May 21, 2024 Amsterdam to Hoofddrop

May 21, 2024

This morning’s temperature was 15°C, wind ENE 10 km/hr sunny, no fog in sight, just a distant faint haze. There were just some streaks of light cloud in the blue sky. There was another moderate weather warning for late afternoon into the night. The rain and wind started about 6:30 p.m.

Everything was packed and the suitcases were placed in the hallway for the staff to collect and take to the main deck. It was the final breakfast of the voyage. Everyone was in great spirits, most looking forward to a day exploring Amsterdam. Goodbyes said, we took the free ferry across to Amsterdam Centraal Station to take the train to get to our hotel in Hoofddorp, near Amsterdam Airport Schiphol for tomorrow morning’s early flight.

From leaving the boat to sitting on the train was less than 20 minutes. The train ride was 25 minutes and the walk from the train station to the hotel was just over 15 minutes. Since we have been staying at the same hotel chain in Fort Lauderdale, Rotterdam, Brussels and Dublin we had accumulated enough points for a perk of early check-in. Within 90 minutes of leaving the boat we were in our hotel room. We could leave the luggage and backpacks in the room and go explore.

Steps 2,437

It was about a ten minute walk to the town centre where we eventually found a liquor store to buy Graanjenever for Scott. The liquor store had glasses for many of the beer brands that it sold. There were several large grocery stores that we wandered through. Bananas were €1.69, but not sure if the unit is pounds or grams.

We liked the bicycle locks used on the Boat Bike bicycles and went to two bicycle stores to find them. They both had the locks and the second store had adapters to affix to our bikes. It took a long time to buy the locks. The store did not accept credit cards. We needed to find an ATM. The first one was temporarily offline. Google’s second location was non existent. Going back to the bike store, we were given directions to the Primark department store which he said had two ATMs. There were none, but a manager directed us to the bookstore, Primera, 50 meters away. We could not see any ATMs at the front. We asked if there were any banks nearby, but the clerk said banking is online, but there were two ATMs just at the back of the store. We got the cash and returned to buy the locks.

It was past noon, so we stopped at an ice cream store before walking back to the hotel. We had accumulated 12,199 steps. Hoofddrop is a pretty town. We noticed that a few buildings had partial “moats” around them. The “moats” could be explained due to the fact that the town is located where there was once a lake, Haarlemmermer. Land has been reclaimed and the area is now a polder. A polder is land reclaimed from a lake or the sea and contained within a dike. Then pumps are used to keep it dry, along with canals to direct the water to fields or over the dikes. We passed parks along canals. Over 20% of the Netherlands is below sea level and depends on canals and pumps to stay dry.

For our afternoon exploring, I read that there was a windmill here. It was less than a 30 minute walk, partly through a wooded area. The sky had clouded over. The windmill, Molen de Eersteling, has a thatched roof and is designed a little differently the the windmills at Kinderdijk. The mill was built in 1856 shortly after the draining of the lake and was located in the centre of Hoofddorp. It was moved to the hill in 1977. It still grinds corn into flour which is sold in the gift shop which was closed today. Just below the windmill is a former fort, Fort Bij Hoofddorp, which was one of many forts that were part of the defensive ring of dikes and forts around Amsterdam built in the late 1800s. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The flood sluices were guarded and could flood the area if necessary for defence.

We returned to the town centre for coffee and found MOOCA, very close to the bicycle shop just a street over. Larry had a beer - Texels Skuumkoppe, and I had a chai latte, sitting under an umbrella in the warm afternoon sun. Temperature was 23°C and cloud was starting to gather.

We decided to go to a Greek restaurant for dinner at about 4:30 p.m. because of the storm warnings. It was closed today. Larry googled for a Thai restaurant and walked back to close to MOOCA to find the Thai restaurant, Im Aroy. We enjoyed Pad Thai and Phở, both were delicious and with a Thai beer, the cost was less than €36.

When we left the restaurant the clouds were dark grey and the winds seemed cooler. We returned to the hotel before 6 p.m. The rain poured just after 6:30 p.m. for almost an hour. After the wet last leg of yesterday’s ride, it was nice to stay dry today.

We went to bed early since a taxi is picking us up a little after 5 a.m. in the morning to take the 15 minute ride to the airport. Steps today were 22,288