendly and as I was patting him a gentleman stopped and was looking at me like I was going to steal him or something. He happened to be the owner who was quite ok with me patting his cat and we had a lovely long chat with him before we took off back to the van.
We then drove off to Amsterdam to stay in a camping ground – Gaasperplas – which is on the outskirts of Amsterdam amongst a large recreation area of parkland with a lake, and has a train station very close by. When we arrived there we couldn’t go in as they had had a huge rave there on the weekend and they were still cleaning up and there were trucks still loading hired equipment etc . The rave had 60,000 people at it and 5,000 of them were camping in Gasperplas camping ground. When they did finally let us in we were led to our park. It was the only little piece of clean ground in the whole complex. Behind us was a hedge and on the other side a massive field that was completely covered in litter left behind by the partygoers who had been at the rave. We couldn ‘t believe our eyes. We had to wander through as we were gobsmacked at the sight – and I know the photos don’t really show what it was like. There were tents, blow up beds, food, balloons, thousands of the little balloon gas cylinders that they use to get high, chairs, clothes, drinks, colgate products given out as a promotion and many more things too lengthy to mention. The organisers were really slack in their clean up, instead of using large vacuum machines to pick up the rubbish, they were using blowers to try and blow it all into one place to pick up. The problem with this is that it was windy and rubbish (tents included) was being blown away from the piles and into the waterways and even into our campsite area. I did find a few euro as we were strolling around the ground. Some of the campers were going picking up things to keep. The Frenchies next to us picked up food – yes it was probably ok as there was lots of stuff unopened, but I couldn’t have done it, you never know what has happened to it.
Tuesday 9 June
We bought a 3 day train pass and headed into Amsterdam quite early so if we decided to do any of the touristy things we wouldn’t be caught in the long lines. We found out from information on the inside of the train we caught that there are 177 different nationalities living in Amsterdam and it listed all around the walls which countries, how many people were from that country, the average wage from that country and the population, quite interesting really. We got off the train in Central and started to walk the streets. Holy Shit – what an unbelievable amount of tourists everywhere and it was only 9am, it was so busy, Amsterdam would not survive if anything stopped these people coming, they must bring in a huge amount of income to this city.
We decided to go on a canal cruise first thing in the morning to have a look around and know what there is to see. It was interesting. If you have a look at the width of the buildings, people used to be taxed on how wide their buildings were, so many of them are very narrow – in fact there was one building that was virtually only one door width wide, there is a photo below. So when you see buildings that are very wide, you know whomever built that house must have been very rich indeed. Each building has a goods lift which is a pulley system with hook on the outside of the building as the staircases aren’t’ wide enough to take furniture so they get it through the windows on the front of each building. We watched one lady have her groceries lifted into her apartment via the lift.
We decided that we wouldn’t do the tourist things like museums etc (except the Rijk museum) as they cost a huge amount and how many museums can you see and are all the tourist traps really worth it. So based on that we started walking the different streets just looking at the canals, boats, houses, people etc, very interesting really. We didn’t want to bike around this city as it was insane. With the trams, cars, scooters, bikes, tourists it was bedlam and most tourists didn’t look out for bikes so there were a lot of near misses. We had a vegetarian pita pocket for lunch which was nice except for the olives that had pips in that Scot didn’t realise and he nearly broke a tooth on one. We still aren’t sure whether his tooth is ok or not yet – could have been a very expensive olive! We found that the same shop with the boots I liked in Delft was in Amsterdam so we started trying to find it. We walked for miles trying to find this shop, getting lost multiple times and went around in circles, but stopped at a whole lot of shoe shops on the way having a look at boots. We did eventually find it only to find the boots weren’t right. We did waste a bit much time shopping. We did come across a scene where it looked like there must have been some famous star in town as there were girls screaming and running after someone who had got out of a limousine. When we went to investigate we realised they were just filming something for who knows what – maybe just a commercial or something and it wasn’t really anyone important after all.
