The Netherlands, May 2023

1 May – Cologne to Woerden – We had an early start, with a 5am rise to give us plenty of time to take a tram to Koln Messe/Deutz then a regional train on to the Koln/Bonn Airport where the Flixbus terminal is. We were pretty sure we had everything right while standing on Platform 11 for the airport train but Christine decided to ask a guy dressed in orange hi-vis gear if we were on the right platform. He replied in the affirmative, peeling back his jacket to show that he was airport staff. From that point on, he acted as our personal guide, making sure we got off the train at the correct stop, taking us towards Terminal 2, navigating the various escalators and lifts and finally showing us the Flixbus terminal. I actually knew all that from our trip in but I didn’t want to disappoint him so we went along. Christine insisted on a photo shot with her new friend.

The bus trip went well, with a bit of a stop in Dusseldorf, where we bought a coffee and something strange made of pastry and delicious stuff. We were asked whether we wanted beef or pork and opted for beef but we could not detect any hint of meat at all, not that it mattered, because the thin coil of pastry stuff was one of the World’s great creations and a cardiac surgeon’s delight. After Dusseldorf, we drove through the Ruhr Valley, one of Europe’s great industrial powerhouses. There were fields of wheat and canola in abundance, but a factory or power station was always visible somewhere and the wind turbines were the biggest I’ve ever seen.

We crossed the border into The Netherlands and had fun failing to understand a whole new set of signage. In fact, The Netherlands seems to be a bit over the top with road signs. Western Australia is at the other end of the scale, with most signage being quite useless unless you already know where you are going, and even then somewhat misleading. I looked at some interchanges we went though and wondered how many accidents were caused by drivers trying to figure out which one of the ten direction signs pertained to them. Fortunately, our driver seemed to know what he was doing.

We got off the bus in Utrecht, at the Central Railway Station and found our way in. After finally mastering the German rail ticket system, we now had to develop a new set of skills. Whereas Germany takes the approach that you must buy a ticket and it’s 60€ fine if you haven’t got one, no ifs or buts. We tended to get checked on board around 25% of the time so the risk is considerable. Here in The Netherlands, they take more of an Australian approach with a ticketed entrance to the concourse and ticketing off when leaving. The main concourse at Utrecht was certainly a swish affair, with loads of eateries and excellent signage (not too much). We were soon on an IC (intercity) train that promised to get us to Woerden in a mere 12 minutes. Google maps facilitated the 750m walk from the station to our lodgings in Woerden, the beauty of the town grabbing us straight away and promising an interesting stay. Although modern Dutch architecture seems to be mostly based on featureless rectangular prisms and plain brick, there were enough older buildings along the way to give the town an endearing charm.

Our lodgings proved to be clean and modern, and certainly location, location, with lots of interesting things right outside and along the street. The bedroom and bathroom are upstairs, accessed via a narrow and tightly wound spiral staircase that threatens to make Christine scream on each occasion. It’s quite normal for me to carry the baggage upstairs but now I have to carry anything that needs moving upstairs or downstairs. Otherwise, the apartment is wonderful, with a good coffee machine, dishwasher, full oven, gas hob and all the other things we have been missing. We will use Woerden as a hub to explore further afield, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam. Accommodation in Amsterdam was ridiculously expensive and on advice from a friend who was born and bred in these parts, we chose a more central location. Thanks Marielle, good advice.

Once settled in, we headed off to the supermarket. After the poor choice available in German shops, the wealth of choice and variety was wonderful. The array of semi-prepared salads was amazing and cheap too. The shelves were well stocked, unlike the German equivalents. The only downside was that the Commonwealth Bank Travel card, so far accepted without question, would not work at the checkout. Fortunately, it worked at the automatic teller in the supermarket so we were able to pay for our goods. If the problem proves widespread, we may have to resort to the old idea of cash.

In the evening, we took a walk around our neighbourhood, taking in a beautiful Dutch windmill only a block away and a quaint little harbour area amongst the numerous canals. The harbour caters for casual visiting boats so obviously canal cruising must be a thing. There is so much to love here. We will enjoy it.

2 May – Utrecht – We spent the morning have a long lazy read of the news and researching future moves before heading out to walk more of Woerden. The temperature range for the day was forecast at 2º-12º so it was on with the thermals and coats. We spent a charming hour and a bit just wandering through the tiny streets of the little town, many filled with an array of interesting shops. Woerden seems to be a magnet for the antique collectors and artisans, so there were some wonderful window displays to pour over.

Christine bought a pretty top in one of the shops and we picked up a few veges from the amazing fruit shop in the town square. This delightful little shop has a wonderful counter that is filled with all different kinds of chopped vegetables, fruit and cheeses. You arm yourself with a container and fill it with whatever selection you want, select one of seven delicious dressings then it is weighed and you have a unique salad. It is cheap and very convenient for travellers like us. The staff at the fruit shop are happy and talkative, even if we often don’t understand. The staff at actual supermarkets are like the ones in Germany and Aldi stores in Australia, efficient and fast but far from friendly. No one packs groceries and it seems to be a competition to see if the cashier can scan all the items faster than the customer can throw them into a bag. The supermarket and the fruit shop will not take credit cards, only debit cards. Unfortunately, our Commonwealth Travel Card presents as a credit card, even though it is really a debit card with Euros loaded on it, so it gets rejected and we need cash. The automatic teller immediately opposite the teller will dispense us cash, but we pay a nasty 4€ fee for the privilege.

