6 October 2023

We packed our bags, had breakfast and headed off for our final day in Amsterdam.

Given we were staying on a barge and we are about to spend two weeks on another one, we thought it only appropriate that we head to the National Maritime Museum. It was nearby, and, we could leave our bags behind, rather than lug them to the station.

It’s becoming more noticeable that our choice of activities is now determined by its walking distance and its bag storage opportunities. We must be getting tired!!!

Anyway, the museum was really interesting and the sea faring links to “New Holland”. made it even more relevant. There were old ships, old maps and sea charts, navigational instruments, great battleship paintings and tapestries, model boats, ship ornaments, Captain’s logs and Royal Barges to keep us interested for a good few hours.

The actual building , once a Dutch East India storehouse was impressive with its massive courtyard roof structure representing the points of a compass.

We headed outside to explore the 1985 replica of “The Amsterdam” , the original being built in 1748 at the Dutch East India Company shipyard. It was designed to carry produce between Asia and the Netherlands. Sadly things didn’t go too well. In 1749 she ran into a ferocious storm in the North Sea and became stranded of the English coast near Hastings. At low tide the wreck can still be seen apparently!

I can’t begin to imagine what life on board would be like back in the day. It was dark, noisy and smelly below decks and we were still sitting in the calm waters of Amsterdam harbour. The paying passengers’ quarters, and the captains “mess” were more spacious and “comfortable” than the rest of the crew but it still must have been a pretty miserable existence!

A museum guide was chatting to some students about the Dutch East India Company and their quest to find “produce” to bring back to the Netherlands. He was explaining that when the Dutch arrived on the West Coast of Australia, it was dry, barren and therefore unprofitable. Exit stage left. The English had a different agenda a few years later, and decided our big barren land was a good place for dumping its convicts. And the rest is history !! Had the Dutch have stayed on,we might now be speaking a different language!

The Royal Barge lived in its own special little boat house. Commissioned and built in 1818 by King William I , it’s most recent outing was in 1962!! I’d be more than willing to take her out for a “cheese and wine tour” with a few of my mates, should she ever need a bit of an outing.

We emerged a few hours later and headed towards something I had spied earlier. I’m not sure of it’s authenticity but it was a windmill and we’d yet to see one up close. This one had the advantage of actually being re- branded as a brewery!! Bonus!!!

It was getting late and we needed to get to Amsterdam Station. We collected our bags from the barge and trudged down the road to where we had intended to load our bags into lockers and do a bit more of an explore around this part of Amsterdam. The exorbitant price of the locker storage, helped us change our minds. We were hot, tired and hungry. Instead of exploring, we caught the train out to Schipol Amsterdam Airport, took an outrageously expensive cab to our hotel for the night and relaxed!!!!

Now just a heads up. Should you ever require accommodation near Amsterdam airport., don’t book the one that calls itself “Blah blah Airport Hotel” and assume it’s near the airport, which is what I did!! It’s possibly miles away! Which kind of defeated the purpose. But that was tomorrow’s problem. ( Early tomorrow, in fact) . Check distances!!!

Anyway our so called “airport hotel” was just a little bit quirky, which almost made up for its being nowhere near the airport. Nothing like a little touch of the Caribbean, to add to the nautical theme for the day.