Amy and Sam come to visit
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Back to Zaandam ready for Amy and Sam who were joining us for a week – Zaandam seemed like a good starting point for them, with a direct train from Schipol airport and a short walk to the boat.
Our first trip was into Amsterdam, where we spent the day wandering round the city, including a trip to The Look Out on the other side of the river. It is easy to get the train into Amsterdam, so that’s what we did, and once there we took the ferry across to the Look Out tower where you could get magnificent views across the city. At the very top of the building is a swing that allows you to swing out over the side of the tower – it turned out that only Amy and I would commit to this bit of silliness, and so we took our turn to ride the swing and see the tremendous views over the region. Sam and Nicki hung around nearby – neither of them could quite get up the nerve to take a ride themselves!
Views from the Look Out 
After that bit of excitement we walked along the canal to the NDSM wharf to look at the crane hotel. The rooms there appear to be bookable (at £700 a night) but the outside looked a bit rundown with graffiti all over it. Certainly not as attractive as it looked on the booking site!
The whole area seemed to be out of the hippie era with various venues for concerts and gatherings. We found a cafe to drink some beers whilst we sat on bean bags on what turned out to be a very hot day …. my days of sitting cross legged on those things is long gone. Also Nicki and I have no staying power so we returned to the boat and left Amy and Sam to explore Amsterdam further on their own.
The crane hotel 
Chilling out on bean bags 
Best pancakes in Amsterdam 
Mooring at Weesp 
The following day we set off for the little town of Weesp (a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands that lies on the river Vecht and next to the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal in an area called the Vechtstreek) on the other side of Amsterdam and on the way we took the opportunity to transit the canals at the centre of Amsterdam. The main waterway was busy as usual with large commercials and a plethora of local ferries, but we managed to pass through without blotting our copybook and took the turn into the local canal system. Sadly though, we fell at the first hurdle and took a wrong turning and as we had specifically requested for the bridge to be opened for us, I felt too embarrassed to immediately turn round and go back, so we casually carried on and as it happened, this took us into a large area beside the Central Station, so it was worth the detour – other than trying to find a break in all the trip boats to turn round and reverse our course back through the bridge.
Back on track, we passed the Museum and I was a bit stunned to see a submarine coming round the corner. I think this is associated with the museum so possibly it was some kind of trip boat.
We had a large number of bridges to negotiate but that did not go too badly although the first one was driving me nuts. They gave us the get ready sign, shortly followed by the stop sign, and this happened three times, and all the while we were constantly being passed by the lower trip boats, so much so that I began to think that each time the trip boats passed through perhaps they were resetting some kind of automated sensor, thus cancelling out our ‘turn’.
Anyway, it took a lot longer to traverse Amsterdam than we were expecting (because of the detour and the delays at the first bridge) and, since I’m not very comfortable turning up somewhere new too late in the day, as we passed through the town of Diemen (a small town and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. located approximately 6 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam’s city centre, within the Amsterdam metropolitan area) we came across a great mooring spot and decided to stop there for the night. It turned out to be a very good location for accessing Amsterdam so we stayed two nights and had another lengthy excursion into the capital, again returning early – Sam and Amy stayed a little longer, and came back later with some ‘special’ cookies for us all. Nicki enjoyed hers and then spent some time exploring and laughing at the contents of the fridge.
An official turned up while we were moored and asked if we were OK to leave the next day (which we were intending on doing anyway) as they were setting up for their local fair on the wharf, and so the next day we moved on to Weesp. Before reaching the centre of the town we found a nice spot to moor, fairly close to the town and with the added bonus of it being in an off-lead area for the dogs. The Harbourmistress was great and told us we were only 15 meters long today, so it was quite a bit cheaper than it should have been to moor there. We explored the town, island and fort area, and while it all looked quite quiet it did come to life a bit more over the days that followed.
The day after our arrival was Friday and Stuart’s birthday, and as it happened he was coming to Amsterdam with friends for a free concert on the Sunday. Adam and Ayse were also visiting so we all met up (with Milly and Casper in tow of course) in a local bar to catch up.
Later on in the afternoon Nicki and I left everyone as we were going out that evening ourselves – to a Hugh Jackman concert just outside of the city. But first we had to take the dogs back to the boat, and then catch the train and find our way to the concert. This all went well but we did not get back till almost midnight, somewhat surprised to discover we were back before Amy and Sam who were still out enjoying the Amsterdam nightlife.
The next day the four of us plus dogs all went back to Diemen for the local activities, including a stop-off at a local ice-cream bar; Amy and Sam had decided to cook that evening’s meal before they headed off back to the UK and so they went off to get the ingredients and prepare the food, which was delicious. Thank you both very much for that. After eating it was time for the dynamic duo to head home, and we all walked down to the train station to say our goodbyes.
We had decided to move on the next morning, heading in the direction of Den Bosche where the DBA rally was due to take place, but after sleeping on it, we decided to stay in Weesp for another three nights – Janos and Rachel were due to join us for the rally and would be staying on Shensi with us, so it seemed sensible to stay put a little longer in this nice location before they arrived in order to catch up on cleaning inside and outside of the boat, fill and empty the water and black tanks respectively, and generally make everything in order for both our guests and for the rally. Plus, it would be easy for Janos and Rachel to get to Weesp from Schipol, and they could spend a few nights on board with us travelling to Den Bosche.
