Happy to see you back again.

The Nederlanders really do make travel easy.

First, the culture seems to really respect senior citizens.  (My mother hated that term. She said it made it look like they had taken everything from us but citizenship.  But I digress.)  Every time we were getting on or off a train or bus, there would be some young man or woman to help us with our bags.  That is no small feat, as the bags are large and there are many of them.  In our defense, we are going for 6 months….  One time, the two young men didn’t even ask, they just grabbed the biggest bags and put them on the bus.  That’s what happened the morning we left the hotel for the train station.  They were getting on with their surf boards.  On their way to Curacao.

The bus driver, not understanding what happened, yelled at them because they should have let us get on first.  I explained what they were doing and it worked out OK.  Then at the train station they took them off the bus for us.

Since we had purchased our tickets to the Hoek of Holland the day before, we only had to find the right platform.  Down the lift, to the platform.  Some young people put our bags on the train for us.  And we found our seats.  It was a short, 45 minute, ride.  I had first thought that the train station and the ferry station were in the same large complex.  Not so.   So, after taking the train to Hoek of Holland from Amsterdam station, we got off the train and took a lift (elevator) down to a tunnel.

crossed under the station and took another lift back up.  We then went out to the street and walked about a block to the bus stop for bus 711.  That is the bus that took us right to the door of the ferry station.

Side note:  When on the train, no one ever comes by to check your tickets.  However, you need the ticket to get out of the train station.  If you lose your ticket (or don’t buy one in the first place) you will be like Charlie on the MTA.  You will never get off!

We arrived about 1 pm and the ferry doesn’t leave till 10 pm, boarding at 7 pm. And, no place to leave luggage.  It looked like we would have to spend the 6 hours just waiting in the, just about empty, ferry station waiting room.  Lunch?  There were several vending machines with food (?) and drink.  I though there must be a better alternative.   

I left Anne and Fiesta in the waiting room and went out to find an alternative.  A short walk away I found a small hotel with a dining room and asked about renting a room for a short time, explaining about the bags.  The young man said that we could leave the bags with him in the restaurant, and pick them up later.  He called a cab for me and we went back to the station.  Got Anne, Fiesta and the bags and returned to the restaurant.  Problem solved.

Oh, and the dog was more than welcome in the restaurant.  As they are in most places in The Netherlands.

We had a lovely lunch there.  Then walked around for about 2 hours.  There is a war museum just at the water’s edge, but it was closed when we were there.  There also is a lovely, poignant statue in honor of the Jewish children who were sent to England by their parents to save them from the Nazis.

 

 

 

At this point it was time to return to the port terminal to get on the ferry.  That’s where we will see you next time.