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Published: November 10th 2014
It was still dark outside as I heard the dulcet tones of the mammoth singing away to himself…. Woolly says – Hippy Burpday to me, hippy burpday to me, hippy burpday wonderful Woolly hippy burpday to me. Well someone has to do the honours and as we said a sad farewell to daughter Zoe and friends Chantelle and Jade as they headed off for their flight it seemed it would have to be ME! ……. If he had waited a few minutes I would have sung it! Woolly says – It’s my burpday and I’ll sing when I want to! Having opened my cards and presents, the Ferrari must be waiting at home, I prised Jo out of her bed and into the world that awaited outside. First port of call had to be breakfast and as I wiped away the egg yolk that seemed to have got round my tail I demanded to know what Jo had planned for the biggest and most important day of the year. She smiled and told me it was a surprize, hmmmm now that could be dangerous, trying to wrestle the map from her hands was useless so with as much dignity as I could muster I gave in to the unknown and trotted after her down the road. The Amstel River was flowing in front of us and through the bitterly cold fog I could just make out the houseboats moored everywhere, I wonder what it would be like to live on a boat? I would need protective clothing to stop the water touching me, hmmm I wonder where I could get it from?
As the birthday boy contemplated a new lifestyle I was pleased to see that our destination wasn’t far away and that we would make it before any fingers, toes or paws dropped off in the cold. Woolly says – I could see a large green building in front of us with the words Nemo on the side, ooooo were we going to see the film? I would have preferred Ice Age of course but beggars can’t be chooser’s. As we entered through the large glass doors into the welcoming warmth I looked around, no popcorn on sale, that’s not a good sign, in fact there seemed to be nothing to do with any form of cinema at all, what were we doing here?
I had thought long and hard about how best to entertain his royal furriness and had thought that Nemo, the science museum might be just up his street. The museum started in 1923, and is housed in a building designed by Renzo Piano, since 1997 it has been known as Nemo. With five floors of hands-on science exhibitions it is the largest science centre in the Netherlands and attracts over 500,000 visitors annually, which makes it the fifth most visited museum in the Netherlands. It would hopefully keep the mammoth entertained for an hour or two. Woolly says – Reaching the top of the first flight of steps I was rendered speechless, buttons to push, things to build, and computers to play on was just the starting point. I bustled my way between a large production area of plastic balls that you could weigh and move to the next part of their production and into an area about DNA, with lots of buttons to push, I was in my element. Finding a globe that was making lightening I eagerly pressed my trunk against it and found lightening coming straight from me! How cool is that. The next floor provided more and more delights as I tried to colour match, checked my weight and oxygen levels before rushing over to find out which side of my mammoth brain is in charge.
It was a joy to behold, without a murmur about snacks or a moan about anything I could only smile at the joy that seemed to exude from every pore of his small frame. As we moved to the next floor he nearly ran over several children in his haste to find out more about the functions of the brain before he erupted onto the outside terrace and the views over the whole of Amsterdam. Woolly says – Not that you could see a lot with the fog still lingering, undeterred I headed back inside and set to with investigating the sound lab which involved lots more buttons to press and huge amount of noise to make. Just as I thought we had seen everything I spied a lab with lots of chemicals, before Jo could react I was inside and watching with fascination as the mad scientist in charge mixed potions and lotions and things fizzed and exploded, I need a chemistry set, I need to be able to blow things up!
Before he could blew himself up and in fear of the chemical reactions he might cause if left any longer I guided him back to the entrance and into the cold beyond. Woolly says – it was fantastic, marvellous, inspiring, I want to go back NOW! Jo tried to interest me in a masted galleon that was docked, was she joking, it was nothing in comparison, she was obviously grasping at straws as with a sigh she suggested a cake, hmmm science versus a cake, ok I can be bribed. The meringue was to die for and having spent half an hour sucking sticky bits from my fur I looked at my carer to find out what excitement was in store next. The suggestion of a canal tour seemed to be a good one and one that would mean my paws could have a rest while my mind was able to absorb more of the architecture of the city. Having paid over our Euro’s we ascended onto the boat and with an excellent viewing point we started the tour of the famous canal network.
Amsterdam has more than one hundred kilometres of canals, around 90 islands and 1,500 bridges. The three main canals, Herengracht, Prinsengracht, and Keizersgracht, were dug in the 17th century during the Dutch Golden Age and form a concentric belt around the city, known as the Grachtengordel. Alongside the main canals are 1550 monumental buildings. The whole area was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010. Woolly says – it was lovely floating along and gave a different view of the city, as we passed house boats in various sizes and makes and made tight turns through tunnels and locks a very brief commentary went on. It didn’t really tell me very much at all which was disappointing but Jo came to my aid adding further information on the hooks that hang from the top of the buildings and were used to haul goods to the attic spaces for storage as well as explaining about the Skinny Bridge. The Magere Brug was a bascule bridge made of white-painted wood, the present bridge was built in 1934. The first bridge at this site was built in 1691 and had 13 arches. Because this bridge was very narrow, the locals called it magere brug, which literally means "skinny bridge". In 1871 the state of the bridge was so bad that it was demolished and replaced by a nine-arched wooden bridge. Fifty years later this bridge also needed to be replaced, the architect Piet Kramer made several designs for a steel and stone bridge, but the city decided to replace it with a new bridge that looked the same as the previous, only slightly bigger. In 1934 the bridge was demolished and replaced. The last major renovation was in 1969, until 1994 the bridge was opened by hand, but now is opened automatically. It did look very ‘skinny’ but very pretty to.
