Last saturday I had a tour with my former colleagues of the Public Library to the fortress island Pampus. Unfortunately we had the worst weather ever, wind, rain and low temperatures.
We arrived by boat at Pampus, which is an artificial island and late 19th Century sea fort located in the IJmeer near Amsterdam. It now belongs to the municipality of Muiden and is open to visitors.Together with the artillery on the lighthouse island near Durgerdam and the battery at the Diemer seawall, Pampus protected the entrance to IJ Bay and the harbour of Amsterdam. It was part of the Defence Line of Amsterdam In 1996 UNESCO designated the entire Defence Line with its 42 forts a World Heritage Site..
We had a tour inside which was interesting but so very cold. The wind blew through all the open spaces.
These used to be the lavatories, brrr in the open air.
To make things attractive for visitors there were some special expierences as here watching a video while lying on pillows. We have in Dutch a proverb "Voor Pampus liggen" ( Recline for Pampus) which means you are very tired. It refers to heavy loaded ships that used to have to wait in a shallow trench for Pampus, until tide to enter Amsterdam.
Here a shot outside of the fortress, SC's hat was blown away so we quickly entered the cafe, the only warm place where you could get a hot drink.
When we left Pampus by boat, the rain finally had stopped and could we have a look up deck at the little island.
When we reached the harbour of Muiden we saw the wreckage of the pirate ship of Johnny Depp.
But this was special we passed the sailing boat of our former Queen Beatrix, who had been sailing the whole day in this terrible weather. A tough Lady.