We had walked for such a long time that my body was starting to ache, so we decided we would try some of the local legal substances to maybe assist in the pain reduction. I bought a brownie – guaranteed to help with the pain – but I think I was ripped off as there was no pain relief let alone effect at all – that was a buggar. However I wasn’t willing to try the other local pain relief which Scot did and seemed to work quite well for him. There are sanctioned coffee shops which are really just drug dens where you can buy what you like and sit down and drink and smoke as much as you like. This wasn’t our scene so we didn’t hang around in there, but did go into the most famous one in Amsterdam (the bulldog one) which was the first coffee house established there. Not everyone can sell the drugs – they are controlled by the government – but you can smoke virtually anywhere you like. When walking around the streets particularly the red light district you can smell pot everywhere being smoked. There are rooms where you can buy mushrooms and relax for up to 6 hours whilst the effects take place but they don’t recommend this for amateurs. Locals are allowed to grow 3 plants here and can have on them 3 grams legally. But so far outside of Amsterdam we haven’t seen (or smelt) anyone smoking, so it obviously isn’t a big deal for locals.
We saw the flower market area which is where they sell all the tulip bulbs and a lot of fake wooden tulips and other souvenirs. We also went into the nunnery which is a very serene area amongst the crazy city bustle. This place is now a haven for women who need sanctuary. We came across the strangest sight just outside the nunnery. Someone had set up about 6 double beds in the middle of a street roped off. What happened was you paid 5 euro and got into bed and lay down and an actor got in beside you and then read poetry to you with discreet non sexual soothing touches for 5 minutes, like to the face and hands etc. When they finished you got up out of the bed, put your shoes on and left. Supposedly this is art?? We decided to head back to the van early as we had started early and were buggared and could do the red light district etc the next night.
Wednesday 10 June
We went in late in the morning and got off the train a couple of stops before Central station. We decided to walk around an area where the Van Gough and Rijk museums were as it was supposed to be a lovely area and then we would walk into the heart of the city past some other tourist traps from there. We found a cute café – the Amstel café – on a canal boat where we stopped for our normal morning coffee fix, only to find their coffee machine was broken. So we had to have a beer instead. It was a beautiful day so this was very pleasant anyway. We got to the Rijk museum and then decided to have our lunch (home made baguettes again) and then went into the museum. This was the only attraction we visited. We saw some Van Gough paintings here, but I guess the majority of them would have been in the Van Gough museum, so we didn’t see many of them. Personally I didn’t think his painting were that great, but who am I to judge that. However there were some amazing pieces of art to be seen here. Hard to believe that after many centuries the colours are still very vibrant. I felt that after going through the Louvre nothing really compares, but still enjoyed the visit. We left the museum and walked up the canals to find the ‘Anne Frank Huis (house)’ just to see where it was and what it looked like. It was very disappointing from the outside – looked a bit like a factory type of building but at 7pm there were still queues of about 50 people even at this time. I had thought of going in here, but didn’t know what there was really to look at. People we had talked to hadn’t been very impressed and were mostly disappointed so felt that the 20 odd euro was a waste of money. On line others had posted there was really nothing much to see and was a waste of money. Afterwards we went to find the cat sanctuary boat called ‘De Poezenboot’. It was closed but was open the next day. On the other side of the canal you could see the cats wandering around the decking that was enclosed so the cats didn’t fall into the water. We had tired legs so stopped in the market square for a drink. We didn’t think about it, but just sat in a spare seat out front and ordered. We had a beer and a cider which ended up costing us 9 euro each (about $15) which we were horrified about but didn’t think to ask the cost before ordering. You pay for the position and the view and really market squares need to be avoided for having drinks.
We waited until about 9pm and headed into the red light district area. The ladies aren’t in the windows at this time and don’t appear until after 10pm. The windows are really a glass door that they can then open to negotiate with potential customers. The girls apparently pay quite a lot for their spots. Most of the girls looked like they were east European and definitely not Dutch and not always that appealing, especially the 50-60 year olds sitting in the window with their S&M gear on. According to statistics 80% of the windows were show casing men but we didn’t see any so we were unsure where the men were. However one woman was re-arranging her package as we passed so it wasn’t noticeable in the bikini briefs he/she wore. I felt sorry for a lot of them though as there were that many tourists just there to look and not buy and they were getting in the way of the windows so the real punters couldn’t negotiate. Some girls were knocking loudly on their windows to shoo away people stopping in front of their doorways. This area is absolutely buzzing at this time of night and is completely packed. We had a look in a couple of the sex shops which we were quite intrigued to have a look at. Amsterdam seems to be a major attraction for extreme fetishes and gay guys and the sex shops reflected this. I’m no prude but there things in there that were gobsmackingly bizzare and sometimes just downright disgusting. Who knows what people get off on. A lot of the shops had viewing rooms where you sample the product – go figure! There were the obvious sex shows on stage and peep shows for those who so desired.
