Leftovers of the 2018 Tulip Tour

Travelling in Europe is quite different than travelling in Canada. For us a trip just to Vancouver can take 5 hours. In Europe, you can see five different countries in 5 hours.  We can attest to this as we traveled from Austria, through Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Germany and into France in one day. Okay, okay, Lichtenstein is really a country, check it out. So when planning a trip to Europe, you really cannot just visit one country. On this trip we added Denmark and a revisit to Sweden.

Leaving the barge our last morning  in Amsterdam, we needed a wasserette or laundromat in English. So with a little internet research, we were off to the Aquarette Self-Serve Laundry near the train station. Following the  instructions, we spent $5 euros more than we needed to because we (I) did not read them clearly or in one case assumed that the instructions were wrong and I knew better.  It is my opinion (Nonie's may differ) that the instructions were purposely nebulous so that you would make mistakes resulting in having to plug the machines with extra Euros.

With fresh clothes and some time on are hands, we headed back to the train station to store our luggage and grab a train to the little village of Muiderslot and a visit to their cute little two bedroom/den castle. Once again, we ended up paying $10 Euros more to store our bags because of more nebulous instructions designed to screw over unwary tourists. (My opinion, Nonie's may vary)

Muiden Castle is cute little place. It has been around since the 13th century and was used to enforce tolls on traders traveling up and down the rive Amstel.  It is only 32 x 35 metres with 1.5 metres thick walls and what every castle needs, a moat.

As time moved on, it became a summer house for the rich and famous then a prison before falling into neglect till the late 19th century when money was found to restore it.

As much as I love a good castle, it was time to head to the airport and a short 1.5 hour flight to Copenhagen.  Copenhagen can appear at first glance to be the little sister to Amsterdam.

It has canals filled with tourists, but just a few.

Windmills, but just a few.

And of course, tulips, but just few.

But, Copenhagen is not just the little sister to Amsterdam, It has its own character and quirky history.  One that we found interesting was the beautiful Church of St. Alban's.  Copenhagen was home to a sizable British community starting in the 16th Century. As the city grew in importance so did the British congregation. In 1864, the Prince of Wales, coughed up some bucks. Perhaps it was his Danish consort Princess Alexandra who convinced him with consecration of the church happening in 1882.  The church was inhabited by two lovely, little, old  English ladies who gladly took our money.

Another more famous attraction is Tivoli Gardens, the worlds first amusement park. It has operated since 1843 but is most famously known by North Americans as the template for Walt Disney's design of Disneyland. It has a snow capped mountain.

Amusement rides.

A pirate ship

And it is populated by cute little cartoon characters. 





Can you say Disneyland?

But the most iconic image of Copenhagen was born from a story penned by Hans Christian Andersen in 1836, turned into a statue in 1913, became a cartoon in 1989 and traveled to Shanghai in 2010. I am talking about the statue, the Little Mermaid, the most photographed image in all of Denmark.

Although, close up, it doesn't have quite the same impact. Perhaps it was the seagull poop.













Sadly only one full day in Copenhagen, but we packed in a lot and  were pleased I added it on to our trip. Nonie wishes to note that the she did not once smell cannabis during our time in Copenhagen so gives it here thumbs up as well. Off to Sweden next.

The Bloomin Blooms Weren't Blooming, Part 2

As previously mentioned, weather in the Netherlands had been a little on the cool side prior to and after our arrival. So our first barge day dawned cool and damp and +8 C.  Our room was located in the hold of the barge with a nice big porthole. It was a little freaky to see the canal water lapping up that close to that big pane of glass. Nonie likes to sleep with a window open, no matter what the weather. Not going to happen here.

Thankfully the Magnifique II was well fit out for a warm and comfortable nights sleep, that is as long as the windows don't leak. We had sailed from downtown Amsterdam, the night before to the town of Zaandam where we moored on a small side canal.   As it happened the moorage site was about three blocks from the hotel where we had just spent the last four nights.

