Meeuwen Manor - A treasure near Amsterdam

This is your chance to stay at The Meeuwen Manor, the most spectacular and best known house of the historic town of Edam, overlooking the lake Markermeer and next to Fort Edam, a UNESCO protected fortress and nature reserve. The Meeuwen Manor, a 18th century house that was converted to its current unique state around 1910, is located only 22 kilometers from the center of Amsterdam and offers a wonderful and stylish room with access to an amazing garden.

This 49 m2 apartment is located on the right wing of the house on the ground floor, has its own entrance on the front and consists of an alluring room with a mantelpiece and several original ornaments. It contains a big and comfortable double box spring bed (210x180m). The bed, situated in a rear section, can be separated from the room by closing a thick curtain. There is also a sofa bed in the room for two more people to sleep in. The kitchen is equipped with a refrigerator, a stove, cookware, a coffee machine, a microwave and a juicer. There is a bathroom with a shower and a separate toilet. The room has free WiFi and a TV with 50 channels including Netflix.

I do not offer breakfast but at a walking distance or 250 meters there is the most lovely breakfast spot you can imagine: The Strandbad Pavilion offers breakfast, lunch and dinner all year long and provides you with a stunning view over the grand lake Markermeer.

Guests of Meeuwen Manor have access to the garden, are allowed to take the stairs in the garden to have a peek on top of the roof overlooking the harbor and the Markermeer but are restricted to the rest of the house.

Meeuwen Manor is located at the port of Edam, 1.5 kilometers from its center, a 15 minute walk.

Behind Gulls Manor lies the green oasis of Fort Edam, the fort that is also a small nature reserve. Inside is a very nice historical museum (especially about WW1 for which the fort was built), a nature museum, a radio telegraphy museum and the impressive underground labyrinth or large dark corridors, the home of cute small bats. Around the fort is a moat where many species of birds are wide, for instance the kingfisher that you can see flying around all summer.

Next to the already mentioned Beach bath Pavilion is a sandy beach where you can swim for a small entrance fee. But if you walk 300 meters along the dike (from which you have a great view over the lake) you will find a great spot where you can sunbath in the grass and swim for free.

Edam itself is one of the most well preserved 16th / 17th century towns in Holland with grand houses that radiate it once was a prosperous township. That wealth did not derive from the cheese making for which it is famous nowadays, but from the building of ships in the 17th century at the many shipyards that Edam possessed. Today only one remains. It dates from 1514.

The Edam Museum is very special. It's a 16th century house, built between 1540 and 1550 with all the furniture and utensils of that era. Walking in it feels like a time warp. It has a floating cellar, the only one in the world, and also, in the auxiliary branch at the Town Hall nearby, you can admire the life size portrait of a woman called Trijntje Keever, almost certainly the tallest female that ever lived on earth . She was 2.54 m (8ft 4 inches) when she died aged 17 in 1633. The original shoes are displayed as well. They are 36 cm (14 inch) long and equivalent to European size 55. She was buried in the Saint Nicolas Church in Edam and the gravestone reads: "Tryntje Crelis, big girl, aged 17 years" (Tryntje Crelis big lass, old 17 years).

Talking about the Saint Nicolas Church, this building is also quite mentionable with its massive tower that you can climb with a guide on certain dates. It's a huge, almost cathedral like church (consistently also called Great Church) 83 meters long (272 feet) and 38 meters wide (124 feet), built in the 15th century and famous for its 32 enormous and stunning stained glass windows. And of course there’s the nearby cheese market, every week in the summer months and a magnet for tourists.

Edam has a few good restaurants (I should mention E'Barrage, Five and La Galera) and it's great for walking, cycling and boating around.

Sailing is very popular on the Markermeer and when the wind is strong enough and has the right direction, the Markermeer in front of Meeuwen Manor is filled with kite surfers. In fact, the small beach opposite Meeuwen Manor is rated one of the few really good spots for windsurfing or kite surfing on the Markermeer because of the shallow water.

There are many nice shops in Edam, not just the classic touristic ones. The one that is on top of my list is a gift shop called Kathelijne's Trouvailles (address: Lingerzijde 48). It's wonderful. Owner Kathelijne has collected from all over the place the most beautiful, bizarre, special and unique must-haves you can imagine. The shop became too small for all the objects so she decided it should extend to her own living room. This shop to my opinion should be famous.

The towns around Edam are interesting as well. Hoorn (20 km) is beautiful, Volendam (3 km) well known and I can especially recommend Marken, a small peninsula with labyrinths or beautiful old houses on poles. The nicest way to reach Marken is by boat and there is a ferry called the Volendam Marken Express that leaves many times a day (in the summertime every half an hour) from the port of Volendam. The trip lasts thirty minutes.

The famous Zaanse Schans with its mills is a half-hour drive from Meeuwen Manor and so is Amsterdam. The gorgeous old city of Haarlem, also great for shopping, is a forty minute drive (46 km).

Amsterdam, where I spent most of my life, is of course the greatest city in the Netherlands. Just ask me and I will tell you all I know about museums, markets, bike rental, zoos, parks, theaters, cinemas, concerts, bars, dancing the night away and the best places to see Amsterdam's beautiful architecture.

Meeuwen Manor is best reached by car or motorcycle. You can park for free right in front of the house. Mind you: It takes 25 minutes to reach Gulls Manor by foot from Edam bus station. From that station Edam buses leave very regularly to Amsterdam, Volendam, Monnickendam, Broek in Waterland, Hoorn and Purmerend. During rush hour buses to and from Amsterdam leave every ten minutes. It will take bus number 314 about 25 minutes to reach Amsterdam. Bus 316 will take longer, since it drives through Volendam.

Meeuwen Manor has two bicycles available for you to use for free. There are great bicycle trips to be made in the surroundings of Meeuwen Manor.