We sat at the popular Old Sailors Hotel on a busy corner of the canal and had a couple of drinks. We watched the world go by out the front. Scot befriended a young lady whilst I was in the loo – she was from France and she was on her own. It is a hard area to be in on your own so we had a drink and had an interesting chat to her for a while before having to leave for what I thought at the time was the last train back to Gasperplaas at 11.30pm. She had been to NZ and had worked there for a while but hadn’t been able to stay. The great thing about being on holiday is this experience of meeting people from all sorts of places.
Thursday 11 June
We again left late in the morning after a good sleep in and leisurely breakfast – that’s the advantage when it doesn’t get dark until 10.30-11.00 at night. You don’t feel like you need to get up early to take make use of the whole day.
We went to De Poezenboot as a first stop as it was only open for 2 hours. We stopped there and patted the cats for a while and I got my cat fix. Its really cool how it’s on a boat and the cats look out onto the canal. We couldn’t resist buying a t-shirt from there and giving them a donation. The organisation has been going since about the 1970’s when a lady took in a stray cat and then a couple more and it grew from there. It is still growing strong. Our friend Di visited the boat in the 70’s I think and it’s still going strong to this day – supported only by donations.
Afterwards we walked around other parts of the western side of the city where we hadn’t’ been before and eventually found a cute pub on a busy narrow road and had a drink whilst watching the passers-by. We had people from Leiden in the Netherlands sit down next to us and we got chatting as you do. They were there celebrating the mother’s 80th birthday – a lovely family who were very curious about our holiday. Scot impressed them with knowledge of their home town but only because he had seen a painting at the Rijk museum the day before that had the description of a navy boat that had exploded in the docks and had killed 150 people and devastated the surrounding city in about 1850’s. So it does pay to go and see museums and read descriptions of some of the paintings – it just so happened he read the most appropriate one out of the hundreds there were.
We decided to have a nice sit down meal – just of pizza – for a change. I find it strange though that people seem to expect you to order a pizza each when I couldn’t eat that much. Its almost as if they are pissed off that you are only ordering one pizza to share – but I don’t see the sense in wasting food.
We walked around the red light district for the last time. We came across the same double beds that we had encountered on the Tuesday, but this time they had been placed in the middle of the canals and the customers were taken there by boats. It was interesting to watch it taking place. Whilst watching we watched another scene taking place – a very angry older man who was running after someone who looked a bit feral. When he caught up with him he was confronting him about something and his mates were trying to calm him down. He was shaking his umbrella at the fellow. I would say the guy must have ripped him off or scammed him or something as he was really pissed off over something. I had thought they may have got the police involved as they are everywhere. The cops are on horseback, pushbike and on foot, and there are many of them all over patrolling the area.
As we were walking along the canals we encountered a group of guys who were dressed as smurfs. They had blue bodies and faces with white hats and shorts. There were maybe about 20 of them and they were probably on a bucks night out. They were obviously intoxicated and probably stoned and having a ball. The crowd were loving what they saw and encouraging them. A little later we spotted one smurf on his own who was staggering and completely and utterly lost (let’s hope he hadn’t sampled the mushrooms) and did not have any idea where he was. We were on the other side of the canal and I was concerned he might fall into the canal as he staggered to the left then the right then back then forward and didn’t have any idea where he was going. The canals don’t have anything to stop you falling into them and there are few ladders or buoys to get out. We watched him for a bit but thought hopefully someone over that side would help him out if needed.
We were tired after 3 days of walking miles and we had seen enough so we went back to the van. Friday onto Apeldoorn….