I must admit, I was a bit skeptical about the quality of the barge, despite seeing the pictures and reading all the brochures about how nice everything was, especially the evening meals.

Well, my skepticism was ill placed as the pictures did not lie, the Magnifique II was to be a great home for the next four days.

But I digress. Let me repeat, the first morning dawned cloudy, misty and definitely looked like rain. For two weeks before we left, I had been religiously checking the long term forecast for Amsterdam so no surprises for us as we came prepared for cool and wet. It was + 6 C when we started and managed to get to a high of +12 C for the day. 

Today's trip was to be a distance of 30 K with a visit to Zaanshe Schans. Zaanshe Schans is a living museum populated with old, well preserved windmills, traditional houses and warehouses.

The rain started shortly after we started the ride, so we arrive a little wet.  Not the most comfortable ride, but we have had worse. Several years ago we biked Saltspring Island and it rained so hard, we had 4 inches of water in our supposed waterproof panniers plus several other orifices that are normally dry.

All the windmills at Zaanshe Schans are working windmills. One is used to pump water from the village into the canal, one crushes pigments for paint, several mills make oils from various seeds and the one we visited is an operating sawmill. There is a waiting list for wood produced here. Today they were milling replacement lattice that would be used in the vanes of a windmill.

The rain continued and now a pretty good headwind had come up so the "Slow Group" (speed not intelligence)  unanimously opted to return to the ship in Zaandam and barge to the next stop. We were greeted with bowls of hot, homemade pumpkin soup and an early glass of complimentary wine in the lounge. The "Fast Group" (speed not intelligence?) opted to do the full ride 

No sign of those blooming tulip fields yet.

It was 2 1/2 hour cruise to our new moorage in the city of  Haarlem. Along the way we experienced our first of many locks that protect the Netherlands from disappearing into the ocean. The "Fast Group" (speed not intelligence?) arrived soon after we docked.   No soup for them.

Harlem, a 1,000 year old city is a 15 minute high speed train ride from Amsterdam with many people commuting into Amsterdam to work.  Our moorage was about a 15 minute walk from the old center of Haarlem and across from the 120 year old  Droste Cacao factory.  There is an illustration of a nurse in the sign and she is known as La Belle Chocolatiere (The Pretty Chocolate Girl) which is the name of Droste's famous chocolate pastel.  It is meant to illustrate the health benefits believed to be endowed by drinking cacao.






The weather had improved shortly after arriving in Haarlem, so we opted for a walk into the Old Town

Our goal was to visit the "Grote Kart" (Old Church),  a 5 century old Gothic church that towers over Haarlem.

The church is home to a very ornate Muller organ, built in 1738 and  played by both Handel and Mozart.  It is over 30
metres high with 25 larger than life-sized statues.

Pretty impressive church for a city with a population of only 160,000.  It is operated more as a museum now, than a church. They were preparing for an organ recital the next day. Would have loved to here that organ fire up.

Day three dawned sunnier but still cold.  +5 C to start our ride today so gloves and layers were in order.  We are off on a 30 K ride to the Keukenhof Gardens, home to over 7,000,000 flower bulbs that are planted each year and hopefully some blooming tulip fields along the way.

By coffee break, things were heating up but the only blossoms to be seen were on the table.

Still no tulip fields but we did find a field of blossoming daffodils just behind our coffee stop. Perhaps things were opening up.

Perhaps not. Lots of bare tulip fields that were just being planted.

Success. Well, not exactly to the magnitude that we had had been hoping for. But to be fair to the tulips, it was  +12 C so only the red tulips were brave enough to show their heads.

We were putting all our blooms into one basket now, so Keukenhof had better deliver. Alas, that was not to be. Some blooms were blooming but lots of blooms were still waiting to bloom. Still, it was a bloomin impressive place that sees over 1.4 million visitors that visit during the 6-8 weeks that the gardens are open.










There are over 3,000 registered varieties of tulip and many of them were on display in the huge greenhouses found in Keukenhof. Most were blooming but even here in this climate controlled environment, some tulips were playing hard to get. The colours are incredible. To bad they only bloom for such a short time.






