The Savage Traveler: Tulip Time River Cruise Day 2

Sun. Apr. 6: The day opened cool and gray. After a full breakfast buffet, where one can also order eggs cooked to order, we had to be on our first tour bus for the morning by 9:00. Rolland took us to the far side of City Central in Amsterdam and then walked us back through small roadways and alleys towards town, giving us interesting bits and pieces of Amsterdam history. As soon as we got off the bus a light rain began so we spent perhaps a little less time than we might have before we got to the canal beside the museum that covers the 400 years of Canal history, where we took a canal boat cruise back towards the harbor and then the bus took us the short way to our cruise ship, the MS Amabella. Along the way we saw many expensive canal house boats and the funny crooked houses that frequently have to be shored up as their 400 year old foundations are deteriorating because of water table changes.

Rain slick, brick street in Amsterdam

On the canal

Out of the rain, on the canal boat

Looking through the "Seven Bridges"

Inside a Beggary, like a convent, but the women were free to
leave at any time because they don't take vows.

As we ate lunch the boat began to travel the Ij River north into the now fresh water lakes, the Ijmeer and the Markermeer. Until 1933, when they built the dike to close what was the Zuiderzee off from the North Sea, the water was salt water. In the short time since then the ecology of the area has totally turned over and they have gained all sorts of fertile land. We docked in Hoorn, which is a very old, charming village that was once a thriving, bustling, well-to-do mercantile seaport with a natural harbor. There are still many boats moored there but they can only get to salt water by going through the lock and gate in the dike further to the north. We didn't get the name of our tour guide at first (later found out it was Klaas) but he was a tall, erudite Dutchman who had lived in Indianapolis for four years so his English was excellent, now lived in a canal houseboat in Amsterdam, and was wonderful at putting all we were seeing within a cultural context. He talked a lot about how Calvinism and the belief in predestination had colored and changed the Dutch from their Catholic beginnings into their present thrifty, practical personas. He also mentioned that southern Netherlands had kept more of their Catholic roots and were more "Mediterrarian" in their outlook. (This was confirmed the next day by our guide in Nijmegen, which is farther south). The weather had improved and although cloudy and windy we had no more rain. We wandered through the old part of Hoorn, peaking in windows at the tidy, neat three and four hundred year old houses, encouraged to do so by Klaas, who revels in it and assured us that the Dutch don't mind it--in fact, he drew attention to the fact that the sparkling windows have no curtains for just that reason.

Ships in Hoorn Harbor

Wandering in Hoorn

Winding side streets in Hoorn

A Fish Heron.

Harbor House in Hoorn

After an hour or so we wound our way to our bus and we drove about an hour away to the town of Edam, passing beautiful, pastoral farm houses and the rich, canal filled pollan farmlands along the high dike we could see in the distance. Klaas's enthusiasm and love of the history, architecture, and general setting were infectious. At Edam we again wandered slowly through the lovely, tiny old part of town, climbing the ancient small bridges that go over narrow canals and locks throughout, and stopped at a small cheese shop that has been there since the middle ages, where they gave us samples of their local cheese with delicious, tangy, sweet mustard in which to dip them. I could have stayed there for a week, lost in the quiet old village but we had to return to the ship for dinner and to sail all night for our visits the next morning. That evening there was a special presentation of Dutch traditional clothing and dances on the ship, given by a brother and sister who live on a family farm.