The quiet day

Our last full day in the Netherlands was supposed to be a quiet day in De Rijp. The hotel itself was quite a distance to the village centre & just a small place when you got there. We wondered what we would do all day long.

Bev, our trip leader, realised this by midweek & decided to see if she could hire a boat for a guided cruise around the local canals. We all agreed to go along for the ride & pay whatever had to be paid. So in the morning we all set off.

The flat bottomed boat was capable of taking people in their wheelchairs so I didn’t even have to get out of my chair. Bev had warned us to wear our thickest clothes. We were very grateful we did. Even with the two blankets provided to wrap round us, we were still cold. Eyes & noses peeped out from the depths of blankets, like a boatload of babushkas sitting there.

 

Setting off from our hotel in De Rijp

Nonetheless it was a very enjoyable trip. For two hours we went gently along the canals. The wildlife was undisturbed by our passing so we were able to take a good look at kestrels, lapwings, oystercatchers, a buzzard, coots. We ducked under low bridges. We passed by the gardens of many houses – most in De Rijp face directly onto the street. We saw weeping willows dripping into the water or blowing gently in the wind. The canals themselves were apparently just a few centimetres deep which surprised us. They look so much deeper. Finally we returned to the hotel.

De Rijp across the fields

One of the churches of De Rijp

Another church of De Rijp

Across a garden

A dripping willow

To the village centre

We all headed straight to the bar for hot drinks to thaw out. No matter how cold it was, it was also a magical trip.

In the afternoon we ventured down to the village centre, to discover it was early closing day, so the museum, churches etc. were all closed. We arrived just in time to look around the Tourist Info Centre before it too closed for the day.

The Waag & tourist info centre, de Rijp

Back of the main street of De Rijp, with flower shop

Small scale bridge garden feature echoing the larger real bridge crossing the canal

It was a pleasant stroll. De Rijp is a pretty village. I can easily believe it is an expensive place to buy property. It is just so quiet & peaceful & yet within easy commuting distance of the cities of Alkmaar, Haarlem & Amsterdam. As we went around we discovered various eateries. Many of our fellow holidaymakers arrived at the only one open for lunch. We kept bumping into various people we knew.

What had seemed like it was going to be a very long day, with little to do, was turned into a magical day thanks to the initiative of Bev.

PS. We’re off to Scotland!

Art & park

On  the Sunday  of our holiday, the coach took us to Amsterdam. On the way the tour leader, Bev, put us into two groups. One lot was to go on a guided walking tour while the other did the canal cruise. In the afternoon it was to be done the reverse way round. We were initially put in the group to go on the cruise in the morning, but we managed to get it swapped. We were intending to go to the Van Gogh Museum. I thought by the time we’d done that the Fox would be ready for an afternoon sit-down on the boat. As it turned out we were very grateful we did go round the museum in the morning as we looked at the size of the queues to buy tickets to get in.

The Van Gogh Museum was excellent. I don’t think I have ever seen so many Van Gogh paintings in one place. It was well laid out. One floor displayed portraits & self-portraits. Higher up in the building we were given a chronological exhibition of his works, including examples of works by other artists who influenced him. In this way you were able to see how his style developed.

We saw some of the inevitable ones e.g. “Sunflowers”.  Other pictures, known only from illustrations, proved to be surprisingly more impressive in reality e.g. “The Potato Eaters”. The traumatic ones were undoubtedly his last two paintings, “Cornfields with Flight of Birds” & “Tree Roots”. Here you felt his distress. The latter was more a vision of hell than tree roots in my mind.

After a couple of hours of going around the gallery, we were numb, emotionally drained. We decided to go off & find somewhere for a drink, a bit of refreshment. We discovered a quiet bar, frequented by locals only & sat outside in the cold. My hot chocolate was very welcome. As we still had an hour or so to kill before joining the others for the canal cruise, we decided to visit the Vondelpark, an oasis of green in the midst of the city. This large park was landscaped in an English style. It seemed a very popular escape as runners, cyclists, dog-walkers or frequented it. 

Bandstand in Vondelpark

Vondelpark

After a tour around some of it, & a few sit-downs to admire the view & rest the Fox’s sore feet & hips, we headed back to the place the cruise boat was departing from, & sat and waited for the others to join us.

This time the cruise seemed shorter than remembered. We both found it less exciting than the first time we did the trip a couple of years ago. We’d located the main sites – Anne Frank’s house, the port, Nemo etc. – and in April the Santas & light show of December had gone. At least it gave us a good sit-down before our return to the coach for the trip back to the hotel.

Amsterdam remains in our minds & hearts as one of our favourite cities. The architecture, the canals, the people, all make it a wonderful place to visit.

Scotland perhaps

Writing these blogs have made me realise just what a good holiday we had in the Netherlands. Indeed so much so that we’re now inspired to look into another coach trip for the summer. This time to Scotland.

It’s a long time since we last visited Scotland. Indeed I think it was before I got my first wheelchair so I borrowed one from the Red Cross for the occasion. We visited Edinburgh with a friend. The wheelchair proved invaluable & encouraged me to see about getting one of my own.

This coach trip is based at Nairn, up north near Loch Ness & Speyside. This is much further than I think the Fox would be comfortable to drive himself these days.

It would be with the same company, with the same coach, a Jumbulance, with the same drivers & tour rep, even some of the same fellow holidaymakers.

Why this change of heart? Apart from the fact we now realise that part of our discontent was due to the fact of our own tiredness. It was a whirl of activity which these days we are unaccustomed to. The scenery of the Scottish Highlands should be spectacular, so much more exciting to our tastes than the rather flat Netherlands. At the end of the day, now we’ve had time to recover through from it all, we are feeling surprisingly refreshed & reinvigorated. It is nice to have someone else sort out all the arrangements & be confident that everything organised will be wheelchair friendly.

I will admit part of the attraction is the destination. It’s a long time since I last visited this part of Scotland & the Fox has never been.

For me it is associated with my brother. The summer before I went off to university, we went on a Scottish car touring holiday, just the two of us. Among other places we stayed in Nairn. I remember it as a pleasant seaside village/small town. The holiday remains a precious memory of time spent with my brother who died in 2001. A hole still remains in my heart for him. I suppose I will always miss him.