Time to head home.  The sun continued to shine but as the day warmed up, we were introduced to what is known as the "Dutch Mountains", headwinds that were able to stop you in your tracks. It was going to be a slog to get back to the barge.

Our hard work was rewarded with a beautiful field of colourful hyacinths.

Day five, dawned sunny, warmer with anticipated temperatures in the double digits for our 45 K ride into Amsterdam and our last night on the barge.  The morning started with a  lovely 2 hour barge ride to a moorage site that would bring us a little closer to Amsterdam before starting our bike.

A last chance to travel through  one of the thousands of locks making canal travel possible through out most of the Netherlands.

While the weather was improving, the head winds were not. Great for the windmills but not so much for us cyclists.

The trip into Amsterdam was exciting, with a few lost moments along the way as our guide had not done this leg of the trip before. It included an unplanned ferry ride across another canal.

Just about every road way in Amsterdam has a bike lane but despite that it did not seem seem to make me feel any safer.

Our last dinner on the barge was a culinary masterpiece. Unlike the big cruise ships, you don't get a choice of four main courses and 5 desserts, you get one choice so it had better be good. And it was.  A great finish to a great trip. 

The 2018 Tulip Tour- The Blooming, Blooms Weren't Blooming

Put a check mark into Nonie's bucket list with a last minute decision to head to Amsterdam and take in a  spring "bike and barge tulip tour". The tour has you sleeping on a barge and each morning you start the day with breakfast, pack a lunch and head out on a bike, later finding your barge at a new location where a delicious dinner and some cold ones await you.  Pretty sweet.

The tour starts in Amsterdam, a city we had not yet visited so we arrived four days early to suck up some of the sounds and smells (snicker, snicker) of the city.

Amsterdam is a very walk-able city with the added advantage of an excellent public transportation system if you get tuckered out.

Amsterdam attracts over 18,000,000 tourists every year and we arrived on a very busy Easter long weekend so hotel rooms in Amsterdam were very pricey. We opted to stay in Zaandam, a two stop, 15 minute train ride outside the city to keep costs down. We stayed in the central business area with some interesting architecture.

Up early on day one, with our jet lag under control, we headed into Amsterdam, our first goal to find the barge which according to my map was only a 15 minute walk from the train station.  Forgot the map, so using only memory muscle, I got us completely lost but we did have an interesting first look at Amsterdam.

  Over a very tiny and expensive cup of coffee, on the upper deck of the NEMO  science museum that has a magnificent view overlooking central Amsterdam and using their free Wifi, I tracked down the barge location. We walked straight to it in the 15 minutes I had originally calculated.

Prior to leaving Canada, we had purchased Amsterdam Holland Passes which we needed to register and book the different attractions that we wanted to see. It was here that we came to realize what 18,000,000 visitors can mean. Entrance to the Van Gogh museum was booked up for the next two weeks, the Anne Frank Huis for the next week and the Rembrandt Huis museum for 5 days.  Thank goodness the Heineken Experience was available the next day and the Red Light District tour available two days later or our passes would have been a bust.

So over the next few days we woke up early, hopped on the train and became very intimate with Amsterdam.  Despite not being able to see some of the sights, there were many others that made up for it.  The Rijksmuseum was  impressive and busy.

Those Dutch masters liked to paint big.

There was also a small section dedicated to Van Gogh which made up for missing his museum. One of his famous self portraits was on display. He still had his ear in this one. 

Despite having timed tickets, we spent a few wasted hours standing in line to enjoy the Heineken Experience.  Everything you wanted or didn't need to know about the history of Heineken beer. The tour was mostly self guided but if you stuck it out to the end, you could self guide yourself into two glasses of cold Heineken as a reward.


 Frankly, I am not a big fan of Heineken, I find it thin and without taste, so drank one and gave the other away to a guy who looked like he would appreciate it. Probably an American.

