Amsterdam ... Day Three

Our final morning in Amsterdam was pretty bitter sweet.  It went way too quickly.  I really wish we would have had a buffer day added in there, between traveling and our first stop.  If I had felt better the day before, it could have been the perfect amount of time.

As with every morning, it had to start with some coffee.  We packed up all our stuff that morning and left our luggage with the front desk.  We walked out to one of the main squares in search for breakfast.  The shop we went to had the most amazing vanilla bean muffin.  Seriously.  It was amazing!  I didn't want to eat it all in one sitting, so I wrapped it up and took it for the train ride.  Makes me hungry just looking at it...

It might be because we are total dorks or we were just being touristy and didn't want to leave, but we stopped multiple times to take some pictures.  The picture below is the main bridge we always crossed.  To the left, if you turn the corner, you will be on the street of our hotel. 

This is the very front of our hotel.  It was hard to get the full length with the canal there, but you can see it just looks like just another house on the block.

Our first real stop of the day was to see if we could put our luggage in lockers at the station.  We had to check out of our hotel pretty early and since our train didn't depart until 19:01, we did not want to drag them along everywhere we went.  We asked our hotel and confirmed that they did offer that option at the train station.  It wasn't the shortest walk, but it's so nice to see the city when you are walking around. I adore all the building and their different styles.

I know I mentioned this before but Amsterdam really is so pretty.  Everyone rides around on these black bikes, no matter how freezing it is.  The streets are so clean and even the canals are clean and the people there are so friendly and welcoming.

We finally got to the station, the above picture, and the lockers were perfect.  We actually could get all our luggage in one of the large lockers.  The craziest part was that you choose your locker, closed the door and then their is a separate area that you pay for a locker and prints out a standard ticket.  I'm not sure how it knows which locker it was, but it knows.  We were a little dumbfounded by it.  

The station was really in an area that we hadn't been in much, since it was a little ways from where we were staying.  I was actually surprised by how touristy it was.  Our plans for the day were to see the Jordaan area and the Ann Frank House.  We walked around and did some site seeing along the way.

We stumbled upon a beer store, which was probably D's favorite part of the Amsterdam trip.  The store was called De Bierkoning.  I think he could have spent hundreds on beers and been there half the afternoon.  

Needless to say, I had to be the voice of reason and sped him along.  We also had limited backpack space, so he also had to be selective of the ones he picked.  After I dragged him away, we made it over to the Anna Frank house, but the line was already ridiculous.  Instead of going in, we decided to  just keep enjoying the Jordann area and the beautiful day.   I figured we could keep some things for our next trip.

We ended up eating lunch at this little bakery that we picked for no other reason than we were drawn in by the pastries.  After we were stuffed by 2 sandwiches and a chocolate/coffee pastry, we decided to kill some time at a bar called with Wildman with a few beers.  D and I played a little 'Worse case Scenerio' that they had there, because you just never know, right?

It was getting close to time to board our over night train, so we headed back to the station.  This lead to more amazement when you insert the ticket into the lockers and it just knows which locker to pop open.  D was amazed.



Luckily we got there early, because our train was delayed an hour, sarcasm.  We were a little confused with our ticket and what was on the screen, so we verified with the ticket attendant that this was indeed the train we needed to get on.  Wouldn't that be horrible, to get on the wrong over night train?  She seemed surprised that it was that delayed as well, but we were looking at the right one.  The delay took us to the Starbucks in the station and the start of our fascination on how they would spell D's name.  Dutch =

Plus, why not enjoy more of that free WIFI?  That Starbucks was beautiful.  We actually spent more time playing with the camera and people watching.  It's so fun to make up stories about people you've never met, you can come up with the darnedest things and there are tons of interesting people at the train stations.

Somehow we decided to go check on the status of our train.  They don't make announcements over intercoms at stations, they just put current information on the screens.  It was a good thing we went to look a little early in our wait, because what would have been an hour delay, ended up being only about 40 minutes.  The trains only stop for loading for about 15 minutes and then they are off.  If we would have waited that full hour, we would have missed the train.  

