Floriade in Amsterdam (5/29-30/1982)

Friday, May 28, 1982

This evening I left at 20:45 to go to the Biel train station, bought a one-way ticket to Basel for 8.40 CHF/$4.20 and settled on the train due to leave at 21:27, but it left 10 minutes late. Still working out the kinks of the new schedule?

It was 22:45 when we arrived in Basel and I was planning on catching the 23:56 train to Amsterdam. Oh, no! The schedule had changed and the train left at 22:40! Or did it? I ran to the train that was still sitting at the platform. It ended up sitting there until 23:00 and before it left a customs official checked my passport. Lately, my passport has received careful scrutiny with every paged flipped through.

Other passengers joined the compartment in Basel Bad, Germany, and then the conductor came to sell me a ticket for 111 DM/$48 to Emmerich. He could only sell me a ticket within Germany.

Basel to Emmerich train ticket

Saturday, May 29, 1982

Shortly after midnight we picked up more passengers in Freiburg. I thought it was a girl asking if she could sit at the window opposite me, but it was a teenaged boy. He offered to let me put my feet up on his seat, but I can sleep sitting straight up. But I let him put his feet on my seat, and he behaved. Except that when the conductor came at about 5:00, he said he originated in Mainz, so saved himself a bundle of money. You could see castle silhouettes as we traveled along the Rhein. A couple joined us in Köln. After 6:00 we passed the smoking industrial cities of Dusseldorf and Duisberg. In Oberhausen we spent a long time in the railroad yards being shuttled back and forth. A conductor came along and exclaimed the couple was on the wrong train, and he ushered them out while the station crew yelled to get them across the tracks to the right train.

At Emmerich, the Dutch customs officials came through and carefully examined the passport of the Asian girl (not me, another girl!). The German high school kids showed their identification cards and were asked simple questions. My passport was flipped through page by page and I was interviewed in English: where was I going, how long, where was I going afterwards, etc. When the conductor came, he said a ticket to Amsterdam would cost 22 Dutch Guilders (NLG)/$8.50. I gave him a 25 NLG bill and he said thank you and left! When I looked in my hand, I had the 22 NLG ticket and a 3 NLG supplement!

Emmerich to Amsterdam ticket

Emmerich to Amsterdam supplement

We arrived in Amsterdam at 9:40. Everything looked different with a new transit information booth, a new Metro stop, a new tram stop and new trams. Even the tourist bureau was new. Joined the lines at the tourist bureau to get a brochure about the Floriade and learned I could take the subway there. So I went to the transit booth to learn about fares and passes, and was sent to another booth to get a day pass. There the girl was being impatient with a man who spoke accented English. I asked for a one-day pass and she gave me a one-week pass. I had a 5 NLG bill to give her and she shook the ticket in my face to show it cost more. I said with a smile, “a one DAY card,” and she threw the proper card in the tray.

One-day transit pass

I had to go to another part of the station to purchase an international train ticket and had to take a number to wait my turn. Finally bought a one-way ticket to Basel for 157.80 NLG/$61. It was about 10:30 when I was done with all my business, so I validated my day pass and took the Metro to Gaasperplas. The tram was a simple aluminum car with red-orange doors you had to open yourself by pushing a button. There was no indication on the car about opening the doors, I learned that from the brochure. The Nieuwmarkt station had uneven “broken” walls with old photos behind them, and one section was a huge framed but broken window. The next station had Waterloo painted in bright colors across the wall; another had a jumble of different sized letters and numbers painted on the wall. Station art?

Suddenly we were outdoors in the outskirts of the city, passing factories, cow pastures, and unbelievably huge apartment complexes. Not especially tall, but long! Gaasperplas is a large artificial lake with a large park and nature reserve that is hosting the third International Horticulture Exhibition called Floriade, which is held every ten years in a different location in Holland/The Netherlands.

The entrance to the Floriade was right at the Metro exit and I bought a 10 NLG/$4 day ticket.

Floriade ticket

I seem to have come between seasons, as the event runs from April 8 to October 10. I passed a floral chessboard that was still growing in with the vines not yet covering the wire forms of the chess pieces. A battery-run train ran around the Floriade grounds making several stops, going right through the flower gardens, into woods, and through orchards. A row of trees were being trained into an overhead arch and flower boxes and pots were filled with blooming seasonals. Many of the gardens were still being cultivated, others, like the wisteria, were at the end of its season. I can’t possibly name all the flowers I saw, known or unknown!

There were restaurants located here and there, and I crossed a bridge onto an island to visit a conservatory. Around the island a canal barge was being pulled by a beautiful big horse with hairy hocks.