As we cruised along we could admire the beautiful buildings that line the canals and the peace and tranquillity that seemed to be a part of the world inhabited on the waterways. All too soon the trip was over and knowing that I was being looked at to explain the last part of the day, his big brown eyes giving his customary pleading look, I held onto his paw as we made our way to what looked like a rather nice Chinese restaurant.
Woolly says – She knows me so well, and having already consumed a wonderful Indian feast the night before with daughter Zoe for my pre-burpday celebrations, being offered my second favourite type of food for tonight’s indulgence was the perfect end to the day. As I sat watching the world pass by our restaurant window and munched on my prawn crackers, I gave Jo a quick prod in the arm to thank her for a lovely day, well I think she did quite well and with my Ferrari probably waiting for me at home I was a contented mammoth to say the least. The contentment was short lived, arriving back at the hostel for our last night we knew that there was a chance that we would be sharing our bunk room tonight, how little we realised! Woolly says – we had settled down knowing that we had a very early start in the morning and having dosed for an hour I became fully awake to the loud noise of our ‘roomies’ arriving back for the night. I peeked out from the covers to be greeted with a shocking sight.
I don’t know who was more astounded at the sight that was before us. Three very loud, naked Bulgarian men had moved in, Woolly seemed to have become traumatised and was shaking and to be fair I didn’t feel much better myself. Woolly says – I whispered to Jo asking what on earth we were going to do, she told me to play possum, which is pretty stupid as I’m a mammoth and haven’t studied possums to know what they might do in any situation let alone this one. Their noise continued and feeling incredibly uncomfortable I decided to take my own advice and play the ‘asleep’ card until it went quiet. Checking the time under the covers showed we only had an hour and a half before we needed to get up so with no chance of sleep I lay there cuddling my little friend. Woolly says – finally the light went out and within ten minutes the snores had started, this was the chance to escape, I poked Jo and although she can usually move pretty quietly for some reason the picking up of our belongings and bags was incredibly noisy! I heard some angry shouts from behind as I shut the door non to gently and we ran for the bathroom area.
We sat waiting for our transfer feeling somewhat wobbly after our experience, the mammoth seemed to have regressed into himself and had developed a twitch. Reassuring him that we were safe and only had a long day of travel ahead and that nothing could go wrong, I could hear him murmuring about ‘hairy men’ and ‘male parts’, I just hoped he wouldn’t be scared for life! Woolly says – I have never been so glad to see an airport terminal and jumping out of the minibus I scampered across the concourse to check our gate for the start of our journey home. I read it all and then re-read our tickets, feeling the colour drain out of me I looked up at Jo and waited for the melt down……. Having checked, double checked and even got the staff at Gazipassa Airport to check our return tickets, I was perplexed, no flights to Istanbul were listed, and nothing showing at all for the airline, in fact the only flight going in our direction was a direct one to Antalya on another carrier.
Woolly says - ……. It didn’t happen, no melt down! I bundled the tissues away and ran behind my companion as fast as I could, what on earth were we going to do? Would I have to return to bunk in with those strange men again, would I end up homeless on the streets of Amsterdam? Jo seemed remarkably calm as she approached the only open ticket desk in the whole terminal. She showed our flight information and spoke quietly to the man behind the desk, not a tear in sight. Several phone calls and one further official from the airport and we seemed to be sorted. A free transfer onto the direct flight which meant cutting our travel day down to three and a half hours and the only problems left were to run for the flight which was loading and work out how to get home at the other end. Woolly says – I didn’t need telling twice and as I hurtled through the airport I felt like Phileas Fogg on his epic journey around the world when he thought he was going to be late, just call me Woolly Fogg. I leapt into my seat as the plane started to taxi from its stand and breathed a sigh of relief, we’d made it, I was so proud of Jo, I might even let her plan another trip!
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Kuan Yin
Karen Johnson
No airport camping?
So glad Woolly didn't have to end up camping out in he airport. Many years ago I got to the airport to find out the carrier on which I had tickets had gone out of business overnight! In the middle of the night they had taken down their sign at the ticket counter, the airplanes had been flown to another location (by whom I never found out) and there were no airline personnel anywhere. The only ticket I could get to my destination was in first class on another airline. Luckily I had a credit card, however it did make flying in economy (AKA "cattle class") much less appealing.