In the afternoon, we caught the train into Utrecht. The central train station is a huge modern monument to efficiency, with clear signage and numerous large electronic boards keeping us informed about comings and goings. Once outside, we consulted an App called GPSmyCity to plan out way to a guided walk. The App provides guided walks to over 1400 cities around the World and the $A30 for a year is money well spent. We chose the City Introduction walk and spent the afternoon doing the rounds of the significant sights in the old part of the city. Utrecht is a beautiful canal city, with many picturesque alleyways and streetscapes. The walkways were filled with people, as we are finding everywhere. From the talk, many are tourists, although they seem to be fairly local, either Dutch or German. We certainly hear very little in the way of English spoken unless we ask around for help.

By the time we had completed out circuit and made out way back to the train, we were near exhaustion, having walked a lot of the morning and now the afternoon to go with it. On a positive note, we are managing to eat well but are both losing weight, a win-win.

3 May – Amsterdam – Today we caught the train to Amsterdam. We were happy to find that there were many trains that went direct to Amsterdam from Woerden, meaning we didn’t have to go back to Utrecht and change trains. The trip only took 38 minutes on a Sprinter, with a few stops at some of the outer Amsterdam Stations. As we slid through the suburbs and approached the city, I thought we were entering just another large European city, but that thinking changed completely as we exited the station. It is something like exiting the rail station in Venice and seeing the Grand Canal for the first time. Amsterdam is grand on every scale. Outside the station, a large plaza is crisscrossed by trams, walkways, hundreds of bicycles and an impressive canal system, with work boats, tour boats and large barges all somehow avoiding collisions. It is a perfect place for finding a place to sit and watch the busy world go by.

We used our GPSmyCity App to undertake a walk titled “Red Light District” as a way of seeing the old city (true, we were only interested in the old buildings). At first, the walk did focus on a couple of churches, then an old part of the town walls, but after that, things started to deteriorate. Being still early in the day, the streets were relatively quiet, but strewn with a lot of rubbish from the night before. We came across a cleaning team, with sweepers and motorized pickups clearing all before them, in what was obviously a daily exercise. There are certainly some interesting shops in the narrow streets along with the well-advertised viewing windows, mostly empty at this time of day. The whole scene is not one that we would bother with but the Dutch attitude of tolerance and control is better than suppression has a fair bit of merit, and no visit to Amsterdam would be complete without at least one walk through the area.

Meantime, the walk was definitely worth it for the beauty of the oldest part of the city. Often called the “Venice of the North” (along with Utrecht and Bruges), Amsterdam is a canal city. The city’s name comes from the “Damming of the River Amstel” and so the whole city is intersected by hundreds of canals, both wide and narrow, as well as having the wide Amstel River as a thoroughfare. Hence, there are numerous places where the streetscapes are amazing. We marvelled at the sight of impossibly narrow five story brick buildings seemingly so unstable that they hang forwards over the street but we later learnt that this was intentional, so that goods could be winched up from the street. In places, other buildings were actually sinking, leaning drunkenly against their neighbours.

Eventually, we emerged from the narrow backstreets into the vast “Dam”, a large square in the centre of the city and surrounded by majestic 18^th Century buildings. The square is actually the original dam that held back the Amstel River, enlarged over time to create a huge open space.

From there, we made our way back down towards the rail station and harbour area to pick up a canal tour. We arrived at the designated pier (there are so many canal tours) with half an hour to spare, so we decided to walk across to the train station to find a toilet. Public toilets are rare, and always cost 50c – 1€. We figured that there would be plenty in a rail station the size of Amsterdam Central, but no, there was only one and it was on the far side of the whole complex. We made our way under the station, through a big shopping mall and emerged to see a ridiculously long line waiting. Not in urgent need, we gave up and went back to the canal tour.

Just as we were about to board, a young man came along and offered us a swap from the enclosed boat to an open one. With the weather dry, we took him up and followed to another pier. It proved to be a good choice because the guide on the boat was a true entertainer and the open nature of the boat made viewing much easier. There was a recorded commentary in English available via headphones but it was unnecessary because our guide was far more informative and funny. We appreciated the skills of the young boat skipper, maneuvering the long boat through some impossibly tight turns and avoiding the heavy water traffic. The tour took us past the Maritime Museum and the wonderful full sized replica of the “Amsterdam”, an 18^th Century East Indiaman and on into the old district once again. It was good to see the same streets and canals from a completely different perspective. We came across a beautiful, cantilevered draw bridge like the one in the famous Van Gogh painting and admired the many large houseboats lining the banks of the Amstel River. The cruise was an hour very well spent, giving us considerable insight into the development of the city and its rise as a great maritime power base.

