Yesterday was a truly picturesque day. We bumped our way through a major lock, floated down a long narrow channel, right through the heart of Amsterdam to our dock. We boarded a bus and headed out of town about an hour, north of Amsterdam. The guide was great, in that we learned a huge amount from her, but…..she spoke in a harsh monotone and if you removed the words, north, east, west and south from her speech, two thirds of what she was saying would have been gone. And, the bus driver, a good looking skookem sized girl with short spikey blond hair, and our guide, a good looking skookem sized girl with short spikey blond hair were totally enamoured with each other. Blessedly there would be moments of silence, and, not so blessedly, scary close calls on the road, while they gazed at each other and giggled.
It was almost surreal how perfect and beautiful Edam was. We walked from one side, through cobblestoned streets, along weeping willowed water canals, to the other side (much to the chagrin of the more crippled and fat). I so wish I could share pics with you. We then went on another half hour to a village I can’t spell. It was like entering a badly planned tiny Disneyland. Windmills, wooden clogs, delft china, cheese, tulip bulbs….ca..ching ca..ching. Bill and I cut loose of the hoards, found a little cafe deck on a canal and enjoyed a quiet cup of coffee and baguette and cheese. Lovely.
Now for the not so pc part of the day. Always the front set of seats are saved for the crippled and infirm or the “too fat” to get down the aisle. I agree with this totally. What I don’t agree with is them getting off first, or at all in some cases. Let me explain.
We paid about 89 dollars each for yesterday’s excursion. Happy to do it. The ship was late docking so that cut about 45 minutes off our time on shore. We had to be back to the ship by 1:15, and those tour guides make sure we are, and we were. Our excursion was to be four hours. Well………one of our less able guests, a man about my age, a “stick person” had something wrong with his hips or leg or something and judging by his size, it wasn’t going to get any better any time soon. I would have felt a lot more sympathy for him if his attitude hadn’t been so poor me, me first and you all can just bloody well wait, can’t you see I am in pain? As soon as the bus doors opened he would heave himself over to the aisle and start the loooooooooooooooooong laborious movements of leaving the bus. It would take him more than five minutes of grunts and groans and nasty remarks until he would finally hit ground. Then he would engage our guide, the one we all paid dearly to have, in an impossibly long unnecessary conversation about how much walking would there be and can he sit along the way and repeat over and over how he cannot walk fast or long distances. blah blah blah whine. Off we would go and we continually had to stop and wait for him whilst he sat for a while or hobbled and stopped and hobbled and stopped and hobbled and stopped. Well long story short, he absolutely without question cost us about 45 minutes at the least. This is not the first time this has happened to us. In Mumbai we had a couple of very very obese men on one of our tours. Half way through the streets to a market that was listed on our excursion, they stopped, could not go further and insisted we turn around. We did and did not get to see the market. We were pissed to say the least.
But..in spite of all that we had a most lovely day. Edam was spectacular. TTYL
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