We visited a diamond museum, actually a diamond sales shop disguised as a museum. We did get to see and talk to a diamond cutter as he created facets on a small 1/4 carat diamond available for only $999. We visited a cheese museum which was actually a cheese sales shop disguised as a museum. We did get to sample over 40 different styles and flavours of Dutch cheeses, though after a the first 10 samples, they all started to taste the same.

For me, though not so much for Nonie, were the hours we spent exploring the sights and second hand smells (snicker, snicker) of the  "Old Side"of Amsterdam. You need only leave the station, make your way through 1000's of bicycles, cross the busy bike lane (pedestrian death trap) and you are there or just simply follow your nose.

While I enjoyed the sounds and especially the second hand smells of  Old Town Amsterdam, Nonie did not appreciate them at all. Second hand smoke in any form is an anathema to her. Coffee to go. (snicker,
snicker)

If you have been living under a rock since the 70's you may not know that possession of a small amount of cannabis (5 gr.) is tolerated in the Netherlands but it is not legal. It is called "gedoogbeleid" in Dutch. This means if you are found holding more than 5 gr. you will be charged but anything less will be ignored unless, your are acting like an a-hole, then you could find yourself in some hot water. The rules are changing and legalization may not be far away.

Some parts of Old Side, date back to the 13th Century. You can spot these old houses as they have a decided lean to them, or perhaps it was the Heineken talking or the second hand smells getting too me.

Which brings us to the difference between a "coffee shop" and a "cafe". You cannot buy coffee at a coffee shop, you can however buy small amounts of cannabis and consume it on the premises or take it home for your personal use. While the sale of cannabis is illegal, coffee shops fall under the policy of "gedoogbeleid" and are tolerated as long as they do not have more than 500 gr. on site. If you desire a coffee, then head to a "cafe" for cup, all be it served in tiny cups with large prices and any second hand smoke is most likely tobacco.


And herein lies Nonie's problem with the Old Side. People do not wait till the get home, but light up pretty well anywhere they choose so the smell of cannabis is everywhere, but it was most prevalent in the Old Side.  Again, if you are not being an idiot, it is tolerated. Note to self, cannabis containing products sold in souvenir shops do not contain the good stuff. 8 brownies and not a buzz.

As we wandered the Old Side, we often saw signage or flags with the symbol XXX on them. This symbol is  the official coat of arms for Amsterdam and not the pornographic symbol. Despite that , the  Old Side is home to the Red Light District and living up to its reputation, you can find sex paraphernalia shops on every block packed with the latest in designer prophylactics and toys. Makes for some interesting window shopping.

The Red Light District is also home to most of the legal prostitution in Amsterdam. Again, if you have been living under your bed since the 1830's you may not know that prostitution has been legal in the Netherlands since then. However, you were legally unable to make a profit from it. This was done to keep people from exploiting women, sadly unsuccessfully.

In 1980 the law was changed to allow profit taking and in 1988 prostitution was recognized as a legal profession. In 2000, a new law clearly made prostitution legal and prostitutes are now called independent contractors,  declare their income,  have health care and pay taxes and fees.  Pimps, need not apply.

A tour of the Red Light is best taken at night and with a guide. Without a guide, you will miss many of the nuances of what goes on there. About an hour before our tour was to start, black clouds and gusty winds rolled in. About 10 minutes into the start of the tour, a light drizzle which turned into a torrential downpour for much of the tour leaving us completely soaked. The tour ended at the Prostitution Museum which was really a sex shop disguised as a museum.

The Red Light District is famous for its windows that are used by the independent contractors to display their wares. Clients are welcome to peruse the merchandise and if interested, make eye contact with the independent contractor. They next meet each other at the entrance and negotiate fees and services before the client enters. During our 90 minute tour we observed a number of  client/contractor meetings with most ending in successful negotiations. The windows all have a red lights and if lit, the window is open for business. A new twist to the red light is the blue light which indicates the independent contractor is not a woman.




It was a busy three days to pack in all that Amsterdam had to offer and we still left a lot on the table or in the window.

Tomorrow we board the barge.