Out to the IJsselmeer in the Wind and Rain

Goededag!

It was stormy all day with pouring rain and strong winds. Maybe this wasn’t the best time to go out to the shores of the IJsselmeer, but Monday means closed museums and no Tour de France.  I didn’t want to hang around the city, so I took the bus out of town.  My guidebook described Volendam as touristy.  That sounded good to me.

First I walked across Amsterdam to the Centraal Station.  My first adventure was trying to find the right bus stop.  I asked one driver and got the wrong advice, and then followed a couple who seemed to know what they were doing.  They did, and I hopped on the bus with my OV chip card.

The journey to Volendam took about forty minutes.  From the station we went under the IJsselmeer via a tunnel.  The outskirts of the city, I am sorry to report, are not picturesque.  In the central canal belt the highest structures are the church spires.  On the periphery one finds high rise office buildings and those Corbusierville complexes—although Amsterdam’s look much better than those of Paris and London.

Then we reached the countryside--green pastures, farms, water, cows, Mr. and Mrs. Swan and the cygnets.

Windmills, Pil?  Please tell us there were windmills.  It’s Holland.

Er.  Yes.  There were windmills.  You know the kind in the San Gorgonio Pass?  That kind.  I promise real windmills later.

I always have this problem with bus travel of not knowing where to get off. I saw a sign for tourist information when we reached Volendam, so I hopped off.  I had a long walk through a very pretty town, which I would have enjoyed had it not been storming.  I passed a couple of luxury hotels with parking lots full of tour buses.  Hmm.  I thought.  Touristy.  But where is the trap?

Finally I reached the tourist zone and the tourist information office, got a map and headed out.  Volendam is definitely a tourist trap, but it’s also worth a visit—just not in crummy weather.  The tourist zone is along the water front on the IJsselmeer.

You are driving us nuts!  What is this IJsselmeer?

Oh, sorry.  It’s the old Zuider Zee (or Southern Sea), but it’s been enclosed and is now a fresh water lake.  The IJ is what the Dutch call it, and that capital J is not a typo.  I’m pretty sure meer means lake.  I don’t know what the IJ means.

I had more poffertjes for lunch mainly because I could get a small serving and they were hot.  This time I had them doused in maple syrup—and the powdered sugar, which once again I got all over me.

I walked up and down the waterfront mostly going into the touristy stores to escape the pounding rain and wind.  The souvenirs were the usual assortment.  There is a public toilet, but they charge us trapped tourists seventy euro cents a go. 

Many, many tour buses continued to pull up, and groups of bored-looking Asians joined my promenade.

If the weather had been nice, I might have walked out on the breakwater or strolled around more of the town, or even taken a ferry across the IJ to another town, but as it was I caught the bus back to Amsterdam.  Once in town I made my way slowly home stopping to visit department and book stores.  The rain and wind continued to pound.  Somehow I lost one of my contact lenses.  Don’t worry.  I always carry back up.  Hence, the idea of me sitting with my feet up reading my kindle with a cup of green tea by my side while the storm raged began to appear more and more attractive.

I didn’t have to stop to pick up food.  I had chicken tikka masala, which I like just fine and some Heineken Oud Brun, which was very dark and almost chocolately like Guinness.  So it was pleasant to come out of the weather and enjoy a bit of gelligheid.

Dag!