Some friends of mine invited me to go to Amsterdam with them. Since I had seen Amsterdam before, I decided to visit the defense line. Our stay wasn’t going to be long and I was going to rely on public transportion. So I decided to search on the internet which parts of the defense line were the easiest to reach from the city. Combining the world heritage website, google maps, some others and this very excellent site on the defense line (in Dutch and English) I choose the following fortresses:

- Fort aan de Ossenmarkt (Weesp)

- All the fortresses in the town of Muiden

- Fort bij Penningsveer (Haarlemmerliede)

- Fort aan den Ham (Uitgeest)

First I took the train from Amsterdam Central station to Weesp Station (+/- 15 min) and from there I took the bus to Muiden (stop brandweerkazerne: +/- 10 minutes). There I saw the complex of sluices, the westbattery, Muizenfort and I also visited the nicely preserved Muiderslot (which I can recommend taking some time for). Unfortunatly the boat to Pampus didn’t sail out this season, so I could only glimpse it from the shores of the Ijssel lake.

The thing I liked most here was the west battery, I found it to be an intruiging structure. Unfortunatly I could only see it from outside, as the inside seems to be used for youth organisations. The muizenfort contains a museum, but this too was closed. Muiden is a nice town though with a nice maritime feel to it. And thank heavens for the zoom on my camera so I atleast had a decent picture of Pampus.

I took the bus back to Weesp and had to walk about 1 km from the station to come across “Fort aan de Ossenmarkt”. A somewhat similar building to the westbattery in Muiden, though it seems to have stood the test of time in a better way. This fort is also not open to visitors and can only be viewed from the outside. After +/-15 minutes with the train I stood back in Amsterdam.

The next day I took the train to Krommenie-Assendelft station (+/- 25 minutes, all trains are direct from Amsterdam). And I seem to come out in the middle of nowhere, along a seemingly major road. The station was quite modern though. From Google maps I knew I had to walk about 2 km. This had to be over the cycling facilities since they were no facilities for pedestrians. I had to admit, I didn’t feel quite safe, walking alone on that long road in what seemed the middle of nowhere (just a long road, some polders and town centres in the difference). Eventually I arrived at the fort (aan den Ham), you can see it from a distance, but the gates are closed. It opens up like once a month. Not the greatest thing I ever saw, though it’s considerably bigger then the ones in Muiden and Weesp.

Back to Amsterdam with the train (the one I didn’t miss by a minute) and from there I took the train again to Haarlem-Spaarnwoude (+/- 13 minutes). When you’re nearing the station you can glimpse another fort from out the window of the train. The station (another modern one) is nearby an Ikea store and after walking over the huge parking area and following the map I had I came into a nature reserve (Spaarnwoude I believe it’s called). Which was a bit disorienting, especially since google maps seems to have troubles with such areas. Fortunatly 2 friendly Dutch ladies pointed out the right way for me. It seemed a much longer walk then Google indicated (1 km). I walked around the moat of the fort (Penningsveer), but all you saw was some trees, a hill and here and there some small manmade stuff.

I reached the front, where some information signs stand and another closed gate. One of the signs reading you can book entrance. I admired the fortress from behind the gates (so you don’t see much) and turned back to the train station. I returned to Amsterdam, and went shopping with my friends. One should always make time for shopping ;-).