Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [88]
There are fast and frequent buses from Amsterdam’s Centraal Station to Marken, Volendam and Edam, but more poetically, there’s a seasonal passenger ferry, the Marken Express, which skittles along the coast between Marken and Volendam, giving a taste of the pond-like Markermeer. At a bit of a push, all three places can be visited in a day.
Day-trips from the city | Volendam, Marken and Edam |
Volendam
The former fishing village of VOLENDAM is the largest of the Markermeer towns and has had, by comparison with its neighbours, some rip-roaring cosmopolitan times. In the early years of the twentieth century it became something of an artists’ retreat, with both Picasso and Renoir spending time here, along with their assorted acolytes. The artists are, however, long gone and nowadays Volendam is, in season, crammed with day-trippers running the gauntlet of the souvenir stalls that run the length of the cobbled main street, whose perky gables line up behind the harbour. The Volendams Museum, by the bus stop at Zeestraat 41 (mid-March to mid-Nov daily 10am–5pm; €2.50), has displays of paintings by the artists who have come here over the years, along with mannekins in local costumes and several interiors – a shop, school and living room – as well as the museum’s crowning glory – a series of mosaics made from 11 million cigar bands: the bizarre lifetime project of a local Volendam artist. You can see more paintings in the antique-filled public rooms of the Hotel Spaander, on the waterfront, whose creaking wooden floors, low ceilings, paintings and sketches are pleasant reminders of more artistic times. The hotel was opened in 1881 and its first owner, Leendert Spaander, was lucky enough to have seven daughters, quite enough to keep a whole bevy of artists in lust for a decade or two. Some of the artists paid for their lodgings by giving Spaander paintings – hence today’s collection.
Day-trips from the city | Volendam, Marken and Edam | Volendam |
Practicalities
In Volendam, buses #110 and #118 from Amsterdam and Monnickendam drop passengers on Zeestraat, just across the street from the VVV, at Zeestraat 37 (mid-March to Oct Mon–Sat 10am–5pm; Nov to mid-March Mon–Sat 10am–3pm; 0299/363 747, www.vvvvolendam.nl). From the VVV, it’s a five-minute walk to the waterfront, from where there is a regular passenger ferry to Marken (see "Practicalities"). If you want to stay there’s no better place than the Hotel Spaander, Haven 15–19 (0299/363 595, www.hotelspaander.com; from €120, not including breakfast). The Spaander’s bar and restaurant are also good places to eat.
Day-trips from the city | Volendam, Marken and Edam |
Marken
Once an island in the Zuider Zee, Marken was, until its road connection to the mainland in 1957, pretty much a closed community, supported by a small fishing industry, but now it welcomes many tourists, whose numbers can reach alarming proportions on summer weekends. That said, there’s no denying the picturesque charms of the island’s one and only village – also called MARKEN – where the immaculately maintained houses, mostly painted in deep green with white trimmings, cluster on top of artificial mounds raised to protect them from the sea.
There are two main parts to the village. Havenbuurt, around and behind the harbour, is the bit you see in most of the photographs, where many of the waterfront houses are raised on stilts. Although these are now panelled in, they were once open, allowing the sea to roll under the floors in bad weather, enough to terrify most people half to death. One or two of the houses are open to visitors as typical of Marken, and the waterfront is lined with snack bars and souvenir shops, often staffed by locals in traditional costume, but you do get a hint of how hard life used to be – both here and in Kerkbuurt, five minutes’ walk from the harbour around the church, an ugly 1904