Thursday
October 13 and Friday October 14, 2016:
Tomorrow morning
(Thursday), we have to wake up early (for me, 6:15 am), have breakfast at 7:00
am, but no baggage has to be put out the door as we are staying in Amsterdam,
Netherlands for two nights. Then, we
leave for the Canal Cruise at 8:00 am.
This is supposed to be a wonderful cruise through the natural canals of
Amsterdam – one that I also took part in thirty-five years ago. But of course, things change. We’ll see how this experience compares with
that other one so long ago.
As it turns out, to put it mildly, I was less than
enthusiastic about this Canal Cruise, which I’d thought would be fun. I’m pretty sure that was because I was
exhausted even though I had slept through at least part of last night. I took some pictures of the buildings and
houseboats and bridges that we motored by, but I ended up deleting many of my
pictures due to the fact that there was always someone’s head in the way and
that irritated me. But, I told myself not
to mind – the day was going to get better shortly.
After the cruise was over, about forty minutes
later, we were dropped off at the Diamond Centre, which is where diamonds are
cut, polished, and inserted into various jewelled settings, preparing them to
be sold. However, I was not at all interested
in going on the tour of the factory with the others, so I left and started
wandering down the street looking for a café.
I needed a cup of coffee badly and, at the same time, I had to find a
store that sold pipes so that my son wouldn’t yell at me when I got home
in two days’ time. I was lucky in that I
found a tobacco store that was closed at the moment, but that I thought would
have the necessary equipment for me; I resolved to check the store out before we
had to get back on the bus at 12:00 pm.
Then, I went looking for that elusive cup of coffee;
I was having a caffeine fit of sorts. I
was also lucky in that I found a café that was open and went in to order my
coffee. What I got was what I would
characterize as an expresso-type-and-size of coffee cup that held coffee so
strong I had to add three creams and three sugars to it to make it palatable. I also had an apple-cinnamon muffin and sat
there playing Solitaire on my cell phone while I enjoyed my mid-morning
snack. After that, I started to feel
more like myself and resolved to go back to the tobacco store I’d found earlier
to purchase three pipes – one for my son and two for his friends – and I was
successful. Bingo - now, Brent will be a
happy camper!
At 12:00 pm, the group met on the bus by the Diamond
Centre and we were taken back to the hotel.
Our hotel was called the Roommate Aitana Hotel – another odd name for a
hotel or hotel chain, but nevertheless, a very nice hotel to spend two nights
in. I proceeded to re-pack my big
suitcase, as, I would be returning to London tomorrow morning with fifteen
others from our tour. This chore turned
out to be somewhat difficult for me since there wasn’t enough room for all my
clothing; I had to actually throw some of my older summer clothing out to make
room for other clothing I’d bought in Europe!
Later on, at 2:00 pm, we took off for the Volendam
cheese farm, windmill, and shopping in the village. I’ve been to Volendam, Netherlands thirty-five
years ago, but it looked somewhat different to me this time. Besides, I had never been to a cheese farm
there before or seen a windmill in action.
All I remember, vaguely, is the scene of a little seaside village. But, Rosie had told us that the Zuider Zee,
which used to be there, had been drained and replaced with a manmade,
freshwater lake, Lake Isomaar. Why the
village people did this for themselves is beyond me. I suppose I’ll eventually find out in the
literature I bought today about Volendam.
After seeing the demonstration of how to make cheese
and how the Dutch make their clogs (wooden shoes) at the cheese farm, we went
to see the windmill operation. It was
very windy today and the windmill was working very hard, as, it was facing
east, which is where the wind was coming from.
The man who is responsible for its operation told us how it operates and
why windmills are so useful. I found it
fascinating to discover that windmills generate an amazing amount of power that
will drain levels of water that are too high and re-direct the water where it’s
needed through the use of a water pump.
There are other uses for windmills too – mostly having to do with the
generation of electrical power.
After we saw the demonstration of how a windmill
works, we left for the heart of the village of Volendam and had a little bit of
time for shopping before dinner (at 5:00 pm).
However, it was getting really cold as well as windy out and none of us wanted to stand outside for any prolonged
length of time. Finally, Rosie took us
to a local restaurant for a nice dinner.
Afterward, some of us made speeches and we all said our good-byes to
those we knew would not be leaving on the first transfer (at 7:15 am)
tomorrow.
Those who didn’t leave on the first transfer would
be going out on the second transfer (at 8:30 am) directly to Schiphol Airport
to fly home. Most are going back to work
next Monday or Tuesday in their respective countries, but some aren’t because
they’re retired, like me. I am taking
the Eurostar train to London in the first transfer from Brussels, Belgium,
along with a few others. From there, we
will be taken to the Park Plaza Hotel, stay there for two more nights, then fly
home.
This has been a really great tour and I’m really
happy to have been a part of this tour group.
I’m absolutely sure that Rosie and Vincenzo enjoyed this tour group as
much as we did and that our particular group made their jobs much easier for
them. I will miss those two and some of
the others; that is certain. We’ll see
who keeps in touch over time via email.
I, personally, would like to keep in touch with Maree, Kitty, and
Jeremiah from Australia, since we were together for both tours – our UK tour
and this European tour.
copyright 2016 - Anne Shier
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