Conservatory on island with canal barge

A windmill from the 1700s overlooked shops selling wooden shoes and souvenirs.

Windmill

Ice cream vendors stood along the paths.

I went into the woods to see dune plants. Saw dunes, dikes, heather fields, peat bogs, forests, rock shore, and marshes, each with their typical plant life.

Allium

A motorized canal boat offered rides. Men in an old thatched roof hut were weaving baskets of straw and making switches. They were building a fence with branches woven between upright posts. One young boy was holding a post and wincing as a man pounded it into the ground.
Entered a greenhouse with iris, lilies, begonias, rhododendrons, etc.

Iris

Staghorn Fern

Thatched roof

A tall panorama tower, a Japanese garden with fish kites and a bamboo grove, and a bee exhibit with hundreds of bees buzzing around their wooden and woven straw homes. One beehive was in the shape of a bishop that must have some significance, but everything at the Floriade was in Dutch. (NB. Apparently a Belgian-Dutch writer and Protestant Reformist, Marnix of St. Aldegonde, wrote a treatise called the Roman Beehive, comparing the Catholic Church to a bee colony.)

There was modern sculpture, a nursery of trees, a hothouse of vegetables (mostly varieties of peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants), and a farmhouse restaurant. Exhibits on plant diseases, scientific growing of plants, etc. Kodak had a display of backlit photographs that were rich in detail for being so enlarged. The orchards were past blooming, as were the tulips. There were fields of beheaded tulips.

A playground let children climb over water, splash in the water on low rope bridges, and swing in a tire over water. People were sunning and picnicking. A large exhibition hall contained breathtaking flower arrangements by local florists, and flowers from around the world. One room was only orchids, another had bonsai.

Bonsai

I found tulips in another greenhouse, at every stage of its growth!

After several hours I was ready to leave.

Metro train

The Metro station at Gaasperplas had "brick" luggage all around.

"Brick" luggage

Took the Metro back to Centraal Station in Amsterdam, and bought a round-trip ticket for 14.75 NLG/$5.50 to Leiden. The 14:08 train passed the polders/reclaimed land within dikes, where ditches of water acted as fences to separate cows, sheep, and horses. I did see a horse nuzzling a cow over a ditch. We passed rowhouses with lace curtains in the windows.

Arrived in Leiden at 14:45 and headed to the windmill.

Molen de Valk/Mill of the Falcon

I paid 1.50 NLG/60 cents to go in the Molen de Valk/Mill of the Falcon windmill museum.

Molen de Valk/Mill of the Falcon ticket

The ground floor had a couple rooms furnished in the period of 1900 and a workshop. I climbed the ladder stairway up the various levels, of which there were seven. I didn’t keep count, but I saw a lot of windmill tools and equipment! Partway up there was an outdoor balcony, but you had to stay at the rear side, since the windmill sails were turning in the front.

Nederlandse Spoorwegen/Dutch Railways train

Returned to the train station and took the 15:36 train to Haarlem, arriving at 16:00. For some reason this town looked familiar to me; the narrow winding streets of shops and occasional canals. The Grote Markt/main square was surrounded by old buildings and there was a market for cheese, vegetables, flowers, clothing, record albums, toys, etc. The Grote Kerk/cathedral was covered with scaffolding.

Caught the 16:36 train back to Amsterdam, arriving at 17:00. Went down in the Metro station that had a wall with a row of peepholes labeled with the names of various cities around the world. When you peeked in the hole, you saw that city’s Metro!

Took the Metro to Waterlooplein and found myself in the giant flea market Kathy C and I had explored. Took a tram back to the Centraal Station, following along the canals, passing the Dam Square, and going down the busy Damrak. Our tram driver slammed on the brakes at every stop ( I guess, tram drivers jerk the handle of the brakes), and almost ran down a woman pushing a baby carriage!

Amsterdam trams

Returned to the train station to board the 17:49 train, finding a compartment in a car marked for Bern.

Amsterdam to Basel ticket cover

Amsterdam to Basel train ticket

When the conductor came, he told me to move, since the car to Bern was not going through Basel. I was able to find another compartment to myself, and was alone the whole trip! After the formalities at the border and the rearranging of the train at Oberhausen, I went to sleep.

Sunday, May 30, 1982

Arrived in Basel Bad at 5:30, then Basel at 6:00. Went to purchase a ticket for Biel and boarded the 6:18 train, arriving at 7:30. I ended up sleeping most of the day.

Today is Pfingstsonntag/Pentecost Sunday/Whit Sunday, which means we have a holiday tomorrow for Pfinstmontag.