Amsterdam......

Friday Aug. 8....

 I had booked a tour for Friday.....to Alkmaar....where there is a cheese auctions/sale every Friday.  I was tired of planning and wanted someone else to plan and do the work.....

It started in Amsterdam at 9:30am so I needed to be there by 9.....We boarded a nice big bus and the tour guide was friendly and very informative....not talking too much but very concise when speaking.  Alkmaar is about a 45 minute drive from Amsterdam.  When we got there it was crazy....so many people.  They hold the sale/auction in the morning before the tourists arrive.....at 10am is when the show starts for the tourist.  They show how it used to be...the bringing of the cheese in boats on the canal from the farms unloading on skid/sleds, taking it to be weighed at the weigh station....throwing it and rolling it, the selling of it (that's what Sheryl want me to take pictures of...something about a film she remembered seeing when she was in Grade 3!!!)  They put on the show in Dutch, English and German.....and there is is also a big screen that they are showing live filming on so that everyone can see.   It really was something.  We had an hour and a half to explore the town centre and watch the show.

Our next stop was a working windmill....I've been to a windmill before when I was here a couple of years ago.  But this was really different ....it showed how a family would have lived in it.  This one was used for pumping water out of the land.....I finally could imagine how a poldar is formed .....with the guide's explaination and the area that the bus drove....I can imagine how this vast land was reclaimed.  They say in the Netherlands...God created earth but the Dutch created the Netherlands!   So much of the area was a sea/lake but with the ingenuity of the Dutch, hundreds of years ago, it is now usable farm land. 

The tour ended back in Amsterdam at 2:30 and I spent the next few hours wandering. finishing my shopping, having dinner and making my way back to Central Station.....I arrived just as the rain started coming down.

There's a cache in there somewhere!!!

 

Saturday Aug. 9 

Today was a day of trains and buses.....first changing hotels from the Best Western...bus/shuttle to Schiphol the airport to get another bus/shuttle to the new hotel Ibis.....since I was a couple of hours early I could store my suitcase then hop the bus/shuttle back to the airport. 

Got a return ticket to Deft, which is about 45 minutes away.  Delft is known for it's pottery/dishes.....the blue and white Dutch pattern....and I thought I might take a tour of one of the factories.  I could have gone for another tour as I did yesterday (it was nice having someone else do the planning and thinking) but the their tour (to Delft and Den Haag)  was 5 1/2 hours and started at 2:30....and I had somewhere I had to be in Amsterdam at 7:00, so that wasn't going to work.  

The train ride was good, but getting off had me in a construction zone....they seem to be redoing the train station and tracks around there.  But I followed signs and people into the town.  It was very cute and busy......there was a market....going on being Saturday.  I spent so much time wandering and caching that by the time I found the Information office to find out where the factory was I was getting tired and needed to head back.  My little trip was worth the time and I wish I could have spent more time.

Buildings from the train....

So back on the train to the airport, bus/shuttle to the hotel, checked in, freshened up a bit, hopped back on shuttle to the airport, train into Amsterdam, tram to the GeoBeering, geocaching event that was put on by 3 Bulgarian cachers visiting the Netherlands.   It was a small event only about 15 people but very international....Bulgarians, British, Dutch, French and of course Canadian.  (forgot to take pictures though)  

We visited for a while and then I got back on the tram, hopping off to get some dinner and pick up one more gift item, then the train back to the airport and just made the 9:30 shuttle back to the hotel.  

Last sleep in the Netherlands.....flying home tomorrow afternoon....flight leaving here at 2:00 to Reykavik with a short layover and then leaving there at 5:15pm and getting home at 5:45pm........gaining my time back but I'm going to be very tired!