We felt a little worn out by the time we'd got to our last day here, so we decided to get out of the city and see a little of the countryside. The Princess looked up the bus schedules and we headed off to the bus station and caught a ride to the seaside - The Ziuder Zee. Not a long way from Amsterdam as the crow flies but a bit of a bus ride through the low, flat grazing fields west of the city. It's very pretty, with lovely gardens around some really nice homes and we first stopped in a pretty town called Broek - the ticket is a 10 Euro -all day, so we could explore at our leisure. This is a little residential town with lovely 17th & 18th century homes, but it's quite pretty, but not a lot to offer the tourist. Back on the bus, we headed on to Monnickendam and then Marken, which is at the end of a very long causeway (it was originally an island town). We'd travelled quite some distance behind a huge dyke and the Princess said "What if the dyke developed a leak?", so I raised a finger in reply!
After coffee in Marken, we jumped back on another bus and headed off to Volendam, which is quite a resort town on the coast and quite a busy fishing, sailing and tourist place. Whilst there a German River Cruiser pulled in and hundreds of day-trippers trouped off. Fortunately by then we'd finished lunch and had seen most of what the town had to offer, so we waited for another bus to take us back to Amsterdam and a little quiet time before heading out for dinner tonight.
For anybody heading to Amsterdam and looking for good, quiet accomodation, not too expensive, and in a great area, you could do a lot worse than "
Quartier Neuf", run by Jasper and Vera. Jasper is very helpful, a nice guy and makes a fantastic breakfast - Just thought I'd put in a plug. He also provides a fridge full of drinks including wine!
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