Day 5.  Lelystad and Amsterdam canal walk

On By Little Miss TravellerIn Amsterdam April 2017, Europe

A slower start to our final day in Amsterdam staying around the hotel until our 11.00 a.m. checkout time.  Hotel 2 Stay had been a good choice, spacious studio rooms coupled with maid service and only a 6 minute train journey from Amsterdam Central with trains departing every few minutes.  Sloterdijk is described as an up and coming district, it’s a very safe area with full transport links and several hotels including a Mercure and Holiday Inn.  There’s also a branch of Spar on the station forecourt, which was convenient for our morning croissants.

Lelystad, Netherlands
Lelystad, Netherlands

Looking at our map for ideas of how to spend our final day, the only direction we hadn’t yet explored was north east, so we hopped on a train into Amsterdam Central and then connected four minutes later to Lelystad, the limit of our Amsterdam and Region travel ticket.  The journey took about an hour, most of which was scenic, the train passing canalside homes and nearing Lelystad the Oostvaardersplassen Nature Reserve.  From the train window we spotted dozens of deer and horses roaming on the reserve, it would have been interesting to take a walk there but the train did not stop nearby.

Boat traffic on Amsterdam's Canals
Boat traffic on Amsterdam’s Canals

On reaching Lelystad, we found ourselves to be in a suburban town of 1970’s architecture.  The shopping centre straddled several streets and in one of the squares a Saturday food market was taking place so we passed some time browsing the stalls and sampling yet more cheese and olives.  Upturned umbrellas hung across the streets adding a splash of colour but I’m unsure of their significance, only assuming it rains a lot in Lelystad.  Our plan had been to stay for lunch but as we had finished our tour of the town a little earlier than expected, we headed to the station for the next train back to Amsterdam where we soon found the perfect cafe for our late lunch.

NEMO Science Museum, Amsterdam
NEMO Science Museum, Amsterdam

A stroll through the maze of narrow, canalside streets without much of a plan followed, just stopping when and where something took our interest.  The Prinsengracht district was particularly lively with families enjoying the afternoon sunshine.

On our way back to Amsterdam Central we walked along the Oostbank as far as the public library and Science Museum.  Views across the water were good, and would have been even better if there hadn’t been some large cranes marring our view.  It was then time to return to Sloterdijk to collect our luggage and head back to Schiphol Airport for our 10.00 p.m. flight back home.

Departure hall Schiphol International Airport
Departure hall Schiphol International Airport

I was intrigued by this huge clock hanging in the departure hall.  The image of a man projected on to the clock face appears to paint the hands of the clock and then wash them off again every minute.  Schiphol covers a vast area and we passed our time until boarding wandering around the airside shops and then having a snack in one of the many cafes.

Snack served on the KLM City Hopper flight
Snack served on the KLM City Hopper flight

If you have enjoyed reading this post you may also like:

Marken and Volendam

Haarlem and Zaanse Schans Windmills

Advertisement

46 thoughts on “Day 5.  Lelystad and Amsterdam canal walk”

  2. Pingback: Day 2.  Keukenhof Gardens and visiting Edam – Love Travelling Blog

  3. Pingback: Day 1.  Amsterdam city break – Love Travelling Blog

  6. What fun! Years ago I visited a Rotterdam friend who showed me much of the Netherlands, but not Amsterdam, unfortunately. There seemed to be bad feelings, or else he had something against Amsterdam. Rotterdam was badly bombed in World War II. Thanks for the like about the Klondike Gold Rush.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Paula for your kind words and reflections on your visit to the Netherlands. I once took the overnight ferry from Hull to Rotterdam but I think we then just caught the train into Amsterdam so I only saw the docks! Your comments are much appreciated.

      Like

      Reply
  23. travelrat

    Lelystad, I seem to remember from an article I researched for long ago, was a ‘halfway house’ for returning Takhi (formerly known as Przewalski’s) horses to the wild in Mongolia. Did you see any?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.