Amsterdam

The Bee-Brown travelling season has started with a 5 day trip to Amsterdam, one of those places that it seems everyone has been too. We're not sure why it's so popular as we thought it was a bit expensive and seedy, but we had a good time all the same - by getting out of the city.

One of the reasons we wanted to go to Amsterdam was to visit the Keukenhof garden, which has the most amazing displays of bulbs.



Admittedly the whole garden is a shameless plug for the bulb growers of The Netherlands, where they showcase their latest products and you can buy them in the huge display buildings situated around the grounds. The mass plantings of bulbs create displays of colour that you could never see anywhere else in the natural world, although it's more a warholesque pop-gardening experience than a visit to Kew or Villandry. That said it was worth braving the crowds to see, although the photographs will never do it justice.





Outside the garden we hired a couple of bikes and headed off for a ride around the bulb fields of the area. The bikes were completely different to what we normally ride with a very upright sitting position, smaller wheels, multiple carrying racks, and incredibly heavy construction. We adapted quickly to them though and were soon having quite a bit of fun cruising the bicycle paths like a couple of kids.



It was so nice to be riding in a relaxed environment (unlike our daily commute through Trafalgar square and along Strand) that we ended up riding over twice as far as we had initially intended. The cycle paths were great and the people friendly, and when there were fields of bulbs they were quite an impressive sight.



It probably comes as no suprise that the next day we had hired more bikes, this time from within the city in order to explore the Waterlands area to the north of the city. This was really interesting as the whole area is below sea level, and as we rode along the tops of the dykes with the sea on one side and the land on the other we could really see the difference in elevation. With so much water about it was a haven for birds and we saw more in a few hours than we'd probably see in a whole year in London.

We rode out to the island of Marken via a causeway, which despite it's proximity to Amsterdam was an isolated community until the early 20th Century. Before this time the surrounding waters were open to the sea and during a storm the waves would roll across the island and under the houses which were built on stilts. Unsuprisingly no-one wanted to move there, and the lack of new blood took it's toll on the population which became progressively more inbred. Fortunately for them the sea was eventually sealed off by a dyke to control flooding on the mainland, and the inhabitants could escape to sow their oats elsewhere, like in Volendam which was where we went next. It was completely mad, but not due to a lack of diversity in the local DNA, but a massive influx of tourists. We quickly skipped town and rode up the road to discover the charming village of Edam which despite having one of the most blatant tourist draws in Europe (it's cheese market) was nice and quiet. None of the photos we took have passed our rigorous vetting procedures so you'll have to take our word that it was very picturesque. On the way back to Amsterdam we crossed a canal on the ferry shown below, which as you can see is half a canal width long. The captain waits in a little shed for passengers and starts the ferry up whenever one arrives, in order to take them on the 40 second ride to the other side - about as long as it takes to pay the 25 cent charge.



On the way back down the canal to Amsterdam we passed that icon of the Dutch countryside, a windmill. Although the sails were not unfurled it was still turning slowly in the wind and made quite an impressive sight.



That night we thought we'd better go and have at look at the famous red-light district and see what all the fuss was about. Thinking we knew where we were going we managed to walk in a large circle without seeing anything, and came away thinking it was all much ado about nothing.
Another of the big dissappointments in Amsterdam was that it was so expensive, and for people coming from London that comes as a rare and unwelcome shock. We certainly weren't used to the idea of having to pay to visit a museum as almost all those in London, including the big ones, are free. It made us think what a great policy it is to have government fund museums to ensure freedom of access, as otherwise entry fees provide a deterrent to visitors, which is counterproductive to the principle of storing items in museums to preserve access to them for the public.

Of course this philophising wasn't going to solve the problem we had of not having anything to do for the day, and as you would guess we decided to hire some bikes and go for a ride. This time we headed west to the area between the bulb fields where we had been a few days previous, and the North Sea Canal which Amsterdam is situated at the eastern end of. There is a long strip of park and wetland running west from Amsterdam almost all the way to the sea, which meant that even though we were passing a vast shipping port and some enormous factories, we were mostly oblivious to their presence.
Vonny had been quite keen to visit the Kennemerduinen national park which is on the coast, so we had the good fortune to get dreadfully lost, as when we eventually found a map it was right outside the entrance to the park. We took a route through it towards our destination and it was a very nice woodland, which was suprising as the national park is known for it's dunes. The sea was a big disappointment when we eventually got there, so we turned around and started heading home.
On the way we didn't make the wrong turn we had made on the way there, and came across another windmill, this time with the sails mostly unfurled. It was reasonably windy and the speed and power with which it was turning was quite worrying - we didn't know how well the neighbours would sleep at night.



This windmill had been used to grind grain, but a few of the others we saw on our rides would have been used to pump water from the low-lying farmland up into the sea to control flooding. Having played an invaluable part in creating the country we were seeing, they now appeared forgotten and were often surrounded by modern buildings or beside busy roads. It was a sad reflection on the place industrial heritage holds in a national conciousness, often being a distant after thought to the fine art collections and cultural treasures considered most worthy of protection.

The next day was our last, and to fill in some time before our flight we went on a free tour, which was led by an excellent guide and we highly recommend. During the tour, which passed through the red light district (we had discovered it the night before whilst looking for an ice-cream), we saw some builders making use of one of those icons of Amsterdam life, a building's rope hoist. Yes the shop next door is called The Sensi Seed Bank,



Our guide told us how the most exciting thing he's seen in his time in the city was a group of men delivering a refrigerator to an apartment in an old building using one of these. This in a city famous for it's sex and drugs - whatever floats your barge huh?

Ultimately Amsterdam was relatively disappointing, although it's one of those places where you don't know what to expect until you get there, and you really have to go in order to work out whether you like it. Sometimes it felt like an emormous transit lounge, as everyone seemed to be visiting from somewhere else. So people come for the sex, some for the drugs, and the rest come to see people having sex or using drugs. Fortunately the hedonism will all be left behind with the next blog post, which will be reporting on our second venture to Switzerland by bike, this time a north-to-south trip taking in the Black Forest and finishing near Milan. The trip starts in 3 weeks so stay tuned.