Wednesday June 15
After a glorious night's sleep, we surfaced to find IJmuiden bathed in sunshine but with ominous dark clouds around too. Al went in search of breakfast for us and returned with two fresh herring rolls - very Dutch and very tasty.
We had scoured the map of IJmuiden and decided there wasn't a lot to do but we wanted to go to the Bunker Museum. IJmuiden formed part of the "Atlantic Wall", a German defence that stretched from Nordkaap at the top of Norway, down to the the south of Spain. No fighting took place around IJmuiden - because if the locks here had been destroyed then Holland would have been flooded! Despite this, the townspeople have restored some of the bunkers and set up a museum with artefacts from WW2. As so often happens to us, we are in town on a day when their museum is closed and that was the case today.
Plan B - we set off on foot to explore the residential and commercial part of town as our hotel is located close to the Cruise Ship Terminal and therefore in a very industrial area. I enjoyed the stroll as the Dutch houses are located quite close to the footpath and they leave their curtains wide open affording a clear view of the living rooms and kitchens. After "sticky nosing", we found a coffee shop - no easy task here - and enjoyed the nicest coffee since home. As that seemed to "be IJmuiden", we headed back to our hotel to catch up on wifi, FB and reading, while dodging the showers that had now obliterated any sunshine.
The clouds cleared later in the afternoon and we enjoyed a sunny evening and a delicious dinner in the restaurant on the ground floor of our hotel. Tomorrow we board our cruise ship and head for Norway and the Article Circle - very exciting!
After a glorious night's sleep, we surfaced to find IJmuiden bathed in sunshine but with ominous dark clouds around too. Al went in search of breakfast for us and returned with two fresh herring rolls - very Dutch and very tasty.
We had scoured the map of IJmuiden and decided there wasn't a lot to do but we wanted to go to the Bunker Museum. IJmuiden formed part of the "Atlantic Wall", a German defence that stretched from Nordkaap at the top of Norway, down to the the south of Spain. No fighting took place around IJmuiden - because if the locks here had been destroyed then Holland would have been flooded! Despite this, the townspeople have restored some of the bunkers and set up a museum with artefacts from WW2. As so often happens to us, we are in town on a day when their museum is closed and that was the case today.
Plan B - we set off on foot to explore the residential and commercial part of town as our hotel is located close to the Cruise Ship Terminal and therefore in a very industrial area. I enjoyed the stroll as the Dutch houses are located quite close to the footpath and they leave their curtains wide open affording a clear view of the living rooms and kitchens. After "sticky nosing", we found a coffee shop - no easy task here - and enjoyed the nicest coffee since home. As that seemed to "be IJmuiden", we headed back to our hotel to catch up on wifi, FB and reading, while dodging the showers that had now obliterated any sunshine.
The clouds cleared later in the afternoon and we enjoyed a sunny evening and a delicious dinner in the restaurant on the ground floor of our hotel. Tomorrow we board our cruise ship and head for Norway and the Article Circle - very exciting!
No comments:
Post a Comment