Hoorn - 7 April 2007

In 1642 Abel Tasman set sail from Hoorn and, by chance, discovered New Zealand. In 2001 two New Zealanders returned the compliment when they set off from Auckland and ultimately, and quite by chance, discovered Hoorn.

As our fourth fabulous town for the day we were now drowning in a surfeit of cute and quaint views. It was once one of the six cities where the Dutch East India Company was based as well as a base for the Dutch West India Company so was full of prestigious and important looking buildings. It boasts a fine square surrounded with civic buildings, as well as a picturesque harbour and waterfront.


We resisted the touristy looking cafés in the square, and had a memorable meal in a humbler looking restaurant, where we shared a most delicious pot of a least a dozen different types of fish, fresh from the local harbour. They don't get many tourists making day trips from Amsterdam so made us feel very welcome. The meal was excellent, as was the view from our table in the window: if you are passing, dine at the So Da.

A quirk of old Dutch architecture is that buildings lean in towards the street, but not all at the same angle. It must be most off-putting if you are slightly tipsy and trying to maintain an upright stance by referencing the buildings! The reasons given were a) to make the buildings appear bigger and b) to keep goods being hauled up to the top floors from damaging the frontage lower down. With a corner building, sloping out on both faces the brickwork up the corner became quite interesting!

Edam - 7 April 2007

Back on the bus again, we left the masses of tourists behind, and stopped at Edam. Made famous by its cheese, it is not at all ‘cheesy’ but rather: charming, cute, compact and convivial; and made us wish we could stay the night.

But we couldn’t; so instead, after buying the obligatory Edam in Edam, we were back on the bus heading for Hoorn.

Waterland wanderings - 7 April 2007

By the time our final canal cruise had finished, the day had improved considerably so we bought a Bus Pass to the Waterland area. What excellent value! For €10, the two of us (but we could have had 5 people), we were able to travel all day this area. We intended to bus all the way to Marken but the first bus that came along was going via Monnickendam, the first stop on our intended route, so we took it and explored this very picturesque market town.


Back on the bus again we crossed the causeway to Marken, until the 50’s an island with a population of 70 families. This small fishing village now has a population of 2000 but the original town has, apparently, no street names – with only 70 families why would you need them?


Leaving the ‘island’ in the traditional manner, we took the ferry across the bay to Volendam. Here they have given up on traditional fishing and abandoned themselves to the tourist coaches; so it is very touristy and not as enjoyable.

Freedoms and rights - 7 April 2007

We made an early start this morning in order to beat the long queues at Anne Frank’s house. We felt rather pleased with ourselves as within 5 minutes of our joining a 6m queue at 8:40, the queue suddenly increased to the length we had observed the previous morning. We still stood for 20 minutes waiting for the doors to open but, somehow, it felt better that we had determined the length of the wait rather than a standing in a slow moving queue, which, for all we knew, may not have taken any longer.

The house is definitely worth a visit. Although larger than we expected, it is remarkable to think of two families surviving so long in such a compact area and having to be totally silent while the workday world went on around them.

At the end of the tour, there is a very thought provoking interactive series of scenarios presented discussing various ‘freedoms’ and 'rights': freedom of the press; freedom of speech; freedom to demonstrate; freedom to burn flags; freedom to oppose homosexuality, right to privacy, etc After each scenario is presented using ‘news’ footage from around the world, a question is posed and the audience is invited to vote Yes or No. The results are immediately displayed – Current Visitors and All Visitors; mostly the two graphs were very similar. What was disturbing was the ‘slant’, on some of the Yes/No options: for some of the scenarios the questions asked were not quite what the situation was discussing and one felt ‘trapped’ into voting a particular way by the way the question was framed.

Back in the real world we exercised our freedom to hop-on the canal boat and complete the hop-on-hop-off boat tour as our tickets gave us the right to ride until noon the day after purchase.

Amsterdam - 6 April 2007

Amsterdam is a city of many different faces. (Many of them on angry cyclists that kept silently sneaking up on us from the 'wrong' side on cycle lanes that we kept mistaking for footpaths!)

We started our first day with a walk that ended at Anne Frank’s house. Despite the fact that we were there before 10 a.m. the queue was around 50-60m long. So, instead, we bought a hop-on-hop off canal boat ticket: excellent value; a great way to have an introduction to the City as they provide a commentary on their 3 routes exploring the canals.

