Sun 30 April 10° Amsterdam

Walked to the ferry and noticed rows of container dwellings....

Lovely crossing to the city....

River cruiser

Long queue for the hop on hop off bus as was expected. Very good couple of hours on there,

Boat hotel

Then only original windmill left in the city.

The queue for the Heineken experience was round tge block.......we have cold beer in the fridge.....don't need to queue.

3 storey bike park...

Then onto the green line canal boat cruise......Lots of congestion and bit of chaos  as holiday boats mix it up with tour boats through all the convergence of canals.

Floating Chinese Restaurant 

 There are 2.6 million bikes in Amsterdam with only 800,000 people, 60,000 bikes get stolen every year, 600 end up in the canals......the police just say take another one.....it's what call recycling....haha
Had lunch, then onto the blue line canal boat...on leaving skipper was so relaxed forget to ' mind your head ' didn't duck and whacked his head on the roof opening getting off...ouch

There are 2,500 permanent house boats. Used to be for the poor people that couldn't afford houses, but now the moorings are so expensive it's quite an exclusive area.

Waiting our turn to go under one of the 250 bridges

 

You can hop on and off, but no telling if or when you will get back on.....busy, busy....people everywhere thus holiday weekend.

boat selfie .....heehee

the beams sticking out from top of buildings has a hoist for when they move furniture in or out to top floors . the gables also slant forward so the furniture doesn't crash into the building.

A replica of the original ship Amsterdam that sailed off in search of the new world.

The slanting roof of the science museum has a garden and people go to relax up there and look at the view.

Very full 8 hour tour for €56

Another quiet sunny evening in camp. 

Sat 29 April 8° To Amersterdam

Happy Birthday to Jenna xoxox

Drove to Lidl but turned out to be in a housing estate and very narrow, so extricated ourselves from there and found a service station with gpl.....only just got a kettle boiled this morning our 11kg cylinder was empty, when we checked, it was filled 10 days ago.......wow where did that time go....works out to €1 a day so very good....keep our 6kg as backup.  took 18 ltrs at .56 €10.97  also got diesel at €1.22 €29 for 24 ltrs.

As we approached Amsterdam there were rows and rows of apartment blocks,



Got to our site Amsterdam City Camp, 140 places, huge gravel parking area just for motorhomes,  very secure, fenced and ticket only in and out.
We got escorted to our site by owner on her bike, very friendly and helpful.
Emptied loo cassette which was urgently needed....

€46 for 2 nights, can come and go with ticket to open gates. Were told where supermarket was, again desperately in need of supplies and had to stock up for long weekend.  Eventually found a shopping mall with a Lidl....Mass construction going on all around this area.

Back to site, late lunch then 10min walk to free ferry to central station in Amsterdam city.  Took us more like 15 mins to walk and the ferry about 15 mins.

Soooo busy people and bikes everywhere.....Long weekend holiday makers.....found the  Visitor's Centre...apposed to Information site, which was just train and bus information.

Bought hop on hop off bus and cruise for tomorrow...she confirmed what we had seen that it was very busy for long weekend and to expect long cues for bus and boat.

I have run out of my vitamins and my back is missing them.....Boots in Lincoln not too far away for a stock up....so on the Brufen.....buggar!  still done very well to date.

We people watched for a bit before ferry back and walk to site.....the little car here Tony said we need for our next trip haha..

Chicken stir fry for dinner.

Lovely sunny evening, very calm and quiet in camp.

Amsterdam city camp

Our site with a cruise boat sailing in

A man's work is never done...

Our camp accross the water

Bikes and people everywhere 

Rows of apartment blocks  coming into Amsterdam

 

 

This little car Tony says is what we need for our next trip

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Fri 28 April 7° Katwude Simonehoeve Cheese and Clog factory

Cold and wet today with occasional sun, decided to have a rest day and do some planning  for new few days and book ferry to UK.

How frustrating was that...didn't realise it would be so difficult,  first couple of attempts just crashed out towards the end of booking. So gave that away and tried a different route...success..booked PnO Rotterdam to Hull 4th May with outside cabin,  although it will be dark. Arrive Hull 7.30am 5th so rang Ena to see if it ok to stay there, yes it was and she was looking forward to seeing us.


Getting low on provisions so omelette for dinner with little boiled potatoes and vegetables

Thurs 27 April 0° Emmerloord to Katwoude, North of Amsterdam

Chilly start but sunny, left our wild camp and drove in search of Tulips.......early sightings in far distance, red and yellow. Then splashes of pink, plumb and orange,  but in the distant fields.  Also fields of straight, deep, ploughed soil furrows reminded me of a kit kat bar. These are apparently for potatoes.

Wind turbines here with green tree lined roads, roundabouts, one with daffodils and narcissus flowers. Very English looking houses here, all very patriotic with national flags out side the majority as we drive through Dronten.

Then there they were.....tooooliipppsss.....

Tony spoke to a cyclists who told him they chop the flowers off and through them away....they are growing the bulbs for export around the world.  What a waste of the flowers...surely the market would buy them.....no just throw away.

After a sat nav tour of a bus depot...twice...the poor girl was very confused...we followed a bus that had Putten on it so got out onto main route again.

Several of our possible sites failed to meet our expectations......ohhhh getting fussy are we.....haha....lunch stop at BP Wild Bean cafe....yeahhhhh pies......nope.....no food delivered because it was the King's Birthday....hence the flags and shops closed.

Scenery reminiscent of the Norfolk Broads with canals opening of to broad lakes with windmills.

As we got taken on a sat nav tour through Amsterdam, lots of people on bikes with orange lei's, hats, scarves for the celebrations for the King's Day, the flag used to be orange, white and blue  (the King's name is Oranje, but for some reason the flag was changed to red, white and blue, almost identical to France, but a lot of people hang an orange banner alongside the flag.

Arrived at our free site at the Simonehoeve Cheese and Clog factory,  5 motorhomes here already, we got last spot....wheewww thank you lady luck.

Found out a bus over the road goes into Amsterdam  €10 return and could leave Bessie here, but for that price may as well go into town to the city camp.

Several tour buses in, so we went in on the back of a tour to see how clogs we made,

cheese...handmade with herbal rennet so that everyone can eat it....vegetarian etc. Then had a tasting of the different cheeses,  biscuits and fruit wine. Tony tried on several pairs of clogs........when would he wear them I asked........fortunately he made the right decision and refrained from a purchase.

Met a Motorhome couple from UK, originally from Cheshire but moved to North Wales, they invited us in for a cuppa. Two aged dogs inside, a lovely border collie and a golden retreiver.  Had good chat about sites, places to go etc exchanged emails and got an invitation to stay if ever we were in North Wales.

7pm ....time flies when chit chatting, quick spag bowl for dinner and a lovely bottle red wine from Château Neuf de Pape.....bit of a treat.