Sail 2010 Amsterdam: Day 2

My last post was Day 1 of Sail 2010 here in The Netherlands, starting first in IJmuiden on the west coast and ending up in Amsterdam on the east coast. Here's the map again (click to enlarge):

You may recall that we decided to spend our entire first day in IJmuiden and NOT take the time and energy to also go into Amsterdam, 24 km away. We saved that for the next day, Friday, 20 August. And that's what this post is about.

Part of our package deal from the Holiday Inn was a round-trip fast-flying ferry from IJmuiden to Amsterdam on the North Sea Canal:

At speeds up to 65 kph, it took only half an hour each way. What a way to go! There was no way we would drive into Amsterdam and try to find a reasonable parking spot, as though it would even be possible!

The fast-flying ferry dropped us off at the dock behind Amsterdam's central train station, right in the middle of all the action. Since we wanted to see all the tall ships in one "swell foop," we were in the right place at the right time. The only disappointment was that once again, as in IJmuiden, the sails were not unfurled. However, by seeing only the skeletons, we probably saw more of what was really there. And by coming in off the water, instead of through town, we avoided some of the crowd.
They say at least 1.3 million people visited over the weekend.

Some of the crowd. HA! The crowd on the water was almost as bad. I wonder how many near-accidents were avoided that weekend!


Can you tell how totally mesmerized I am by the masts and sails and ropes and flags of boats! And see what a beautiful day it was!

As Astrid would say, we were "short of eyes" to see everything in front of us that day.
And, sad but true, I am now also short of my Tilley hat that blew off in a gust of wind and landed on the top of a sight-seeing tourist boat while we were standing on a bridge over it. If I had been thinking, I would have taken a picture of it. Thank God it was at the end of the day when I no longer needed its protection from the sun. I had to laugh about it...a memory I'll not soon forget. Someone got a good hat, unless it's still floating somewhere on the IJ river there in Amsterdam.

One of the goals for Day 2, after walking up and down the riverside to see all the sights, was to mosey on over to the Prinsengracht (the outer canal of Amsterdam's 4 in city center) where at 1 p.m. would start the Pieremachocheltocht (even the organisation isn't sure what the word means--a parade of carnavalesque floating creations open to anyone.)

As we left Centraal Station on foot, we started passing everything that had been familiar to me for the two years when Donica and I had lived half of every month in Amsterdam. Happy memories in image....

The Centraal Station alone is an architectural masterpiece. At Dom Square Madame Tussaud overlooks all the tourists who gawk at the mimes. The pedestrian streets are lined with myriad shops selling their wares. The restaurants and cafés...would you eat in a café where you saw a cat napping on one of the tables?

By the time we got to the Prinsengracht canal, just 2-3 blocks from our old apartment, we found a cozy spot in an abandoned boat where we had a perfect vantage point for this crazy carnival of "anything that floats." It was the one thing Astrid was so eager to share with me. One by one they came:

First came the Inspection boat of the BBA (BinnenwaterBeheerAmsterdam), followed by the Police and the Fire Brigade. Yes, especially in fun, on the water, you need control.

Then came the fun:

Yes, that would be the Flintstones.

The lower left boat was run by a car engine...and revved up to make the sound of a sports car as it came by.
The bottom right image was run by a tractor's engine, turning paddle wheels!


Does college frat-house humor ever change from age to age or differ from country to country?
I guess not!

It didn't take long...maybe an hour and not as many "floats" as I expected, but it was totally worth the fun. Here's a YouTube that puts it in motion:

At the end of this "carnival on the canal," it was time to take the fast-flying ferry back to IJmuiden to pick up our car and drive the 94 km (59 miles) home. But one last thing:

As almost an after-thought, Astrid mentioned that her father was cremated at the cemetery in Driehuis just 2 km from our parked car. I didn't have to say much to convince her I wanted to see the place, even though his ashes had been spread over the North Sea via airplane. His father before him had been a captain of a Merchant Navy ship...before, during and after WW II...so the sea was in his blood.
He died in 1981 when Astrid was 27.

And so, as we started our trip at the North Sea, we also ended it there in memory of Dré Wijdekop.
May he rest in peace.

**********

That, my friends, was Sail 2010 Amsterdam. Enough excitement to last a couple of weeks...which it did, since we rested at home the entire next weekend. You can see why I made 2 posts of it!

Oh...and lest I forget, today is my turn again at Vision and Verb...on Always Looking Up and Mercury Retrograde. :)

Sail 2010 Amsterdam: Day 1

It's been a bit over a week and I'm dying to show you the fabulous Thursday and Friday we had in North Holland for Astrid's 56th birthday celebration at Sail 2010. The two key cities are IJmuiden on the west side of the country and Amsterdam on the east, with the North Sea Canal connecting the two. That was the route of the tall ships going to Amsterdam from the North Sea. [Click to enlarge.]