After a 90-minute trip around the outermost of the three concentric canals we walked to Dam Square, and then wandered around the old Jewish quarter.

Sitting at a street café looking across to the Waag we enjoyed a delicious salad lunch, and then wandered off to visit the museum in the house Rembrandt owned and worked in for 20 years. Sadly, he went bankrupt, but from the detailed inventories made at the time of the forced sale the museum has been able to restore and furnish the house as it was when Rembrandt lived and worked there. We saw his living areas, as well as the reception entry where he received potential clients, from all over the world, as an art dealer selling his works as well as those of other Masters. We also saw his studio, the area where his students worked and the room where he kept his extensive collection of items from the natural world or antiquity that he used as inspiration. In the modern wing alongside the house was an extensive collection of Rembrandt’s sketches and etchings.

In the Rembrandt theme, after a ride on another canal loop, we visited the restricted display at the Rijksmuseum. It is undergoing an extensive re-development and the cream of the exhibits is displayed in a temporary area. They have a good collection of Rembrandt's paintings, including ‘The Night Watch’ and some of the ‘famous’ Vermeer’s.

Since it was now well after 7 p.m. we thought that the Anne Frank queue might have shortened so detoured in that direction. The queue was at least twice as long as in the morning: looks like an early morning start is the answer.

With nothing else to achieve in the day we meandered our way back our hotel via the Red Light district. This is a very different face of Amsterdam. The available girls are sitting/standing in windows or behind glass doors, even in the daytime. Under the red neon lights are rows of curtained glass doors where it all takes place, just an easy step inside the door from the footpath.

The guide books warn of the consequences of taking photos, so you just have to imagine a beauty pageant with all the contestants in their bikinis, but instead of standing in a row on a stage, they are all behind glass doors in every house along particular streets, often looking totally bored. Perhaps one needed to show a bit of interest in what they were offering to solicit some sort reciprocal response.

The footpaths were crowed with groups of curious tourists. (Clearly this did not include us – we were simply returning to our hotel!)

7, 24 or 9 Arches - 1 April 2007

Summer seemed to arrive with the 1st of April. After a quick look at Kettering we headed to Thrapston to do a walk around the canal and lake system there. We finished the walk at the Nine Arches Bridge over the River Nene. A seven arch bridge was built in medieval times and replaced in 1795 with a 24 arch bridge. This was reduced to the current structure in the 1840s after the arrival of the railways.

Higham Ferrers was the next stop: the main feature of this attractive town is a medieval chapel and gatehouse, which is all that remain of Chichele College, a lay institution set up, around 1425, to pray for the souls of the founder and the King.


We had picked up a walking trail around the town of Kimbolton so we headed over to Kimbolton to check it out. The town is well worth a visit: highlights were the Castle, now a school, but- formally the residence off the Duke of Manchester; the other highlight was the Tiffany window in the local church, which the Duchess commissioned in 1900 from Tiffany of America, to commemorate the early deaths of her two daughters.

82 Arches - 31 March 2007

We decided to check out Northampton, for our family canal boat cruise, later this year. The town has a very fine Guildhall, and a great pedestrianised shopping area. Somehow, it encouraged us to spend money rather than time and we spent rather a lot!

The recently restored early Art Deco house, 78 Derngate, was the highlight of our day. In particular the entranceway and guest bedroom were stunning.

A must-visit historical site in Northampton is the Eleanor Cross, one of only three original crosses remaining from the 10 Edward I built to mark the resting places of Queen Eleanor’s cortege on her journey from Lincoln, where she died, to London, where she was buried.

In the afternoon, we travelled north to Harringworth, to do a walk based on the Welland Viaduct. The viaduct is a stunning railway bridge comprised of 82 arches striding across the valley. It took 20 million bricks to build the viaduct, the first brick being laid in 1876 and took 2 years to complete.

During the walk, we crossed a paddock of sheep with their new spring lambs. Each mother was painted with a number, and her lambs (they all seemed to have had twins) had the same number. As we walked through, number 65’s lamb ran off with family number 23. It wasn't long before 65 realised its mistake, and its cries reminded us of the children's book, “Are you my Mother?'

An excellent dinner in The White Swan at Harringworth ended the day in fine style.