Amsterdam & Volendam - Day 4

It was another early morning for me.  6:06 am I was awake.  The bed is not my friend.  Both Cathy and I can feel the coils.  I wouldn't recommend this hotel to anyone.  Comfortable beds are a must in my books.

I decided today we would take a trip to Volendam.  We took the Metro and then a bus to the town.  It took about 30 minutes to get there.   It is 20 kilometres north of the centre of Amsterdam. It is the most famous fishing village in Holland and can be visited all year round. Especially the old harbour full of old Dutch ships is popular.










Cathy got a coffee to go!





We decided to have our picture taken so we had a permanent memory.  We bought the package which included a flash drive with all of the pictures taken by the photographer.  There are a lot of cute pictures.

We were very lucky getting to the village on the bus.  I, inadvertently,  bought the wrong ticket for the area we were travelling to.  Within the city is zone 1.  Outside is zone 2.  I didn't understand that when I got our tickets.  I did press the option for English but it didn't explain the zones.  We hopped on the bus and our tickets didn't work.  The bus driver just waved us on.  Coming back, he saw us at the wrong stop and stopped to let us on.  Thank goodness, we had the same driver.  Further down the road, he pulled over to let three young girls on.   They were Asian tourists and asked if they could use their credit card to buy their tickets.  The answer was no.  He made them get off.  I felt bad because it looked like they were in the middle of no where.  I think they would have had to use the bus app to buy their tickets.  The good part is there is a bus back to the Metro every 20 minutes.

Back in town, we went back to the hotel to relax before going to the Christmas market.  We still had WiFi!  Nice to watch some TV!


We left for the Christmas market around five because it closed at 8 pm.  The market is near the Rijksmuseum and Van Gough museum.  I visited both last year.  Cathy wasn't interested in seeing them which was fine by me.  The Rijksmuseum building looks pretty lit up at night.





The market was disappointing.  At least 85% of it was food.  The rest was things like candles, wool hats, earrings, etc.  I'm still glad we went because we would have wondered if we missed something.



We saw people playing chess in the square.  Neat that it is used.

We walked around the outside of the market to go back to the Metro.  Came across a replica of Van Gough's painting Starry Night.  Had to get a picture of Cathy with it.


This next picture is a long escalator at the Metro.  It reminds me of one that I was on in London.


Once back, we headed to Febo to pick something up for supper.  It's nice to now be familiar with where to go to grab a quick bite to eat.  I was surprised with how busy Febo is at night.






We are now in our room for the night.  I am going to the last must do place on my list for Amsterdam tomorrow.  It's a Cafe called Studio 2 near the Bloemenmarkt.  Cathy has had it with the walking so she may not go.  Time will tell.  We check out of the hotel tomorrow and head to a hotel near the Schiphol Airport.  We'll take the train there.  There is a free shuttle bus to our hotel from the airport on Saturday and then back to the airport on Sunday.  It's something I look for whenever I have a flight to catch. 

We fly home on Sunday.  This is my last blog for this trip.

Hope you enjoyed them.

Steps today - 18,892

Comments

  1. DorisDecember 16, 2023 at 9:50 AM

    So glad you guys had a great time. The walking was something else, I could not do that now a days. Old age.

    ReplyDelete

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