Move to Amsterdam

Friday, 4 August, 2017 – weather: grey and then slow improvement to a very good day

We get up early today as we have a 8:52 train to Amsterdam. There is a taxi stand nearby but it may be that the taxis would all be in use given that it is rush hour on a workday.

We have our usual fried sandwiches with our leftovers. Then it is finish packing the bags and out the door. It looked like it was drizzling but when we get outside it is just overcast. We get to the taxi stand and there are two there. We hop in and the traffic is not bad so we get there in 5 minutes or so. We have a longish wait at the station but that is OK, we did not want to miss the train.

Julie finds out which platform we will be on and we go up there. We manage to get some of the few seats available. There is a train there but it is going the other way to Paris. Eventually it leaves and then ours arrives. We wait in line and a group from the sub-continent (wearing turbans) get on before us and they have so much luggage that they take up all the luggage space in our carriage. We make do by putting ours on top of theirs. This is the only problem with train travel, finding space for your luggage especially with big logs like we have.

We have reserved seats and we are in first class so there is food and drink service once we get going. Julie has coffee, water and orange juice and I have a ham sandwich and orange juice. Service is pretty good. Along the way, one of the curry munchers rearranges the luggage by dumping any that is not theirs into the passageway, nice. Fortunately, a good guy in the row behind us helps us out by lifting my suitcase onto an overhead rack and we arrange the rest.

The trip is around two hours. When we reach Amsterdam, the guy behind us kindly lifts my suit case down. We get off and are in a huge Amsterdam Central station. The station is on an island and it is a little bit tricky finding our way over the canals and through a huge number of people. We are in a very touristy area of Amsterdam.

We drag our suitcases over cobblestone / brick footpaths and roads being careful to dodge trams and other moving obstacles. Google maps said 6 minutes, it was more like 15 when we find our Hotel. When we arrive at the Hotel, we are informed that our room is not ready and may not be ready for another 4 hours. Yuk. We put our bags into the Hotel porter’s storage.

Julie in fact has a business meeting elsewhere. Apparently it is quite a train trip to the meeting. She goes off pretty much straightaway. A few photos from her.

In the mean time, I am stuck in the Hotel lounge waiting for our room to become available. It is really not that bad, probably better than our actual room in many ways, but I still hate it. After a couple of hours, I have had enough so go out to get some lunch and a look around.

Many of these kinds of shops in Amsterdam

I was the only customer. Once I was in the dam broke and many others followed me in

When I finished I went back to the Hotel and our room was ready at last. I drag the luggage out of storage and up to the room which is small and somewhat disappointing after the fine Airbnbs we had been having. I then decide to have a look around the area, checking out possible restaurants for tonight.

Down to the harbour – lots of water and lots of boats in Amsterdam

David had warned me that the cyclists were very dangerous and he was right as they would appear out of nowhere at very high speeds coming close to knocking me down on a few occasions.

I have had enough so go back to the Hotel. I have a brief nap to freshen up. Julie had said that she thought she would be back by 6:00 so around 5:45 I go down to the lounge to wait for her because, of course, she had left before we had room keys / allocation. I had just ordered a G&T when Julie comes in very tired and ravenously hungry. It is as if I do not have time to finish my G&T, I did anyway, but I have to move quickly.

There are several restaurants around the hotel with outdoor areas in the street in front. I had looked at some of them earlier and they are all mostly the same, but I had decided one of them would be reasonable. Julie agrees with the choice. We talk with the waiter outside and he indicates there is an indoor area too across the way. We settle in to the place which has some Mexican food on the menu.