Amsterdam; Saturday, 30 November, 2019

As it was an early flight, I’d stayed overnight near the airport so the 5:30 checkin wasn’t quite as horrific as it might have been. After checking in and going through security I grabbed some breakfast before heading down to the gate – needless to say the furthest one from the terminal building at Gatwick – getting there just as boarding started.

It was a smooth flight, slightly delayed as the plane needed to be de-iced as it had spent the night on the stand in sub-zero temperatures, and we landed on the very distant runway at Schiphol so it was a lengthy taxi into the terminal building, where we were once again on the gate furthest from the terminal building. After a long walk through the terminal and claiming my baggage I headed into the arrivals hall and stopped off at the tourist office to pick up a pre-booked I Amsterdam City Card which would cover most of my travel and attraction costs for the break.

I then quickly headed over to the train station to pick up a new 5-year OV-Chipkaart (Dutch electronic travel card that works on all transport across the whole of the country) and top it up, before heading out to the bus station outside the terminal and catching the bus a couple of stops over to the Amsetlveen where I was able to change onto the tram and take that a couple of stops to my hotel. It was still way too early to check-in for the hotel, but I was able to drop off my bag and head back out again.

I picked up another tram heading back towards the city and changed at Zuid station where I hopped onto a local train a couple of stops down the line to the small town of Weesp where I changed onto a local bus (it was a very smooth connection, that could have gone very wrong if the tram hadn’t arrived when it did) and headed over to the town of Muiden.

Muiden is located at the mouth of the Vecht river, and at the point where, before the construction of the big dykes and the draining of the land, it emptied into the sea – so it was an important place to protect. Consequently, a large and impressive castle was built at the mouth of the river to help defend it. I had a long look round the castle and the fortifications that surround it before it was time to repeat the journey in reverse and head back into the centre of Amsterdam.

I stopped off briefly in the centre to buy a ticket for a evening canal cruise, which during the winter months take in the Amsterdam Light Festival – a series of light installations in or by the canals that are on display from late November until the New Year. When I purchased the ticket, the sales guy advised getting to the boarding point after 20:00 so it would be quieter and that the tours were at least every 30 minutes, and likely more frequently.

With the ticket purchased I headed back to the hotel to check-in and, after a freshen up, headed back into the city centre for dinner.

After dinner, and just a little before 20:00 I headed over to the boarding point for the evening cruise – to see quite a lengthy queue. Which given what the ticket salesperson had told me, was surprising. However, I joined the queue and waited for the next departure knowing it wouldn’t be too long, as that is what the salesperson had said. That turned out to be a complete lie as well and it was nearly 90 minutes before a boat finally turned up. I was far enough into the queue that I was able to board, but I couldn’t get a window seat and was only able to take photos by leaning at an awkward angle around other people.

The tour took around an hour – but it felt much longer as it was uncomfortably cramped, and with the sound system in the boat on the blink it was also impossible to hear any of the commentary – so all in all quite a big waste of money.

Disappointed we arrived back at the landing stage, where at least I was able to quickly get the metro down to Zuid station where I intended on picking up the tram – though it turned out that there was a fault with the overhead wires and the trams weren’t going south of Zuid station so instead everyone had to cram into a replacement bus which took me back to my stop near the hotel.