Volendam Dam, DAMN!

Day 7 (16 November 2006). Love at the first sight. Shoosh....



First thing first - for Anna & myself to get to our "boat hotel", we need to take a 10 mins ferry ride to cross over and the best part is that the its FREE! We were so excited over this whole idea of our so called "NEW" type accommodation experience (first time lar konon).

I HAVE to tell EVERYone that this was not what we expected (but we ain't complaining either - more like laughed over it.. ehehehe...). The story goes…

…. As we reach the "ship" (with the sail and captain and all), immediately we were directed to our cabin once we got our keys. Upon opening the cabin door..... jeng jeng jeng... *suspense music*, before I continue, you have to remember that neither Anna nor myself ever experience any sort of this in our life before (this refers to accommodation, what were you thinking!?!?). The door..... opens, we saw it....there... in front of us. 2 beds in "L" shape, small sink in front of the bed facing front and there's a door to the toilet, we open the toilet door and BURST out laughing instantly. I have to admit, I should have taken a photo (now I bet no one will believe me! DARN! Thus this sketch is much needed), heehehhe.... as you can see, IT IS REALLY A TINY LITTLE CABIN. Hahhahah..... I remembered us saying that we can do both shower and poo concurrently... ehehheh.… YUP! Sorry to disappoint everyone as it is not a YATCH! However, I did kinda wish for that lar... then reality hits me

;P

That's our boat docking - KEWL huh!

To our surprise, the next morning as we were about to check-out of "OUR" boat (or we also like to refer it as “yatch” - perasan abit here), the captain asked what would we want for breakfast; WOW! Didn't realised that it comes with breakfast and cook by the captain himself - HONORED... (jimat duit).

OK! Story-morie abit - Anna have this "superb" plan that we should swap boat hotel for the 2 nights we are here - and that we should try different type of boat hotel according to her lar. Hence, we check-out that morning BUT not without taking a few shots of the boat. Oh! Apparently the lovely & friendly captain sails away during spring & summer to the Scandinavian countries, autumn & winter he will be around. I wish I have more time to talk and hear his stories, I felt I just met with Sinbad (if you know what I mean).

Meanwhile we signed on a half day package to tour around Zaanse Schans, Marken & Volendam. I decided that I absolutely can fall i love with Volendam... any sane person would, seriously, me no kid you leh.

Lets start with Zaanse Schans or Windmill Village, hemmm... What & how should I describe here other then windmill, windmill and more windmillssss. Seriously, despite that tourist flocks this place for the windmills; most people got distracted with the souvenir shop instead hence I noticed many did not walk across to the windmill area - such a waste (me included, guilty as charge). Having said that, I DID manage to capture a few, especially those nearer to the shop lar.... am NOT all that bad I guess. Just that after searching whole album, I can't find any windmill scenery pics; guess I just have to go again lor (excuses to travel!).

Okay, I bet everyone eager to know what is this "great" shop all about. Well, it's where you buy the Dutch clog or Klompen as known to them, comes in form of decor, shoe to wear, hot plate, magnets, bell, toy, basically any thing you can think of. Talk about creativity! Oh, by the way, even the display/decor clog comes in sizes, colours and pics etc. I went CRAZZZZZZY, I can't decide which one to get, everything is nice and colourful (And I absolutely love colours - they shouldn’t have soooo many options, makes my life difficult :P )

There was also demo on clog making, the normal-standard-touristy-thingy lar - showing you step by step. Do you know that they use to wear these to go to the farm as its extremely damp/wet during winter (to know more, click here), and now they "converted" this to souvenir... KEWL huh!

VOLENDAM.. my favourite *high pitch shrieking excitedly*. A MUST MUST MUST GO! I totally fell in love with this place; it's like walking into pretty, dainty, quaint and romantic houses by the dam. And what so great about this dam right? Well, apparently it was an artists' retreat (both Picasso and Renoir spent time here creating their masterpiece) in the early 20th century. Not only that, you too might wonder what so great about this dam? The pic above says it all, it's super duper huge and there's even cruise ship in the dam... DAMN!

We then went to Marken, of which the bus didn't stop for any sightseeing *sigh*, but one can do a 2-3 hours hike from Volendam to Marken, I think that would be lovely during Spring/Summer. What I notice here is that all house (well most houses) seems have small boat behind their house since there's a big canal? Drain? - their back yard. Just imagine you bro/sis/kids, going to neighbour house and play instead of taking the bike, they took the boat.

Hehheheee... cute hor?

2nd night was different boat hotel as mentioned; we stayed in Zeeland (NO! Not New Zealand). Much smaller then the earlier boat but it's ok for al-cheapo traveler like us :D This time I took pic of the boat interior BUT still NOT SMART enough to take the cabin pic. LILY!!!! DUH!!!

BRIDGES? Plenty of them here, the one that caught my attention, are those that flip up and swing over. I managed to catch both in action! YIPPEE!

I also *RIAK [Malay word]= with smartness feeling* manage to take the famous building in The Netherland. Actually.... am not sure it's famous or not lar... but it was on my travel book, I thought I owe it to DK Eyewitness to prove this building exist lor.... heheheh... Building - CHECKED.

Of course, I took the canal cruise that cost me €7. Oklar I figure.

I have to brag - I found my Maoz Salas Bar *gleaming*… this time I took pic of the bar ITSELF.... I bet some of you would be wondering about this? Is it tasty? And… WHY?? Yes! YES! YESSSS! One of the sauces is basically cili padi! SYOOOOOOOK! Can you see in the pic??? That red and green mix…. SEDAP!!!!

Aaaah..... Amsterdam trip ends here, need to check-out and part with Anna, she going back to Paris to meet her colleagues before flying back to Malaysia.

Me? Taking next flight to ...... Stockholm! Woo hoo!

Hyperlink Credits : Wikipedia