Off the canal tour, we headed back to the rail station, the toilet issue becoming more needy. There does not seem to be any requirement for food outlets to have toilet facilities here, or in Germany, and so the old trick of going into a restaurant and ordering a small coffee doesn’t work. Once that issue was settled, we strolled back down the main street and selected a likely looking place for lunch, enjoying a wonderful open sandwich and beer each. Then it was back to the train for the trip back to Woerden and home, both exhausted after another day of walking more than 10 kilometres.

May 4 – Woerden – We had a day at home today, to let the body recover a bit. We did little more than a bit more of a walk around the town. Today is National Remembrance Day (World War II) and tomorrow is Liberation Day, celebrating the liberation of The Netherlands from German occupation. The latter is a holiday so after the experience in Germany where everything shuts down on Sunday we thought it best to make sure we had two days’ groceries. We did find an Aldi, which proved to be similar to the ones in Australia, complete with central aisle of specials. Later, we sat in the town square and had a beer, enjoying the warm sunshine, a rare treat. Preparations were underway for some form of celebration the next day with the construction of a large stage. Other than that, we rested and revived our tired bodies.

May 5 – Rotterdam –  On our last full day in the Netherlands, we decided to take a train and explore Rotterdam, a 40 minute trip from Woerden. With the promise of temperatures in the high teens and blue skies, I left the big jacket home and wore a light jumper. I should have checked the forecast in more detail because by half way to Rotterdam, the skies had darkened and we emerged from the central station to threatening clouds. Christine had been more insightful and had a rain jacket but neither of us had brought umbrellas.

Our first impression of Rotterdam was that it is very different to the other big cities in Netherlands, appearing to be very modern and blessed with broad avenues and open spaces. Imaginative modern architecture was very much in evidence and the major arterial routes of the city are composed of multiple walkways, dedicated bicycle lanes, roadways and tramways, all managing to live in some form of harmony with a bewildering array of traffic lights. We just made sure we weren’t facing immediate extinction and crossed, hoping for the best. The bicycles are the most dangerous, being silent and reluctant to give way.

Rotterdam was heavily bombed by the Germans in March 1940 to force the Dutch into submission. The destruction was so great that little remained of the old city, hence the difference to other Dutch cities. We walked through the city to Binnenrotte Square, a huge plaza created in 1993 after a railway viaduct was replaced with a tunnel, creating a large space above. On one side is one of the few remnants of pre-war Rotterdam, St Lawrence Church, originally built in 1552 and reconstructed after the bombing.  Inside, the towering vaulted ceiling seemed impossibly high and the structure was very grand, even though it lacked the opulence of the Catholic Cathedrals.

From there we took one of our guided walks, soon coming across a huge curved aircraft hangar type building made of glass panels. Called the Markthal, it houses apartments, restaurants and an amazing array of street food stalls on the main floor. The huge arching roof is adorned with hundreds of digital images, creating a festive atmosphere. There is every type of stall you can imagine present, all vying for custom.  The aromas are enough, with visual feasts of cheese displays the skills of the Greek pastry cooks providing a lot of entertainment. We bought a taster plate of Krokets, breadcrumbed fried rolls that were stuffed with ground meat, cheese, mushrooms or vegetables, along with lots spices and herbs. Both the taste and the texture was amazing.

We emerged from the Markthal to find the rain had started. We debated whether to continue the walk trail, but pushed on, trying to hug the buildings that had some kind of shelter. We passed underneath a crazy piece of architecture called the Kubuswoningen (Cube Houses). These apartments are tilted at 45 degrees to optimise the space. Built in the 1970s, each apartment is three storeys, with many using the top floor as a rooftop garden.

Eventually, the rain eased enough to make walking comfortable and we followed the path around to the old port area, now resembling more of a big canal. The banks were lined with all manner of old craft, many now converted into accommodation or restaurants. We passed the White House, Europe’s first and highest skyscraper when it was built in 1898. It had an amazing 10 storeys. Eventually, we made our way along the port to the Maritime Museum, where we stopped for a coffee and hot chocolate, the rain having returned to a point where walking was uncomfortable. We considered taking a tram straight back to the station but decided instead to brave the rain and walk through the main central shopping areas, a walk of around 1.5 km. Everywhere, people hugged the buildings, most having been caught short of an umbrella like us.

By the time we reached the central station, we were damp but not soaked through and we caught a train back to Woerden, once again tired but satisfied with a terrific day’s outing. Rotterdam is a spectacular city, especially after so many days of tiny medieval alleyways and narrow canals.

After dinner, the sounds of music wafted through from the town square so we wandered down to enjoy a vibrant pop band perform the last song for the evening, part of the Liberation day festivities. We sat with the crowd and enjoyed an Australian red wine before wandering back home. Sunset is after 9pm here so evening is a popular time to be out and about.

Tomorrow we move on into Belgium, for the last stay on the continent before heading to the UK.