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DAY 2/226 1981 – OSTEND TO AMSTERDAM (HOLLAND)

HEINEKIN BREWERY

DAM SQUARE

RED LIGHT AREA

The Rijks Museum is a must-visit, as it houses one of my favourite paintings, Rembrandt’s Nightwatch (pictured). It is an immense work of art in every way, and never fails to impress.

We have the compulsory Heinekin Brewery tour, accompanied by copious, unlimited quantities of free beer for testing, tasting and educational purposes. But our mistake here at Heinekin, and later at the Carlsburg brewery in Copenhagen, is to buy much more beer than we can consume in the high alcohol tax Scandinavian countries. These copious quantities of excessive alcohol subsequently lead to the confiscation of our bus and alcohol when we land at the Helsinki ferry terminal with too much beer and other alcohol. At least Mark Bannerman didn’t spend 9 months in jail, like another Top Deck driver languishing in a Quetta prison after a Johnny Walker Scotch bootleg run across Iran into Pakistan.

In the early part of the 17th century, a comprehensive canal plan was put together for Amsterdam, with four main half-circles of canals with their ends resting on the IJ Bay. Known as the "grachtengordel", three of the canals are residential (Herengracht or ‘’Patricians' Canal’’; Keizersgracht or ‘’Emperor's Canal’’; and Prinsengracht or ‘’Prince's Canal’’), and a fourth, outer canal, the Singelgracht, for defense and water management.

Construction proceeded from west to east, across the breadth of the layout, like a gigantic windshield wiper as the historian Geert Mak calls it. Construction of the north-western sector was started in 1613 and was finished around 1625. After 1664, building in the southern sector was started.

Volendam is the compulsory photo-stop for European tours, where we get dressed up in traditional Dutch clothes, milkmaid outfits for the girls to try to make them look Dutch, and have group and individual photos taken.

Our Dutch national meal is Rijsttafel , a Dutch word that literally translates to "rice table", an Indonesian meal adapted by the Dutch consisting of many dishes served in small portions and/or as a smorgasbord. Popular side dishes include egg rolls, sambals, satay, fish, fruit, vegetables, pickles, and nuts. In most areas where it is served, such as the Netherlands, it is known under its Dutch name, and we always regard it as the Dutch National Meal, even though it is Indonesian.

The rijsttafel is a festive banquet that represents the multi-ethnic nature of the Indonesian archipelago. Dishes are assembled from many regions of Indonesia, where many different cuisines exist, often determined by ethnicity and culture of the particular island or island group.

Although the dishes served are undoubtedly Indonesian, the rijsttafel’s origins were colonial from Indonesia, formerly a Dutch colony. Corrie's great uncle on her mother’s side, Pieter de Carpentier, at that time the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, was the first Dutch Governor of Batavia, and sent the Duyft and Arnhem south in 1623, where they discovered “New Holland”. They named the Gulf of Carpentaria after Corrie’s great uncle, and named Arnhem land after the Arnhem on its 1623 voyage to New Holland. The Dutch, like every other invader for thousands of years, were fought off "New Holland" by the ferocious local indigenous people.

Our fiunal stop is the Red Light district, famous for its window shopping, coffee shops and great live music …..

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