On Thursday we were in IJmuiden for the day and night, the first day of Sail 2010. There on the banks of the North Sea Canal, we sat for 5 hours (in canvas folding chairs we had purchased the day before!), watching the procession. We weren't bored for one minute and still can't believe it was F I V E hours. It was a four-hour sail-in for the boats from the North Sea at IJmuiden to Amsterdam, 24 km away.

We had left early from home (6 a.m.) to make sure we got a good spot. By 8 we were situated in our chairs with no one in front of us...a clear shot. Since the procession didn't start till 10, we had 2 hours to watch everything else going on, which was almost as fun as the ships. The dogs were still only for this photograph. The girls were here and there and everywhere, especially watching the police helicopters overhead....


....and walking down to the canal. We were sitting right next to these steps and watched kids especially walking up and down them with all the energy of a lifetime. This shows you what a high vantage point we had on the bank of this canal.

Then the show started. First just boats of all sizes and shapes and age...and wealth. A lot of money passed before our eyes that day, for sure:

And none of these were the tall ships!
But they were all waiting to accompany the tall ships once they started. The Stad Amsterdam, Holland's 3-mast clipper, was the "grand marshall" that set the tone for the procession.

Thar she blows, the bottom image of the above collage, followed by the Russian Mir (above).
Our only disappointment was that the ships weren't able to unfurl their sails, not because there wasn't enough wind (there was plenty!) but because the canal is too narrow for the maneauvering of such big ships with hundreds of smaller boats on their left and right. I would have LOVED to see them in full sail!

Incidentally, more than 100,000 ships traverse this canal every year. During Sail times, every 5 years, the number must surely double! The canal is 235 meters wide and 15 meters deep...not exactly the same environment in 1976 when my now deceased brother Bennett was at the New York City tall-ship extravaganza, taking pictures from a helicopter!

See how much fun everyone had! This is what Sail 2010 was all about. Whooping it up big time.

By 1 p.m. the place had thinned out and instead of going to Amsterdam then to meet the crowds on that end of the stick, Astrid and I decided to stay in IJmuiden to get situated in our Holiday Inn and go down to the North Sea to beachcomb before our dinner reservation at 6 p.m. I think I mentioned that I had found a package deal for Astrid's birthday that included the night's stay, a welcome drink, Captain's dinner, fast-ferry round-trip to Amsterdam and a full breakfast at an incredible price. We were happy campers.

It so happens this Holiday Inn is used a lot by companies for team building. See the climbing contraption? It was visible from our room overlooking the sand dunes. We saw it in use both days by different teams.

Off to the left of the climbing apparatus, a short walk away, were the bunkers facing the North Sea during WW II. They had been built by the Dutch but were taken over by the Germans early on in the war. They were so strongly fortified that nothing was able to destroy them during the war.

Here's a YouTube that even shows the Holiday Inn at different points:

Actually, it was after supper that we took another walk to see the above bunker and to wander off towards the inlet side of the North Sea into IJmuiden. We knew there were tankers and lighthouses and fun things to see! And see them we did.

These are the two lighthouse of IJmuiden (the left and middle images are of the "lower" lighthouse), facing the North Sea, commissioned in 1877 and made of cast iron. It's an interesting story which you can read here. But esesentially they were constructed when the canal was built to connect the North Sea to the IJssel Sea so that ships could get across The Netherlands.

While we were walking around the "lower" lighthouse at dusk, you can imagine our surprise to see these two half-tame foxes playing around in the grass. Some neighbor guys nearby told us they were introduced to the dunes to keep the rabbit population down. The rabbits were undermining the dune construction which was built to keep the country from being flooded.

Surely you've heard this before: God created the world but the Dutch created The Netherlands. Think about it the next time you realize that most of present-day Holland was formerly under the sea.

The North Sea. What else is there to say!


Speaking of the North Sea, if you look out from shore as far as you can see, what would you see if you could? That would be England, of course. So when we found this British phone booth just sitting there, we wondered how many Brits in Holland were pining for their own country! And now I also wonder how many of these relics can be found here on this side of that pond?

There you have it, the first day of Sail 2010...the IJmuiden side of it. Next week I plan to give you Day 2 on the Amsterdam side of the birthday celebration. More of the same (BOATS) but different. That's the fun of this memory.

But before I say "ciao for now," here are the two water towers of IJmuiden. Wouldn't miss them for anything. The one on the left is now an apartment building. The one on the right I almost didn't get while driving by in the car, and therefore not really in sharp focus. But you at least get the idea about why I love "collecting" them.

Day 2 next week. Ciao for now (old habits are hard to break). Tot ziens.