Sep 01 (Monday) – Naarden and Amersfoort

We are taking the train again today, along with a local bus, to the town of Naarden.  The first views of old Naarden were of the walls and moats surrounding the old town.  This town was part of the Defense Line that ringed Amsterdam in the late 19th century.  And the walls are shaped rather like a star.

The bus dropped us off just inside of the walls and from there we headed up to the top of the wall for some views.  What we really needed was to be in a hot air balloon so we could sail above the town to see the shape and the walls. 

We did find a map that showed the shape.

Then we headed into town, using a huge church town as a navigation device.  The church turned out to be the Great Church or St. Vitus’ church.  Unfortunately, it was closed so we couldn’t see inside. 

We wandered some more and found a great gate that lead out onto a bridge where we could see more of the walls.

We then stopped in at the Visitor’s Center where they had a lot of information about the Defense Line and also had a film (in English) that showed a number of the other forts that made up the line. 

Some more wandering and we found the Museum of Weighing and Measuring.  The door was open so we walked in.  We were greeted by a gentleman who said that the museum was closed (it was a Monday…a lot of things were closed).  However, he told us we could wander around the first floor.  It turned out to be very interesting.  There were a lot of scales and balances and many weights used on the balances. 

There was also a collection of miniature scales and balances.  A local man had collected them (they were for doll houses) and had donated them to the museum. 

We wandered back to the church where there was a lot of tables and chairs sitting around the plaza.  A good place for lunch. 

Across the street was the old city hall.  Very ornate.

In our wanderings we saw a number of lovely doors. 

More photos from around the town. 

Then we headed back to the bus stop to catch the bus back to the train station.  Since it was still early afternoon, we decided to catch the train to Amerfoort.  This is on our schedule for tomorrow but given the problematic weather forecast we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather.  The train ride was only about a half hour.

Once in Amersfoort we headed out to catch a bus to the old section of town.  The bus station was a work of amazing efficiency.  There were many pull-ins for the buses, each with an electronic display showing the upcoming bus arrivals and times.  It was a constant stream of buses pulling in and pulling out.

The bus dropped us off just a couple of blocks from the old section of town.  We knew we were headed in the right direction as we could see the huge Tower of our Lady.  In fact, the tower could be seen almost everywhere we walked throughout the town. 

The old city is supposed to be a very well-preserved medieval city.  And much of it was.  However, all the main streets were wall to wall shops.  Views from our walk. 

Fortunately, we were able to find the office for a boat ride through the canals.  We were just in time as they were just getting ready to leave.  The tour was in Dutch, but they gave us a handout in English that explained all the main sights. The views on the cruise were great.  There were lots of bridges...

a wide variety of interesting art...

interesting buildings...

and lovely canal scenes. 

One of the first buildings we floated past was the Mondrian House.  Piet Mondrian was born in Amersfoort.  He is considered one of the great artists of the 20^th century.  His art genres were Cubism, Expressionism, Impressionism, Modernism, and Abstract. Some of his best-known works have great blocks of primary colors.  And some of the colors were displayed as balls on the railings in front of the house.

We also passed the House with the Purple Windows.  The glass was very old and had a large amount of magnesium in them.  And over time they turned to a very noticeable purple.

We passed under the Monk’s Gate…

and then turned around and went back into the canals inside the walls.

A wall house with many sizes of bricks.

The Flehite Museum (we didn’t visit but the outside was lovely).

The Little Church (it's a pub and has never been a church).

The Three Bridges Tunnel (the longest tunnel we cruised through).

Then we walked back through the old town to the bus stop, caught our bus, then our train, and were back in Amsterdam by late afternoon.  Unfortunately, we had a problem with our credit cards.  We had swiped in when entering the train station in Amersfoort but for some reason the reader in Amsterdam said we hadn’t swiped in.  And since everything is so automated we couldn’t find any station staff to help us.  We were trapped.

We finally decided to asked a clerk in a nearby store for help.  He walked us to the other end of the station where he found a couple of staff.  Basically, they scanned the our card, said we were “out” and sent us on our way.

Later that evening we headed out down the main street leading away from the station and found an Italian restaurant for dinner.  Just lentil soup and bread for both of us.