Day 11 Alsmeer Flower Auction, Amsterdam Canals,
Van Gogh
We sailed all night and arrive in Amsterdam.
I woke up at 5 and got on up, dressed and went out to the public area to
start knitting my cap. I knew I would
not be getting any more sleep and we had to get up early today anyway. I talked to a man from Iowa for a while as we waited for the others
(and the sun) to rise.
We had breakfast starting about 5:45 and the buses left the
ship at 6:30 to drive to Alsmeer and see the world famous flower auction that
begins at 7 each workday morning. Some
of us napped on the way. We arrived and
walked a long way to the entrance and then walked an even longer way inside the
building. This building is larger than
300+ soccer fields and is filled with millions of flowers everyday. Bidders from here and all over the world bid
very quickly and efficiently on the flowers which are then immediately sent on
their way to all corners of the world.
The flowers sold here are only the very best of the best, Grade A. Visitors like our group walk on a special
platform above the flowers and the auction room so that we do not interfere
with their operations. There are little
hyster like vehicles that men drive all around picking up crates of flowers
(that even make quite long trains of carts) and then taking them to trucks to
be loaded on planes. Daniel said that
the building is basically empty by 9:30 and that is when more flowers start
arriving for the next day. There were
beautiful flowers, MANY of them, but it was somewhat difficult to get a good
photo cause they didn’t sit still for long.
Some of us took the longcut and some took a shortcut and got to the
souvenir shop first – I’m not telling which cut I took but I bet you can
guess!) There will be several shipments
of tulips and other bulbs arriving in north GA at the end of October and not
just for me. After everyone had a chance
to place orders and buy souvenirs, we headed back to Amsterdam for a Canal Tour. On the way,
Daniel and the rest of us discussed many topics including greeting magpies,
cabbage patches versus storks, shooting chipmunks, squirrels and armadillos
(it’s dangerous to shoot an armadillos since the bullet will bounce off the
‘armor’ and hurt the shooter, says Daniel), and other important things.
We arrived back, almost to the ship, and met up with the
others in our group who chose not to go to the auction. The canal tour boats were nice and large and
had clear canopies over them. We rode
several of the canals, saw many beautiful and not so beautiful houseboats, OLD
buildings that are generally 9, 18, or 36 feet wide, went under many, many
bridges and just had a nice time. Again,
there was an old city and a new one. Amsterdam must be booming
because there is a lot of construction going on. Daniel said you can drink the canal water and
not die from it. You will get horribly
sick but not die. Personally, I’ll not
be drinking the canal water as it looked quite nasty. They are always dredging the canals and often
pull thousands of bicycles and other things from the canals each year. Daniel also told us that if we accidently end
up in the canal in our car to roll the windows up and stay up – we should be
rescued and the car pulled up in about 15 minutes and the rescue will be
free. If we leave the car, it will be
very expensive to get the car hauled up.
I think I’d rather pay that hope to survive 15 minutes underwater in the
car!!!! We saw the red light district but the city is now trying to close it down
because of the current issues of forcing girls from poor countries into
prostitution.
We walked to the ship after the canal experience and it was
a cold, windy walk but we made it back in time for lunch. Our waiters, Robert and Eka, are very
entertaining and we are glad they are our waiters.
We ordered a taxi (a mini van taxi that holds 8 people) to
pick us up at 2 so that we could go to the Van Gogh Museum.
Barbara from California
went we us. We had a nice long ride but
made it there and he gave us his card so we could call him when we were ready
to leave the museum. Across and down the
street from that museum is the Coster Diamond museum and showroom. I’ve decided I like diamonds and thought that
perhaps I should get another one since I’m in Amsterdam which is so famous for its diamond
dealers. So, I went to Costers while the
others went on to see the art. When I
told them I would like to see the showroom, she had a lady come down and meet
me to take care of me. Naturally, we
went up a lot of steps and then across a clear enclosed sidewalk from one of
the old buildings to another one. The
showroom was stunning – nice stuff. I
told her I would like to buy something that cost less that 500 Euros and she said
they didn’t have anything at that price.
Gee!! So I asked to see something
in that area – so she called ‘up’ and ‘they’ sent something down in a container
like the drive thru teller uses. While
we were waiting for it to arrive, I asked the prices of some of the items in
the showcase just in front of me – they start at 10,000 Euro and went up. I quit asking at 40,000+!! My diamonds had arrived by then – doesn’t
that sound nice and fancy – so I looked at them. They certainly were much smaller than those
in the showcase. Eventually I decided on
one that was more than I had planned to pay, but I really like it. I also like the chain I bought so now I have
a diamond necklace. Guess it’ll be a
really long time before I travel again.
Actually, it was not too bad – less than 700 Euros by the time I get my
VAT tax back at the airport, if I can remember to do that and I think with this
much at stake, I’ll remember!!
Then I went over to the Van Gogh museum and saw how long the
line was!!! Turns out those people were
waiting to buy tickets which we had done while on the ship the night
before. The line for those people who
already had tickets was non-existent because the man immediately scanned my
ticket and I walked right in. Nice. I had to go through a metal detector and many
people had to go back to store their backpacks, umbrellas, water bottles and so
on, but I breezed right through. Thank
goodness. I soon found the other girls
who were of course much farther along than I was, so I started wandering around
the museum with thousands of other people (or so it seemed). I was very impressed with his work and the
way it changed during his career. So
impressive and so sad that he had such a short career. My favorites were Sunflowers and Night. I plan to research Van Gogh and his paintings
later when I have internet access. We sat
for a while at the café, then toured the gift shop, then called our taxi driver
to come pick us up. We had to wait 30 –
40 minutes for him to arrive so of course, we shopped a little more. He took us around Amsterdam just a little and told us about the
city but we soon arrived back at the ship.
Seeing as there was nothing we HAD to do at that time, which
is very unusual for us), we set about resting, reading, napping or
whatever. I wrote the blog for yesterday
and the one for today up until lunch.
Dinner was nice as always and we discussed lots of topics including the
other GCT guests. We have named some of
them – Gorilla Man, Creepers, Creeper Keepers, Flip, the Sisters, the Romans, Cat
Lady (mother of Mittens) – but we don’t
mean anything bad by those names, they are just ways to differentiate people on
board. We have met some wonderful people
and made several new friends. After
dinner, we all met in Paula and Sarah’s room so we could view a photo Paula
took of Anne Frank’s house that has Sarah R’s reflection in it – it is sorta
spooky but interesting. We then sat
around and talked and laughed and lots of people stopped by to see what kind of
party we were having so of course we had a group photo taken. That one turned out kind of bad so we had to
have another one taken. J
Now, we have all gone our own ways and are looking forward
to tomorrow. We have no commitments in
the morning unless we want to go on a two hour walk of the Red Light District
with no stops for water or bathroom.
None of us are going, that’s for sure.
I’m considering getting on the streetcars and riding around the city and
perhaps finding a ‘brown café’ to explore.
That type of café is one that is old, sometimes with beautiful wood
details and stained glass windows or it might just be one for the older locals
to inhabit that has turned brown on the inside because of the centuries of
cigarette or pipe smoke that has accumulated. Be sure to notice that brown
cafes do not have anything to do with drugs like some of the coffeehouses have
to do with drugs. Or I might just stay
on the ship and enjoy some restful time like the others in our group plan to
do. In the afternoon, we are traveling
on the buses to Keukenhof, acres of flowers that will require lots and lots of
walking. The weather forecast calls for
mostly sunny with only 20% chance of rain.
Chances are good that we may have one day without rain – that would be
nice.
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