Shore Excursion for Amsterdam

You wont see much of old Amsterdam from a coach, due to its street layouts, but that will be better than nothing. How long you are captive by the bus will depend on where your ship is docked - which is unlikely to be in Amsterdam. Canal boat tours all cover the same basic territory and last around 60 - 90 minutes.

As CJean notes, I think the first question to answer is where your ship will be docked for
the stopover.

If it is near Centraal Station then you have the option of just buying a tram ticket and riding
it around the city for a bit. A day ticket would give you the option to get off, walk around a
bit, and then get back on and not have to worry about navigating the fare system. That to
me is better than a bus. The canal cruise is nice also, but those (and the trams) all depart
from the area in front of the station (most likely you'd go in the back/water side if you walked
over), and you could just walk over and buy a ticket for that.

The walk from the cruise ship terminal at Piet Heinkade to the central station is about a 1/2
mile and flat. If you can manage that on your own, you'll probably save a fair bit of time
since the loading/unloading of a bus is sometimes an event on its own.

My ship is going to dock in Ijmuiden.

It is a long day arriving at 7 am and leaving about 6 pm.

There are two times for this excursion. One is 7:45 am and the other is 9:45 am. I would sign up for the latter. The excursion is 5 hours long total. Not a lot of time but the best that I can do.

I like coach rides. Usually the coaches are nice and there are large windows. I always try to sit by a window. I do not feel captive.

And I visited Amsterdam in the 60's when I spent two months traveling around Europe and still remember a canal ride which I liked back then.

If you are docking at Ijmuiden you more or less have to take the ship's transport into Amsterdam, even if you just take a transfer rather than a guided tour.
It should be around 45 minutes each way into Amsterdam.

There is a frequent citybus which leaves from close to, but not at the cruise terminal- and there are two cruise terminals at Ijmuiden- one in the docks (which I guess you will use- Point 23 on this map- https://www.ijmuiden.nl/en/cruise/) and the other smaller terminal on the bank of the river. (Point 24).

For you that citybus probably won't work, especially as it doesn't actually go into central Amsterdam.

There is what is said to be a very good fish restaurant at the smaller cruise terminal.

Between the two cruise terminals there is also a ferry terminal for the nightly ferry from Newcastle, England- it arrives at around 9am and leaves at around 5.30pm. I've lost count of the number of times I've been on that ferry.

There are three museums in Ijmuiden and good sandy beaches on both sides of the river entrance- on the north side the popular beach is incongruously behind the biggest steelworks in the Netherlands. You may see a bulk freighter there which will have probably come from the Great Lakes.

The fort you will see in the river is a UNESCO world heritage site but there is only public access a few days a year, otherwise it is a private events space- https://www.pbn.nl/programmas/historisch-forteiland/

During WW2 Ijmuiden was a key location on the Atlantik Wall- https://atlantikwall.org.uk/inside-festung-ijmuiden-the-atlantic-wall-bunkers-and-history

A little bit nitpicking: It's a canal, not a river where the cruise ships dock in IJmuiden.

Since a few years IJmuiden has the largest lock in the world, but the cruise ships won't sail through it, unless your ship docks in Amsterdam.

bostonphil7 - Sorry for hijacking your post, but I have to get the following from my chest. It's not my intention to start a discussion or something like that, unless it interests you ofcourse.

isn31c - About the Atlantikwall in the Netherlands, the info of your link is incomplete. Besides IJmuiden and Hook of Holland, it was Walcheren and the Breskens Pocket that were "Festungen" * too. Located at the mouth of the Western Scheldt estuary in the southwest corner of the Netherlands, they played a vital role in defending the seaport of Antwerp. Having enough capacity to solve all the supply issues, it was Antwerp the Allied used to supply the forces for entering Germany. Without this port ( the second largest in Europe and intact at the time) it was impossible to move further to Berlin and claim victory.

*"Festungen" (German for fortifications) were the places of high importance, to be defended at all cost, meaning also till the last men.

From a logistical point of view, WW2 at the Western front was won with the Battle of the Scheldt (autumn '44). Mainly a Canadien job, but also the British Royal Navy, RAF and Polish armed forces were involved too. It made the use of the port of Antwerp possible, just several weeks before the Battle of the Bulge begun. The outcome of the latter would have been different if this wasn’t the case. Hard to say how, but without this port operational, it would have caused a serious setback for the Allies. One of the main objectives of the Germans for the Battle of the Bulge was getting Antwerp back.

The harbour of Rotterdam (Europe’s largest) was destroyed and the one of Amsterdam too far away from the route to liberty. Still being in the hands of the Germans, they weren’t usuable and played for this reason no significant role during the Allied campaign. And with this the Festungen of IJmuiden and Hook of Holland played no real role of significance too. So the website's claim of their importance is to my opinion one-sided and highly exaggerated.

I like to create discussions that invite other people in to respond, no matter what the responses.