It was a corker of a day in Amsterdam. Here’s Amsterdam Centraal replete with:
Note the absence of cars. I came into the centre early to send a parcel of clothes home. I packed too much, and too heavy...
As a salve to the obligatory self-pity over my damaged ear, I spent the afternoon at the Scheepvaartmuseum - the Netherlands Maritime Museum - which is about 200 metres from my apartment in the Amsterdam docklands. It occupies a 17th Century naval store plonked in the middle of a small inlet of Amsterdam Harbour, and it’s full of paintings, model ships, relics and cannon. My idea of a good time.
Most wonderful of all was the full-scale replica of The Amsterdam, an 18th Century VOC East Indiaman. Although the original was 120 years younger, it’s much the same size and tonnage as The Batavia. (There’s a replica of The Batavia, but it’s at a theme park outside Amsterdam.) The Amsterdam replica was built in 1995 from African Teak, as massive oak trees are hard to come by these days. Ironically, African Teak is now a threatened species.
These ships were the Starship Enterprises of their day. A round trip to Batavia could take two years, and, as we know, many of them forgot to take a left turn at Albuquerque. The Amsterdam is nearly 50 metres long with masts a metre wide at the base, but I’d still back the reefs of the Abrolhos when push comes to shove.
It wasn’t crowded, and there were few restrictions on exploring the vessel. I refrained from making for the crow’s nest, but I did, of course, resort to speaking like a pirate for some hours after my visit.
- Blue sky
- Tram
- Herd of bicycles
- Token pedestrians.
Note the absence of cars. I came into the centre early to send a parcel of clothes home. I packed too much, and too heavy...
As a salve to the obligatory self-pity over my damaged ear, I spent the afternoon at the Scheepvaartmuseum - the Netherlands Maritime Museum - which is about 200 metres from my apartment in the Amsterdam docklands. It occupies a 17th Century naval store plonked in the middle of a small inlet of Amsterdam Harbour, and it’s full of paintings, model ships, relics and cannon. My idea of a good time.
Most wonderful of all was the full-scale replica of The Amsterdam, an 18th Century VOC East Indiaman. Although the original was 120 years younger, it’s much the same size and tonnage as The Batavia. (There’s a replica of The Batavia, but it’s at a theme park outside Amsterdam.) The Amsterdam replica was built in 1995 from African Teak, as massive oak trees are hard to come by these days. Ironically, African Teak is now a threatened species.
These ships were the Starship Enterprises of their day. A round trip to Batavia could take two years, and, as we know, many of them forgot to take a left turn at Albuquerque. The Amsterdam is nearly 50 metres long with masts a metre wide at the base, but I’d still back the reefs of the Abrolhos when push comes to shove.
It wasn’t crowded, and there were few restrictions on exploring the vessel. I refrained from making for the crow’s nest, but I did, of course, resort to speaking like a pirate for some hours after my visit.
