Europe 2026 – Day 7 – Amsterdam to Hoorn by Barge

We were able to have a relaxing morning because the hotel checkout was at noon. Boarding the barge officially began at 1:30. The trip on train and ferry between the two was about half an hour. Everyone was ready to go early and we were in the lobby by 11:45.

It was less than a 10 minute walk to the station, even pulling our suitcases. We were soon on the platform waiting for the train.

Since we had plenty of time once we were at the train station, a few of us grabbed coffees. The way the machines worked. Was you selected what you wanted and then tapped on and adjacent pad to pay. Then the machine made the coffee and you were off without interacting with a human.

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to paying for the bathroom. It was €1.1 in the train station, but since it was an hour to the official boarding time, a few of us decided that we should go.

The waterside of Amsterdam Central Station has a wide cyclepath running under a colourful cover.

It wasn’t more than 100 m from the station door to the ferry that would take us across to the barge.

The ferry ride wasn’t much longer than the one between Bathurst Key and the island airport in Toronto. There was a single person, speed, limited motor vehicle waiting for the ferry. They seem to be allowed in all the places that bikes are allowed here.

From the ferry dock, we could see a swing ride called A’dam Outlook on top of a tower.

The walk from the ferry to our barge was also not much more than 100 m. It was just after 1 PM, but we were able to board right away.

We were instructed to leave our suitcases in the entry area so staff could bring it to the cabins for us. Check-in was very quick with instructions to choose our dinners for the week by 6 PM today and two come to the lounge for a briefing once we set off. Here we are choosing our dinners on the one sheet provided per cabin.

Our room is about a quarter of the size of the one we’ve been in for the last five nights, but seems to have lots of spaces to store things and room under the bed for the suitcases. The shower is only separated from the rest of the bathroom by a curtain so I think things might get quite wet. There’s a squeegee hanging in it, so I guess we can squeegee off the floor of the whole bathroom when we’re done.

Here are the scenes before leaving the dock.

These are the public areas of the barge.

Each day when we leave the barge to ride we’re place our keys on the board so it’s easy for the crew to see who is not on board.

It took about three hours to sail to Hoorn. Dinner was served once we docked. There was no choice for dinner tonight. It was a vegetarian bake in puff pastry and sides. I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture. Wayne, David and Dayle are at a table for six. Cindy and Mark and Alina and I are at a different table with a mother and daughter from Portland.

This is the view from where we are moored.

There are two other barges here that are bigger than ours. Ours has 33 rooms and 60 people.

After dinner we had a briefing about the ride tomorrow which will be 52 km. Then we went for a walk around Hoorn. Hoorn is a city which dates back to the 1300s which has over 70,000 inhabitants. It was a key Dutch East India Company base in the 17th century. It is renowned for its maritime history, scenic harbour, and well preserved, golden age architecture. I took so many beautiful blue hour images that I wasn’t able to narrow it down to less than a dozen so have put it in a slideshow below.