Night trains are interesting.  You have a few options when booking.  You can choose to get a regular seat or you can get a bed.  The beds are in couchettes that are 2, 4 or 6 beds.  The couchette is always the same size, but it depends on how many people you want to deal with in that small space.  We decided to do the 4 person for the two night trains we had.  This one was quite nice, but D and I both had the top bunk. 

I actually liked the top bunk, but it was a little small for D.  This also means that you really don't get up or have a seat in your couchette.  The beds were too close to the ceiling for even me to sit up straight. 

Quickly after we were settled the train departed.  At times we still didn't know if we were on the right train.  Maybe it was just me, but I always doubted we went on the right one.  This train did have a ticket attendant that came by and asked for our tickets.  They never seemed very concerned for our actual passports. 

I took an Advil PM in hopes to get some good sleep.  I read a little and then got 'rocked' to sleep with the flow of the train.  I really quite enjoyed the night train.  The worst part was probably having to get up in the middle of the night, climb down the super small ladder and slip out to the restroom.  The nice part is that in the morning, or even as we got started, you can stand outside the room (in the walk way) and look out the large windows.

Hello snow.  Once we were in the country, there wasn't much to see, but I was pretty excited when we were riding into Prague.  I'd heard such amazing things and it lived up to my expectations!

Amsterdam ... Day Two

How can you not wake up happy in Amsterdam?  The weather was cold, but rather clear, which was nice.  The wind was the worst there.  After bundling up, we ventured out that morning to find a good place to grab something for breakfast.  We ventured by a few places the night before and spotted a few stores that looked good, so we headed in that direction.  We found a little local shop that had a ton of pastries in the window, so we went in.

We failed in learning hello in Dutch before we got there.  We did our best to order with out being those incompetent Americans.  Sadly, the only thing the bakery didn't have was coffee.  We found a little cafe and both got latte's to go.

We stumbled upon a park and sat on a bench and enjoyed our first breakfast together.

The park itself was quite funny, no grass, just bricks.  There was this adorable house nearby that was beautiful.  I had to take a picture.  Don't you love the green roof?

After our quick breakfast, we were off to see our first museum, the Rijksmuseum.  The streets there were filled with bikes.  No one really drives there or at least in the area we were at.  No matter how cold, you'd see everyone riding around on their black bike.



Sadly, only a third of the museum was actually open, but it did still showcase some amazing paintings that I studied in college. The outside of the building was getting a facelift as well, but it was still so beautiful and such a huge building.

This piece below was in a hallway, and I didn't really notice it the first time I walked by.  It's an installation piece where a man filmed himself changing the arms of the clock every minute.

Here are some of my pieces from the museum that were my favorite:

Winter landscape with skaters
By Hendrick Avercamp
The thing I remembered about this one was that there is a guy in the middle left that is peeing on a tree.  Interesting fact right?

Still Life with tall Glass Beer
By Jan Jansz van de Velde
D really liked this one, because the tall beer glass is actually a game.  The card read - The most striking object in this painting is the tall pasglas, a special beer glass which was part of a drinking game popular in the 17th century.  When it was your turn, you had a drink just to the next ring - no simple task for someone who had already had a few.  If you missed that ring, you had to keep going until you hit the next one.

Young, Self Portrait
By Rembrandt

Etchings
By Rembrandt


The Night Watch
By Rembrandt
This painting is HUGE.  It's figures are larger than D is.  This piece was actually cropped quite a bit from it's original canvas to fit.

When we were almost all the way through the museum, I started to feel a little off.  I tried to shake it off, but after a few more minutes I really thought I was going to pass out.  The whole damp palms, blood draining from you face = not good.  Luckily, in most museums there are seats so you can enjoy the art.  After a few minutes and D massaging my back, I felt a little better.  Trying not to be dramatic, I tried to go through the rest of the museum.  I didn't want to miss some of the most famous pieces, especially the one above.  We made it through, but decided to go back to the hotel, ingest some water and relax for a bit.

I still blame it on a combination of the travels and that darn meat tray from the bar.  I didn't want to lay around all day, so we eventually continued on our day.  I made the mistake of only bringing Advil PM instead of regular Advil, that sure would have helped that day.

