Travel: A flying visit to Amsterdam with a difference

Overnight crossings take around 15 hours and give you just enough time to check out Amsterdam’s main highlights.

According to TripAdvisor, the top tourist destination in Amsterdam is not the world-famous Rijksmuseum or the nearby Van Gogh Museum.

Instead it’s the Anne Frank House, which tells the story of the young Jewish girl who, with her family, hid from the Nazis between 1942 and 1944 in part of the city centre building used by her father as a factory.

I first visited in 1984 and was quite unimpressed, with only a few things to see and very little by way of explanation. Entry was up a few steps from the street, cost was a few Guilders and I was in and out in 20 minutes. There were no signs to the building and no queues.

Nevertheless, this was the start of what has now become a huge tourist destination. Back in Amsterdam two years ago I decided to visit again, and found something quite different. The entrance was now round the corner, in a modern addition, and the house was booked up days and weeks in advance, with now more than a million people visiting each year.

Apart from the queues, there were several notices saying that walk-up visits were not possible and had to be booked ahead online, with adult prices starting at €17 – even allowing for inflation, a huge increase.

Having been thwarted on that occasion, I decided to try again by taking a two-night DFDS Mini Cruise from Newcastle to Amsterdam, which allowed for a few hours to be spent in Amsterdam city centre.

Embarking at North Shields, a few miles out of Newcastle city centre, I arrived by car and parked just a few steps from the terminal. Sailing time is 5pm and check-in opens at 2.30pm and closes at 4.15pm. Due to Brexit, passengers now have to go through customs and passport control at both ends, which can lead to long queues and consequently a shorter time in Amsterdam than before.

There are two ships on this service, the King Seaways and Princess Seaways. They are almost identical, both having recently been refurbished with fresh decor, carpets and also USB sockets for charging devices.

The overnight crossing takes around 15 hours and there is a choice of accommodation, starting at £75 for an inside cabin. This is perfectly sufficient if you just want somewhere to put your bags, enjoy the facilities such as restaurants, bars and cinema and then sleep through the night. Although it’s small, with an en suite bathroom, it has everything you need.

Moving up to Commodore class, you can enjoy traditional hotel-like comfort with a large, comfortable double bed, sea view, free minibar, couch and wardrobes and a much larger toilet and shower. This also comes with a free breakfast, free Wi-Fi and on the King Seaways there is also a private lounge with free drinks, snacks and entertainment.

There is also a quiet observation lounge at the front of the ship with comfortable seating which allows you to look out for whales and dolphins on your journey. It’s a good place to view the wind turbine arrays off the Dutch coast which the ships sail through.

As for catering, while you can take your own food (but not alcohol) onboard, there are several options. For a light bite there is the Coffee Crew Cafe with a Starbucks, but most people will choose the self-service Explorer’s Kitchen buffet, which offers a vast selection of freshly cooked food. There is also the quieter and more luxurious North Sea Bistro, where you can expect a fine dining experience.

Prices for food and drink are a little more than you can expect to pay on land, but not ridiculously so, and a meal in the Bistro is on par with what you could expect at a good restaurant at home.

As the ships follow the coastline for much of the journey, you can expect to maintain a good mobile phone signal for the first couple of hours, but to maintain this when out of range you should either take out a Wi-Fi package (prices start from €6) or switch roaming off, otherwise you could find yourself connected to a very expensive satellite network.

Ship’s time is an hour ahead of UK time, and after breakfast starting from 7am you can expect to arrive at the port of IJmuiden at 9.45am, with buses leaving for Amsterdam from 10.15am. You are dropped off a few minutes’ walk from Amsterdam Centraal Station and the return buses leave by 3.30pm, so you have about four hours in the city itself. Tickets cost £18 return, but if you are travelling on a Mini Cruise this is included in your ticket. A few minutes’ walk takes you into the heart of the city, and canal boat tours leave from just outside the station.

In my case, it was a gentle wander through the centre to my pre-booked visit to Anne Frank House, where this visit was a huge improvement on my first. An introductory talk was very informative and the tour itself was a revelation. Although I knew the basic story, the whole two-hour experience opened up a fresh new perspective of her short life.

With time for a coffee on the way there and lunch on the way back, the trip was rounded off with some shopping in the Dam area and sightseeing the canals.

While this trip was just a ‘taster’, the company offers city breaks for an additional night, including a hotel stay from £98 for two. This option is likely to be attractive to people wishing to visit the famous spring tulip festival, which cannot be done practically in a single day.

P.S. Amsterdam boasts more canals than Venice, stretching for more than 62 miles, with 1,500 charming bridges connecting the city.