Another bright sunny morning as I’m woken up by a load of
noise outside of the hotel. It is market day in Lelystad and market people
start early! I don’t mind as I love the sound of a town/city waking up in
anticipation of a great day ahead.
Breakfast is good but a little busy as we are joined by a
horde of hungry Americans.
I am in and out before eight as I want to make sure the
bus isn’t blocked in by market traders!
It isn’t and I give the windscreen a clean (first time this
year dead flies on window. A sign of summer!) and pick up a little bit of
rubbish and then drive round to the front of the hotel. Both of the other
coaches departed at 08:00 and we are not going out until 09:00.
Everyone seems in good spirits as we leave for Amsterdam
and head out towards the motorway. After a short detour in confusing Lelystad!
We arrive on the outskirts of Amsterdam in about 45
minutes and I take the S114 road into the centre. I want to give them a little
taster of the city by coach and then drop them at one of the many canal boats
for an hour’s cruise. The traffic in Amsterdam is unusually light with no hold
ups anywhere. This is very rare and maybe I’m being paid back for yesterday!
It is Remembrance Day in Holland today so a holiday which
would explain the lack of traffic. Not a lack of people though!
I drop at the boats at 10:00 and all but two go on the
cruise. I then drive to the nearby coach park, by Central Station, that is
normally full and find I can drive straight in and park!
As it is such a nice day I decide to go for a nice long
walk and maybe do a bit of window shopping!!
Amsterdam is famous for its tolerance towards drugs and prostitution and both are legal in a certain area of the city. The idea is that they can manage and keep an eye on all activities and it seems to work although odd walking past the coffee houses and bars openly offering drugs!
I love walking around the streets off the main roads and
today it is a real pleasure taking a stroll.
Back at the bus I am warming up a bit too much so leave
the coach park (€30 poorer) and go off to find somewhere cooler to park. I know
a road by the cruise ship terminal that runs alongside the sea and should be
quiet today. It is and I park with a lovely sea breeze blowing through the
coach. Also nice sat here watching the goings on in the busy harbour. Our old
friend the MS Esmeralda is moored up alongside four other river cruise ships
and one large seagoing cruiser.
I have arranged to pick the group up at 14:00 and then
take them to Volendam. I pull up in the Damrak where I dropped them all off and
within five minutes am loaded and on my way. Again the traffic is light as we
near Volendam.
There is a choice of coach parks in Volendam with one
being in a square on the edge of town, another a bit further away on an
industrial estate and then there is the harbour coach park. I decide to go to
the harbour park as it is always good fun taking the bus through the busy
narrow streets of Volendam and then parking with the rear of the coach over the
sea!
I haven’t been here for a couple of years and as I
approach the town there are some new parking signs up that I do not recognise!
There seems to be a new coach park off to the right as you enter town which I
haven’t seen before and the one in the square is now all cars! Parking at the
industrial estate seems popular but I still decide to chance the harbour but am
having reservations as nothing coming out of town and I seem to be the only bus
going this way! Ah well only one way to find out the score!
As I turn off the main road to join the narrow road into
the centre there is a set of traffic lights on red with half a dozen cars
waiting. There is a sign by the lights warning you to wait for green or the
bollard in the middle of the road will rise up underneath your vehicle! There
is another sign with a lot of times on and I take this to mean there is now a
one way system in operation and going our way it looks like we can travel
between 14:30 and 14:55. It is the same times for each hour.
We join the queue at 14:30 and within a couple of minutes
have our green light. They let one vehicle through on each light.
As I approach the town I am always amazed how they let
coaches down this road as it is very narrow with shops and cafe’s on either
side and thousands of people in between! But drive down it I do and receive
some looks of bewilderment from the throng in front of me!
I have never seen Volendam so busy and it is a real
struggle to drive through. I can see the coach park and there are only four
coaches there which is very unusual as it is normally completely full. After
driving through I can understand why most coaches were in the trading estate!
Once parked up I pay my €17.50 and am given a timetable
for driving in and out. You used to drive out another way from the way in but
now it is all the same road. The times for going out are between on the hour
and 25 minutes past. We are due to depart at 16:15 so hopefully will go
straight out.
As with everything that is new you are never quite sure
but it is a good system even though the cost of parking has now doubled,
probably another reason for so few busses.
I have a quick walk round but it is too busy for me. I
wait to watch another coach go out and then wander back to the bus.
We depart on time and the fight through the crowds is not
so busy now as we make our way back to the main road on onto Hoorn and the
Enkhuizen before driving through the sea!
All of the above were famous resorts on the old Zuidersee
before the land reclamation and the this road was built turning it into a lake.
For about 23km the road has nothing but sea on each side and although not
spectacular it is very different and exciting. The sea/lake on our right is
green and choppy while the sea on our left is blue and calm! What is that all
about?
We arrive back at the hotel at 17:30 ahead of the other
two coaches so am able to park outside.
Dinner is at 19:00 tonight and Rose is her normal
competent self once again. The Americans have come straight in from the bus and
we all eat together which is makes for a bit more queuing but again the food is
very nice.
Being Remembrance Day there is a two minutes silence at
20:00 which is observed beautifully by all in the hotel.
I go for a little walk after dinner but not really much
to see apart from concrete shops and apartments! The hotel is popular tonight
as it has a couple of restaurants downstairs open to the public. One is a steak
house that looks very inviting while the other is an Asian restaurant (The
Tasty Wok) that doesn’t look too bad either! I have a quick nose in the Asian
place and it is a buffet with a fantastic choice and for your meat you choose
as much as you want raw and then take it to the chef to cook for you. There is
also a lovely dessert buffet and all for €25 looks great to me.
Tempted to go out to eat tomorrow!
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