Having put my route into Sygic satnav we left the ferry port. It was very busy as our arrival coincided with morning rush hour. The roads were excellent – very smooth. We had a little moment where we got a bit lost (satnavs fault obviously!) but soon we were on our way to Amsterdam via the motorway. The country side was fairly flat with plenty of windmills – mainly of the new turbine variety with a few traditional old windmills spotted here and there.
After approx 1hr 45 mins we arrived at Camping Amsterdam Gaasper. The staff were very friendly, welcoming and spoke excellent English. We were shown to our grass pitch. The pitches are decent sized, arranged in little avenues. The toilet block was basic but clean. If you want to shower or have hot water to wash, then you need to buy tokens 80C for 5 mins. There is a small shop on site with all the essentials. it also has fresh bakery goods each morning. There is a restaurant here as well. This site is very handy as there is a metro station a 5 minute walk away. The reception sells travel cards which allow you to hop on and off the metro and the trams in Amsterdam for 24 or 48 hours. You can also buy museum tickets and canal trips. We opted to buy a 48 hour travel pass and a 1 hour canal tour.
Armed with our tickets we set off for the metro station. The metro is clean, fast, efficient and regular and within 10- 15 mins we arrived in Centraal Station, Amsterdam.
The canal cruise departure point was over the road from the station so we hopped onto our boat. The tour commentary was in many languages and pointed out all the places of interest as we passed them. it was a good way to get an overview of the city and its history. The old, tall, narrow houses were lovely with most having their original architectural features and decorated gables. Lots of
them still had their hooks for lifting bulky items. Apparently the narrow, windy stairs inside mean that the hooks are still utilised today when moving house.Some of the houses are a little slanted and leaning as the water has damaged the pilings. We passed beautiful churches and the largest floating Chinese restaurant. Some of the bridges that we went under had very little head room left as the boat squeezed through! There were also lots of houseboats on the canal ranging from traditional barge types to the very modern types as featured on Grand Design type shows. Although we had seen plenty of people pedalling about on their bikes it was amazing to see how many thousands of them were parked, locked to railings everywhere up and down the canals. The canal tour passed Anne Frank’s house. We had heard horror stories about horrendous queues to get in but from the canal tour the queue didn’t look too bad so we decided that we would go there next. We joined the queue at 3pm and only queued for one hour.
The Anne Frank house is a very moving experience. It is very well laid out and you flow through the house almost in queue formation and this gives everyone the chance to see everything as you pass.
After the museum we caught a tram back to Centraal Station and returned back to the campsite via the Metro.
That night we ate at the restaurant on site run by an English lady and her partner who also run the shop. Very nice meal and good portions. If it had been warmer there was a very nice terrace area outside if you prefer to dine alfresco (blankets and soft cushions provided). Wish we had checked our paperwork more carefully as we had been given a 10% off voucher for the restaurant but didn’t discover it until later that night.
I will post more video footage & pictures when we return home
No comments:
Post a Comment