The walk around is just so gorgeous.  We made our way to the outdoor flower market called Bloemenmarkt.  Since the tulips really are not quite in season, there was only one area at the end with cut flowers. 

Of course the bulbs were huge, if only we could have taken those back to the States.

D had found this little corner Cafe for lunch that day.  The seating area was so small and compact, but we got a window seat. D ordered a roast beef sandwich and I ordered the pesto, mozzarella and tomato sandwich.

I also got to spend my first Euro to use the bathroom.  Most places there had a public bathroom, but when you are shopping or walking around, they are a little harder to find for free.  Needless to say, it was a really nice bathroom.  Super clean and the seats even had the plastic on the rim that you turn to have it replaced with a new one.  Fancy.

We walked back to one of the spot D wanted to try for beers called T'arendsnest at about 4 that afternoon.

We really enjoyed the bar, but it was definitely a tourist spot.  We sat at the bar and were one of the first people there that afternoon.  We tried all sorts of beer, they were SO good.  By our third beer, we were chatting it up with the bartender and getting the scoop about the bar.  They definitely attract tourists and we were intrigued to hear where he was from and how well he spoke English.  He said he speaks more English there than Dutch, even growing up they are exposed to a ton of English since all their music and TV were in English.   I love sitting at the bar, you just get to meet so many more people this way.

Shortly after we arrived a couple sat next to us and we started chatting.  They were from Seattle.  They traveled to London for a week and then came to Amsterdam for a few days.  They were adorable.  We chatted with them for probably two hours before we decided we should really find some dinner.

We ventured around a bit and also used Trip Advisor to find some good places to eat.  We ended up at a little restaurant called l'express.   We of course hadn't had enough at that point, and I enjoyed some red wine while D had more beer.  I got the tortellini with Spanish and cream fromage sauce.  D went for the full course meal with a starter of buttered shrimp, followed by the steak with salad and delicious potatoes and a tasty dipping sauce.  He loved the hash/potatoes on his steak plate.  No European dinner is complete with out dessert.  We ended with ice cream and chocolate sauce - yum!

The best part about vacation is that you can really just indulge and enjoy each other.  An adorable bar that we had seen the previous night was a little less crowded that night and showing a football game, so we stopped in and had a few more drinks.  I found it interesting that all the bathrooms are always in the basement.  You always have some super steep spiral staircase to climb down.  Drunk Europeans must be much more coordinated than Americans. 

You would have thought I would have went home and passed out after all that drinking, but my body had a different idea in mind.  I was up most of the night, just laying there.  I thought about taking an Advil PM, but didn't want to feel sleepy the next morning.  Let's just say that I got a lot of emails taken care of that night.

Amsterdam ... Day One

The first part of our trip started off in Amsterdam.  However, since we landed in London we got to briefly see the city, and I mean briefly.

The London airport is quite a ways from downtown and the train station that we needed to get to in order to board our high speed train to Brussels.  Before we searched for the right train to get us there, we were hoping to find a sim card for D's jailbroken iPhone.  D did some research and knew they sold them at the airport.  However, upon finding the vending machine to purchase one, the box lead him to believe it wouldn't work for his (super old 3GS) iPhone.  We decided that rather than spend the 15Euros on something that wouldn't work, we would just skip it.  Who really needs a phone when traveling around Europe, right?  I foresee no issues with this... The other option we had was to go to the carriers store, but that would require a 30 minute cab ride.  This girl was not interested.  That left us with traveling across Europe with no actual phone, besides Google voice that works through WIFI.  This could get interesting, but we decided to take our chances.

The next step lead us to take a train from the airport to the London St. Pancras station.  One thing to know about London is that the Underground (metro) has lines shut down A LOT.  Luckily we were in an English speaking country and figuring out which trains we needed to take to get there were pretty easy.

D had to make our first train experience interesting when he about got stuck in the doors - oops!  Luckily, the door popped back open and he didn't get yelled at by the driver (we saw that happen later in the trip!).  I was pretty excited to travel via train.  The ease of travel and quickness, amazing.  Plus, the first train ride was even better because there was the most adorable little kids riding beside us.  I adore the English accent and having them say mum every other sentence warmed my heart.

