De Efteling to Amsterdam: Laundry woes and a runny nose.

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Wednesday 17 June:



Zachary had a bit of a rough night with his cold really kicking in. However we managed to get ourselves up and moving, albeit a bit slowly. We took our gear to reception and ordered a taxi to take us to Tilburg. There was no way we were going to be able to go back to the park, then back to the Village, and then lug all our gear to the bus stop while managing Zachary so this was the best option. We went back into the park about 10:30. It was warmer than yesterday and also a hell of a lot busier. We headed straight for the Fairytale Forest to see the part we missed yesterday. That was very worthwhile with the Storytelling Tree being the highlight. I thought I’d better ask Heather if she had her travel pouch with passport etc. She didn’t. She had forgotten to put it on and I was last out of the room and didn’t notice it. So after buying some delicious krentenbollen we went back to reception and a nice young lady accompanied me back to the accommodation so we could retrieve it. Got there and no sign of the pouch, or of the cleaners! Anyway after a bit of searching of the grounds we found the cleaners having lunch and one of them had retrieved the pouch. Got back just in time for the taxi.



No further dramas and we got the two trains needed to arrive at Amsterdam Centraal at about 2:20 and then quickly found our bus to our hotel which is in Katwoude, near Volendam a little north of the city. The hotel room is quite big but otherwise average. Zachary had done extremely well to cope so far (sleeping for 45 mins on the train) so he chilled out and watched some “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” while we got ourselves organised. We urgently needed to do laundry and get a few groceries. We also needed dinner. I established there was a self-service laundry quite close to Centraal so Heather headed that way. Zachary decided he was feeling well enough to go out so we caught the bus to the town of Volendam. This is a very nice town, on the coast (yes, the Netherlands has coastline, look at a map!) and I would be keen to go back and see a bit more of it if time allows. You will probably all be familiar with the “traditional Dutch” costume worn by women with the high pointed bonnet. This is actually from Volendam and some people do still wear the traditional clothes. We managed to get some dinner and eat it sitting in the grass by a canal. We also got the grocery shopping done. On the way back I was reminded we were in the Amsterdam area when Zachary picked something up from between the seats and asked me what it was. Hint: It was in a small plastic re-sealable bag and was grassy in nature... Heather, alas, was not having quite the same success. She found the laundry which had only small machines for both washing and drying. To get it all done would have ended up costing over €30 as well as being time-consuming and frustrating. So she just did enough to last us for the next few days. Hannie and Anja, who we are staying with from Friday, had already kindly advised us not to spend money on laundry but to do it at their house, so this offer will be taken up.



We got back to the hotel first and Zachary had his shower and another dose of Pamol. Then off to bed for him and Heather arrived back. I read him the book he got from “Mr Sandman” at De Efteling. It is in Dutch so I was reading it in Dutch then translating with a reasonable degree of success!



Tomorrow Heather is going to head into Amsterdam and get to Anne Frank House as soon as it opens. She commented that, walking to the laundry, the city was madly busy. I assured her this is very normal and that, in fact, it may have been a quiet time. So she will try to do that and hopefully get me a ticket for later and we’ll meet up at some point. Zachary and I may therefore head back to Volendam first.

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