Christmas market tour - a side trip to Amsterdam

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Amsterdam isn't a destination you immediately think of when considering a Christmas market tour - in fact, I doubt you'd think of it at all. The only reason we included it to our plans was because we came across some bargain Thalys fares, which meant we could travel from Brussels to Amsterdam and back for just £24. Neither Jasmin nor I had ever been to Amsterdam before; we thought this was an opportunity not to be missed.

Thalys is a high-speed train run jointly by the Belgian, French, Dutch and German railways. Its network links Brussels with Paris, Amsterdam and Cologne. http://www.thalys.com/ The best thing about it is that, although it's a high-speed, high-quality service, it offers bargain fares called "Smilys" which allow even those of us on a budget to experience the pleasure of fast and comfortable train journeys. 😊

Our train to Amsterdam departed Brussels Midi just before midday. We had every intention of spending the morning sightseeing in Brussels (sadly it was still too early for the Marché de Noël) but in the end we only made it as far as the hotel restaurant. Our room rate did not include breakfast and the original plan was to go out and get a sandwich or a waffle from one of the several sandwich shops near our hotel, but it was a grey and wet morning and we thought we'd check out the hotel's breakfast buffet first. We didn't expect much (this was, after all, an Ibis) but we were rather pleasantly surprised. It wasn't top nosh by any stretch of the imagination, but there were plenty of breakfast foodstuffs to choose from, and the restaurant itself was bright, with large tables - so we brought our postcards to write while getting our caffeine fix. In the end we had such a fun time writing postcards to various friends and family (Jasmin even sent one to herself because she likes having the foreign stamps on them) that we only left our hotel when it was time to make our way to the train station. So much for sightseeing....

We reached Brussels Midi in good time, so we went to the post office to post our cards first. We had a very interesting exchange with the lady at the counter, who seemed confused by the fact that we had 15-odd postcards to different destinations all over the world (leading to much repeating of each destination in Jasmin's best French), then proceeded to put the stamps on our postcards instead of giving them to us to stick on (I've often wondered why they do that, I mean it's more work for them, isn't it?). Thankfully we managed to stop her after she'd done two cards, but Jasmin was unimpressed. Some of the stamps were special edition Asterix ones, each with a different Asterix character, and one of the cards the lady had stamped using a regular stamp was for Jasmin's boyfriend, a huge Asterix fan. Instead, the nice Asterix stamp went on a card to Jasmin's Auntie Nellie who couldn't care less about Asterix (or what stamp she got on her postcard for that matter).

The lady at the counter said we could give the postcards back to her when we'd put the stamps on, but given our earlier exchanges we thought we'd better play it safe, and posted them in the post box outside, then ran for our train. We had half an hour before the train was due to depart and thought we were cutting it fine - but we reached the platform and not only was the train not there, it wasn't even on the board yet. For a moment we were worried we'd somehow got on the wrong platform, as we thought there would be plenty of people there, but the only other person was a young Chinese man who looked just as bewildered as we were. At least he too was going to Amsterdam, so we were reassured on the platform front. It wasn't until 10 minutes or so before departure that more people started arriving on the platform, and we realised that as we were now in the Schengen area, there was no passport control between countries, so a train going from Brussels to Amsterdam was the same as a train going from Brussels to Liege or Brugge - you showed up 5 minutes before it was due to depart, you got on it and off you went, no passport and customs checks, no screening of luggage, no nothing. Welcome to United Europe!

The train journey to Amsterdam took just under 3 hours and was comfortable and uneventful. I can't remember the scenery being anything special until we got close to Amsterdam and saw some windmills, or it could be that I didn't notice it because I kept nodding off. I can't help it, trains rock me to sleep. Also it was the middle of winter, so mostly I remember it being grey and very flat. We'd have to come back in April or May to see the tulips.

That night we stayed at the Sofitel on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal (try pronouncing that) which was much nicer than the Ibis in Brussels, without being any more expensive. It's amazing what a difference one day can make when booking a hotel. Thankfully we didn't have to pronounce the name of the street, as the hotel was really easy to locate, just 5-10 minutes walk from the railway station, past a number of bars with Amstel signs - much to my delight, as Amstel is one of my favourite lagers. What I remember most vividly about the hotel was the lobby, which was all lit up and decorated for Christmas. I suppose after our experience in Brussels, a brightly lit Christmas tree was bound to make an impression, eh?

We started exploring Amsterdam by looking for the nearest post office, so we could get stamps for the postcards we hadn't yet bought. The post office we found had a rather nice stationery shop where we bought notebooks and Christmas cards with inscriptions such as "Prettige Feestdagen" (happy holidays?) and "Gelukkig Nieuwjaar" (happy new year?). Jasmin thought I was mad for buying Christmas cards with wishes in a language none of my friends or relatives could understand - but I thought it'd be a scream to send Dutch Christmas cards, and bought 4 packs.

