In the water, then on it
I woke up quite late this afternoon after a late night yesterday, still feeling a little hungover when Astrid rang to ask if I felt like cycling to the IJsselmeer for a swim. It didn’t really appeal immediately in the state I was then in, but I figured that it would be worth the effort.
So, an hour and a half cycling later, and we were on the shores of the IJmeer (as it is called at that bit) just past Durgerdam. Unfortunately, it seemed like half of Amsterdam had had the same idea; as I have come to realise only too well, the idea of a bit of peace and quiet in the Dutch countryside is more or less impossible.
All the same, we were able to find a spot that was not to crowded and where a little home-made jetty had been constructed for getting into the water. Quite surprisingly, it was not at all cold; perhaps because it is not so deep here, and in any case it is quite far inland from the sea. This was once the sea (the Zuiderzee, to be precise), but has now long since been shut off from the ocean waves. This also means that it is fresh water, which avoids getting all sticky and salty as happens in the sea.
It was very comforting indeed to realise that (large crowds of people aside) it is possible to get to somewhere like this by bike from the centre of Amsterdam. It makes the city seem just a little less claustrophobic.
Just as we were sitting eating some fries outside a café in Durgerdam, Matthias rang me to ask if I wanted to go on a boat tour of Amsterdam later that evening. It seemed like a nice way to round off the weekend, and indeed their time in Holland (tomorrow they return to Germany) and so of course I said yes.
We assembled at 10pm just next to the Holland Casino near the Liedseplein. It turned out that this guy had used his life savings to invest in a small but very well-equipped boat, with which he is giving tours of the city’s canals. I have been on one of the big tour boats before, but this was so much nicer, and also cheaper. You see a totally different perspective of the city, and sipping wine and eating chocolates while leasurely drifting under the bridges makes it perhaps possible to imagine what life is like for the super-rich swine of which there are plenty in Amsterdam. Oh, and his boat is electric, so it is extremely quiet and does not pollute the air. What luxury!
