Amsterdam Final Days

Our final days in Amstedam have been hampered by some pretty crappy weather. This scuttled plans to go to the beach at Zandvoort and other outdoor pursuits on the island of Texel. At least those things can remain on the list of things to do for next time.

On perhaps the only reasonable weather day in our last week, we spent the day with Magda and Ado. They had invited us to go for a Sunday walk in the forest of Leuvenum.

With Magda, Ado and myself all suffering from bad backs, the casual but lengthy stroll through the woods was good for all of us.

 After the walk we went to a nearby restaurant / cafe called 'De Zwarte Boer'. The weather was just nice enough for us to sit outside. It was an interesting place to people watch - hikers coming in from their treks, cyclists and motorcyclists taking a break from their rides and even people 'parking' their horses before coming in for a meal. Do you park a horse? What's the proper term? Hitch em up?

We managed to pay for this meal so we didn't feel too much like scabs!

On the following day, Monday, it was a public holiday. Running out of time to go and see places and do stuff we decided it could be a good time to go to Hoorn. This is a small town recommended by Claudia for a visit.

Being a public holiday 90% of the town was shut. As it isn't a big place we whipped through it in about 15 minutes. It certainly is a nice place - just like all of the small towns in Holland (that I've been to). Maybe next time I come to Holland I'll try to find a shitty place, just to prove they exist. So far they don't.

With the town pretty much closed for business we decided not to waste the day. Instead we called up Rivka who lives relatively close by and popped by for a few coffees and a catch up.

On Tuesday the weather turned super crap again. We wanted to go to Utrecht (yea - a pretty city!), a place we like to visit and one we have spent quite a bit of time in on past visits. The weather really does put a downer on an outing so we focussed on some key shopping that Nordine wanted to acheive and a walk through the train centre shopping area and the tightly packed streets of the old town.

On the way back home from Utrecht we stopped by a place called 'The Wall'. This is an outlet shopping centre which is right next to the main highway that connects Amsterdam to Utrecht. We had seen it several times before on previous trips up this highway and its interesting architecture and 'XXL Stores' beckoned us to make a visit.

The drive there was first time the GPS sent us down the wrong path - taking us down a bus only lane and then dead ending us somewhere. Hopefully its not illegal to drive in the bus lanes...and hopefully no cameras catching us in the act.

The Wall turned out to be a huge dissapointment. Housing only about four stores, and nothing that you wouldn't get in any other shopping centre, we wondered what was the point. What a waste of a colossal building.

On our last full day in Holland we went into Amsterdam centrum to have a last look around. We had lunch at  Vapiano, bought some stuff from the Dutch department store Hema, got ourselves another Van De Linde ice cream and headed back home.

 Back near the house we stopped off at the local Albert Heijn supermarket to stock up on all the Dutch essentails that we can't easily get in Berlin.

And with that...we were done. 

With us now living in such close proximity we now wonder when we will be back next. Sometime this year? A couple of years? Who knows, anything is probable. We have enough packets of Dutch stuff to tide us over to years end anyway.

Until whenever...Tot Ziens Dutchies.