Lesley & Mike visit
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( Zaandam is a city in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad, and received city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan, just north of Amsterdam.)
Next day Lesley and Mike arrived at Zaandam railway station where we met them, and from there we all wandered back to the boat through the town – they were both fairly tired so we weren’t too late getting to bed. We were off to Alkmaar the following morning and agreed to leave them to have a lie-in whilst we started the journey, although the room they were staying in was pretty noisy as it was directly next to the engine room. Still, Lesley made it til 11 before she got up!
On the way to Alkmaar we managed to make a stop at an area renowned for its windmills – Zaanse Schans (a neighborhood in the Dutch town of Zaandam, near Amsterdam. Historic windmills and distinctive green wooden houses were relocated here to recreate the look of an 18th/19th-century village. ) and spent some time looking round some of the mills (including a visit to a peanut oil mill?!)
Off again and continuing on to Alkmaar, where we managed to moor up in what is called the ‘small harbour’ right inside the town (and as it turned out, just down the road from the red light district!). Luckily we arrived the day before the cheese market, so Lesley and Mike were able to walk into the market square the next morning and see what was going on; unluckily part-way through it started raining, and continued on for some time so we had to cut the visit slightly short and get back to the safety of the boat. We were back just in time to follow another boat out of the harbour and onto the main river again.
From Alkmaar we cruised on to Purmerend (a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland, surrounded by polders, such as the Purmer, Beemster and the Wormer), the weather improving as we went, and just a few hours later we moored up by the lock, ready for a coffee stop in one of the local outdoor bars in the market square.
Purmerend was just an overnight stop, and next morning we carried on to Diemen (a town and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands, located approximately 6 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam’s city centre) where we stayed for the next two nights.
From Diemen it was a short train ride into Amsterdam, so Lesley and Mike took a train into Amsterdam on the first day and spent their day sightseeing and generally exhausting themselves, whilst we stayed in Diemen just mooching around. Next day we moved on to Weesp for the last few days of their holiday and settled ourselves in along the public moorings.
Day 2 saw the four of us head into Amsterdam in the evening – Lesley, Nicki and myself had tickets to visit the Anne Frank House at 8.15pm, so we all went for a meal beforehand, and then left Mike having a drink and relaxing at an outdoor table while we made our tour of the house, collecting Mike on our return.
Last day for Lesley and Mike, and we had agreed that Andy would stay on Shensi while we went back into Amsterdam to take a canal cruise in the sunshine to see the city from another angle. Andy came in later (with their suitcases) and meet us for lunch, after which it was time for them to catch the train to Schiphol airport and to return home.