We make it to our station, but still had some time to kill before our high speed train actually left.  We walked out of the station, grabbed some coffee, and of course, I had to get a pastry to munch on.  We had all our luggage on us, so we didn't want to venture out too far.  I was already loving all the cars, the sun and not sitting for an hour or so.  Sometimes it really is the little things.  Before we know it we are boarding the train, finding our seats and off to Brussels. The first train was pretty quick. 

We really wanted to spend some time in Brussels, and pulling into the city, it looked so cute.  That didn't happen though.  This was one thing we had to miss out on.  The trip from Brussels to Amsterdam was the one leg of our trip that we didn't have a ticket purchased for already.  The high speed train that normally runs to Amsterdam (and only takes an hour and a half) was completely closed due to a snow storm that messed up their trains earlier that week.  This station had hardly any English displayed, and we could not for the life of us figure out what tickets to get with their electronic screens.  We couldn't even see Amsterdam as an option to get to.  We ended up walking around the rather large station to find a ticket attendant.  After a little wait, we were able to get our tickets using intercity trains, which meant the trip would now take about three hours.

Once we got onto the train, we realized that we had two different tickets, and we were super confused that the second ticket didn't even say Amsterdam.  Another key point to know about the trains is that they are always going to say the termination station, not your end destination.  Yeah, sounds like that would have been super helpful to know.

We just trusted we were on the right train, since the ticket attendant specifically told us what gate we were to board on.  We also didn't realize we had to change trains.  One would have thought the attendant would have told us that too.  We definitely had to talk through the tickets to realize that the only solution that made sense was that we had to exit at the station listed on the first ticket.  At this point we are just hoping and praying that we are making the right choices.  It's not like there are attendants on these trains to ask either.

Our second train was where the people started to get really interesting.  This train was super full upon arriving, and we squished into the standing area with our luggage.  A couple stops down, some really drunk guys got on, and of course, they had to stand by us.  One kept leaning toward me and ended up pushing us to the wall.  Drunken Dutch men falling all over us, best introduction to European trains!  I would have yelled at him, but I highly doubted that he would have even understood it or cared.  I'm pretty sure it would have made matters worse.  Luckily, one of his friends wasn't as drunk and kept telling him to stop crowding me and falling into the bathroom.  We also got to see our first view of 'ladies in windows shaking their stuff' (to put it nicely) as we were going through a small town on our journey.   Our preview of the great things you'll see in the Red Light District.  We were definitely amazed that we made it to the right place three hours later.  There were many times we weren't sure we would.

When we arrived into the Amsterdam station, it was around 20:30 and rather than having to walk and search for our hotel, we grabbed a cab.  At that point, just thinking of the headache of finding our place it the dark did not seem worth it.  Check in was pretty easy.  We of course had a room on the 4th floor with only stairs, welcome to Europe.

The room wasn't horrible.  It's always hard to tell what rooms will look like online.  We by no means were looking for super nice places to stay.  Our mentilty was to keep them cheap, but not a hostel.  This room had three single beds, two of which were pushed together. 

We settled in, but didn't stick around long.  We hadn't eaten yet, and of course we, had to go explore the city, even if it was late.  We'd been sitting all day, so who needs to sleep.  Plus, Amsterdam is the cutest city.

There wasn't a ton of people out on a Tuesday night, but we walked over the canal and into a street with more food options.  Since we really didn't use much energy traveling all day, we weren't super hungry.  We ended up at a bar.  Really, we just wanted a beer.

After a few of those, we ordered some snacks off their bar menu.  I wanted to keep to the local culture as much as possible and ordered the liver and sausage meat plate accompanied with bread, olive paste and hummus.  It sounds like a good idea and most of it was good, but the sausage was not the best option.  It didn't look like it was cooked, but it had to be okay right?

Well, we ate some of it, again, probably not the best option.  The bar had the cutest cat that was super friendly.  Apparently it belonged to someone down the street, but knew it would get fed there, so he made an appearance a lot.  We eventually made our way back to our hotel out of the cold!