Then we walked towards the city centre and happened upon a beautiful Dutch Rennaisance (I'm reliably informed) building that was the former post office and now houses an upmarket shopping centre called Magna Plaza. Inside it certainly lives up to its name. The view from the top floor was impressive and we found all sorts of nice shops, including a Hello Kitty shop (so excited about that as they're rare in London), a fab toy shop (more gifts for Jasmin's little sis and my goddaughter) and a great little souvenir shop where we bought lots of fancy postcards.

From there, we walked to the Christmas market which was very small and not terribly inspiring, but I’m happy to report that the donuts and stroopwafels (flat waffles filled with caramel) http://www.daelmansbanket.com/images/groepen/stroopwafels.jpg were yummy. 😊

Then we walked along Kalverstraat, the main shopping street. What an experience that was! Fantastic shops, trendy fashions, lots and lots of beautiful window displays. We were in shopper's paradise. The SATC girls would have a field day here. We didn't buy much, mostly souvenirs, as we had to keep luggage to a minimum, but we decided we had to return to Amsterdam for a proper shopping trip. Jasmin said Amsterdam was supposed to be the new NY and a lot of people she knew were hopping over to Amsterdam to shop rather than flying to the opposite side of the pond, and I can just believe that. Not that I've been to NY myself, but I certainly liked what I saw in Amsterdam.

Later on, we headed for the famous Red Light District, the most impressive part of which were the lovely buidlings along the canals. Despite the fact that it was dark by the time we got there, we could tell this was a beautiful part of the city. We spent ages trying to balance our cameras on any suitable surface (car roofs, walls, dustbins, we tried them all) so we could take photos in the dark - much trickier than it sounds when you're trying to avoid getting knocked over by mad cyclists! Jasmin was rather disappointed by the Red Light District, as she'd thought at least some of the prostitutes at the windows would be male, but we only saw women prostitutes - nice looking ones, but women all the same. We didn't bother visiting any of the coffee shops, as neither of us is into "smoking", but we passed by some that looked interesting. We finished up in Damrak, and returned to our hotel to have a rest and change before going out for the evening.

That evening we met up with a "virtual" friend of mine, a Greek girl called Georgina who I'd got to know through an internet chat room, of all places. Georgina lives in Den Haag and had travelled to Amsterdam with a friend of hers to meet Jasmin and me for dinner. They took us to a fancy restaurant somewhere in west Amsterdam and I was really excited as I thought I'd finally have a real, Dutch Amstel beer, but no - they didn't serve Amstel. 😱 But how can it be? We're in Amsterdam, we have to have Amstel beer!!! Nope, no luck - but they did have another lager that was very similar to Amstel, so I wasn't too disappointed. Overall, the evening was very enjoyable. Considering each of us was meeting two of the others for the first time, the conversation flowed and by the time we got to dessert, you'd think we were old friends. I often think what a difference the internet has made to our lives... how did we ever manage without it? Georgina and her friend walked us back to the hotel, which was lucky because we'd have been knocked over by cyclists if it hadn’t been for them reminding us to stick to the pavement all the time.

The next morning we left the hotel relatively early to look for breakfast, as the hotel buffet was priced beyond our budget. We found a great cafe a few blocks away, where we sat for a couple of hours enjoying our cappuccinos and writing our postcards. It was a quiet Saturday morning and there were only 3 or 4 other people at the cafe, so we could have a large wooden table to ourselves, and what's more, our table was by the window overlooking one of the side streets with the narrow houses. You can't get more into "Amsterdam life" than this!

On the way back to our hotel, we took in a bit more of Amsterdam - we saw people moving furniture into a house via the windows, dozens of bicycles tied up to railings on the side of the canals, endless rows of narrow houses etc. We even saw the world's narrowest house at Singel no. 7. The house is only one meter wide - not much wider than its front door (so no surprise we missed it first time round). Apparently this is the back of the house and the front is quite a bit wider, but even so it was well impressive.

Even though it was cold and drizzling throughout our stay, and the Christmas market was nothing to write home about, we totally loved Amsterdam. It looked pretty, trendy and cosmopolitan - which is no mean feat considering it's quite removed from the rest of mainland Europe. It certainly deserves its reputation as a top destination for travellers. We shall be returning!

In the meantime, Cologne and its Christmas markets await us. Mmmm gluhwein... 😊

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Photos

Magna Plaza
The post office building turned shopping centre

It's Christmas!
A beautiful display in the window of a Russian doll shop

Dutch cheese
Need I say more?

Amsterdam by night
One of the canals near the Red Light District

Singel no, 7
The narrowest house in the world!

Moving Dutch-style
(now you know why they have hooks at the top of their houses)

Comments

[Me thinks that]

Nice
I have lived in Amsterdam for that last 6 months and I think that you have written a really comprehensive yet interesting piece about the city. All the elements that make up the city - the sights, the food, the cycles, the canals and the houses - all nicely put....and really good pics. Good blog!