Back to Being a Tourist

Thursday I said good bye to the heat of Alsace, drove to Frankfurt Airport where I returned my rental car.  From there, I took a train to Amsterdam.  While it was a huge change of scenery, there was no change in the temperature.  The "red alert" heat wave that is plaguing all of France, extends north including to the UK.  Schools in Wales apparently closed because of it.  So, Amsterdam was about 36' when I got there and my hotel, like so many in Europe, does not have air conditioning.  All there was was a fan going full speed on the desk.  

That evening, it was far too hot to wander very far and I was exhausted from my long day.  I found a restaurant nearby with a lovely dinner and a slight breeze which is where I had dinner.  

Friday, I went back to being a tourist.  I'd booked a tour to two popular places:  Zaanse Schans and Giethoorn.  In the former, historic windmills and distinctive green wooden houses were relocated here to recreate the look of an 18th/19th-century village.  We went to a wooden shoe shop and were given a demonstration of how those shoes are made.  From there, we went to a cheese shop to hear a talk about how the famous Gouda cheese is made.  The store there was huge and offered a very wide selection of cheeses that were tempting to buy but logistics prevented that from happening.  The samples I tasted were delicious - the black garlic was particularly good.  While the buildings and windmills looked interesting, it was too hot for me to wander very far so I didn't get to see many of them close up.  My opinion, however, was that the windmills in Kinderdijk, still in their original location, are much more impressive than these were.

Jay, our guide

After that, we drove about 1 1/2 hours to Giethoorn, the real reason I wanted to do this tour.  Giethoorn is a small village in the north of the Netherlands where water plays a central role. The historic village centre has no roads, only canals, footpaths and bridges. Traditional boats and modern electric whisper boats are used to move through the village.  This unique layout makes Giethoorn one of the most distinctive villages in Europe.  Because of its unique character, Giethoorn is often referred to as the "Venice of the North".  It is certainly one of the most distinctive villages in Europe.  We started with a one-hour boat ride through the canals and waterways.  After that, we had a couple of hours to wander on our own and get some lunch.  The temperature was 40' and too hot to do much of anything.  I found an air-conditioned restaurant and had a light lunch accompanied by a refreshing Radler.   I managed to get some photos on my walk but not as many as I'd hoped.  It was interesting - there was a family of 6 from Mumbai on the tour and they found the weather so hot they didn't wander into the village but just stayed at the restaurant where our boat had docked.  It really is a pretty village and worth seeing.  The guide on the boat told us that many of the homes there sell for over $1 million US dollars!  

By the time I got back to the hotel, it was 6:30; I was hot and exhausted - so much so that I didn't bother to go out to eat or drink.  Water and some Haribo Goldbears were my dinner!  Next up:  Saturday I head to Ijmmuiden, Amsterdam's cruise port to board the Azamara Quest for the next stage of my trip.  It sure will be nice to be in an air-conditioned space and unpack and sleep in one place for 18 nights.  Of course, the hot temps of France and the Netherlands will be left far behind and it will be much cooler and damp at times.