Sailing in, the skies look a little dark, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the rain will stay away. Today’s excursion is a 20KM bike ride into the countryside of Amsterdam. The meeting point is at the far end of the central district, by the Rijksmuseum and the I Amsterdam statue. (Pictures to come later)
We grabbed a tram right outside the port, paid for our 1 hour ticket, and headed out down the main avenue, Damrak, toward the Museumplein. Smooth as silk – we got to the meeting point with at least an hour to spare – and spent the time wandering around the fountain and courtyard of the Museumplein (a park-like area bordering four or five of the major Amsterdam museums).
As our meeting time approached, we decided to use the facilities before we left so we both went down and paid our 50 Euro cents to use the bathroom. Gorgeous bathrooms! Marble and mirrors, with strange sheer glass doors to the commode stalls. Hmmmmm…when I go into the stall and shut the door, I was looking right through the door to the mirror – not exactly private. Well, when in Amsterdam…..so I lock the door – and the whole glass door turns opaque! Wild! I was like a kid locking and unlocking the thing to watch it go from clear to cloudy! Pretty fun – literally worth the price of admission!
We meet our bike group – and our Joy Ride Tours guide Alexandra – right on time. Joy Ride Tours is a family business – Alexandra’s cousin and wife own the business, and Alexandra works with them. She is from Australia, they are from California and were in the food industry running various restaurants (Hard Rock for example). Now they are running these tours. I’m so impressed with the language skills alone it’s not even funny – I mean I’m having a hard time with Spanish and Italian. Ha! Forget the Scandinavian languages – not a chance!.
So, anyway, off we go to pick up our bikes at the Joy Ride Tours office a few blocks away and start off by riding through Vondelpark, a huge park with loads of lakes, canals, walking paths and riding paths. The day has turned sunny, the air is cool and crisp, and riding through the park is just fabulous! We stop near a statue – by of all people – Pablo Picasso. Just sitting in the middle of a field – completely unprotected – and Alexandra says it’s only been defaced twice in its history – and then only minor things. Nothing too extreme.
Along the way Alexandra explains that biking, of course, is simply a way of life in Amsterdam. There are something like 800,000 people in Amsterdam and 1.1 million bikes. People bike everywhere – and everything is flat, so it’s easy cycling. As a matter of fact, they call the little rise on the canal bridges “Dutch mountains” because they are the only things that aren’t flat in all of Amsterdam!
As we leave the park, we head toward the outer suburbs of Amsterdam and arrive at a little houseboat community. The houseboat phenomena here began as merchants who no longer needed their cargo ships sold them fairly cheaply to the hippie population that was immigrating to Amsterdam in the early 60’s (for all the reasons in which you can imagine the hippies would move to Amsterdam). The hippies then converted the boats into their living quarters and docked them in front of the big mansions in the main part of the city. That led to regulations that limited the number of houseboats, which led to a huge value increase in the boats. When the economy began to boom in the 80’s and 90’s, a housing crisis was also in the making, and the yuppies moving in to Amsterdam for all the finance jobs couldn’t find homes. They started buying the houseboats and renovating them – and they still remain so today, protected by the lock systems found all over Amsterdam to keep the low lying city from flooding.
There are all sorts of different types, the old cargo ships, flat square blocky looking houses, modern all glass front house. And a few communities developed just for the houseboats. Other houseboats communities just sort of develop along the canals. But all are little communities, just floating alongside a pier or a quay. Very characteristically Amsterdam! (pictures to come later!).
After the houseboat community we cycle into the Amsterdam Forest. And just like that, 20 minutes from the city we are in the middle of this is huge preserve of forestland that has all these activities, from rowing to skating (in the winter) to cycling and picnicking. The paths and canals remind us so much of Hilton Head – just a bit chillier. We even saw a Great Blue Heron – incredible! She’s always following us – everywhere we go!
After the forest – we visit Amsterdam’s oldest windmill for a picture stop. Of course we learn all about windmills and how they operate, and how, in order to live in any windmill, you have to take a test to prove you know how to take care of the windmill. Next up is the 400 year old cheese factory where we get a lesson on cheese making and the traditional making of Dutch clogs. They actually hand make the clogs there – from pine wood. Pretty interesting – and the cheese is wonderful. Since we’re sailing back home, we bought a couple kilos for home. Yum….
On our way back into town, we follow the Amstel river (Amsterdam's namesake) and continue into Queen Beatrix park for more history lessons. Here we learn about the city symbols, 3 X’s – which at first stood for the 3 most important things that Amsterdam had to overcome: Fire, flood and disease. After WWII, however, the Queen decided these weren’t very inspirational, so she changed the X’s to represent: Courage, persistence, and kindness/compassion. We also learned the difference between Holland and The Netherlands: Holland is the the name of two major provinces, North Holland and South Holland. Amsterdam is located in South Holland. The rest of the provinces (with names I could never even begin to pronounce) are not named Holland, and thus would be The Netherlands. Aha! Finally! I never understood that!
So – we finally arrive back at the bike shop – unfortunately with little time to spare. The tour was fantastic, and Alexandra was a very friendly and knowledgeable tour guide (how she knows all this and the language after only being in Amsterdam for 2 years – I’ll never know!). The tour was fabulous, but we took an hour longer than normal for some reason – so we’re up against it. We are at the opposite end of the city from the port, and we have less than an hour before all aboard (even though we know we have that extra 1/2 hour of buffer before she sails, but we do not want to be the dopes that come running in last). We are off at a run to catch the tram back to the port –knowing we also have to find an ATM, exchange the few remaining Danish Krones we have left and find a super market. Yikes! After a wrong move (listening to what’s his name and trying to find a closer tram station), we hoof it back to the original tram line and station we knew. So we lost about 5 minutes, and hey, as added excitement, along the way got to watch – well – sort of – more like avert our eyes – some guy who we think was going to jump from the top story window of one of the apartment complexes on the road by the canal. We never did find out if it was a potential jumper or if he was trying avoid a fire in his apartment since what drew our attention was the 2 fire trucks in the street.
On the tram – we pay for our tickets and then calculate the time, the distance and the level of complexity of our tasks (wow – it sounds like Amazing Race, just with different stakes for us!). We take the plunge and hop off the tram at Dam Square – the main square of the city. We know there is everything we need here – so we figure worst case scenario is we’ll be jogging the 2.5 km back to the ship. Hey – it’s either on the street or in the gym, what the heck!
Cashed up and provisioned, we reasoned we had plenty of time to walk back to the ship – so off we went with our backpacks and wallets full and heavy. Actually made it back to the ship in plenty of time to even go to the library and grab a few books for the long sea days coming up. That’s my exercise for the day! But what a great day! Would definitely do that tour again – and highly recommend it. The only downside: This is the 2nd time to Amsterdam and we have still yet to see the darn Red Light District! Darn! Oh well, maybe one day – guess it means we have to come back!
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