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Published: August 13th 2007
Sex, Drugs and Wooden Shoes
Our arrival in Amsterdam was fraught with one of the craziest airport experiences that we’ve had to date. You’d think that airports around the world would become crazier the further you moved from the first world but our experience has been just the opposite. Since most of Asia isn’t as security conscious and has smaller less crowded airports, things aren’t incredibly crazy. The moment you step back in Europe, the crazy factor jumps a million-fold.
Thinking that Iceland’s main airport couldn’t get that many people traveling through it at 6:15am on a Sunday was a huge mistake on our part. We dropped our rental car off in the parking lot of the bus station and got on the 5:45am “Fly Bus” which took us to the airport. There may have been 15 other travelers on the bus with us, so far so good. But, as we arrived at the airport the sight that greeted us was shocking and nerve racking. Inside the check-in area there were more than 500 people checking in. That’s no big deal in say Paris or Rome but in Iceland there were only about ten people working the
counters.
As we entered the airport we could tell that the crowds were not just unhappy, they were moments away from a full on riot. It seemed that the long, long line of tourists were pretty mad about having to wait “forever” for planes whose departures were rapidly approaching. In some cases people had less than an hour until their flights left and were well in the back of the line. We had left ourselves about an hour and a half and our flight was delayed by a half hour making things a bit easier for us but it was still a bit unnerving to walk in to what you thought would be an easy morning and find out otherwise.
Kel, being the travel savvy and intelligent girl that she is, immediately got us in a short line to use the electronic check in counter. After about 15 minutes we were checked in and just had to wait in the relatively short bag drop line. It is always a bit annoying to be in the bag drop line because people always get in the line who haven’t checked in or at least haven’t put their bag tags on
yet. If people actually did what they were supposed to do we would have been through the line in about ten minutes, instead it took 25 or so. No matter how long it took it was still less than half the time it took others to get through the huge regular check in line. Note to the wise: If you are scared of e-checkin for a flight, practice a bit in low stress situations because it really pays off under pressure.
Our flight was no big deal, I slept a bit and Kel read a bunch. When we arrived in Amsterdam things got a little scary again. We got to the baggage carousel and waited, and waited some more and waited yet more time. It took close to a half hour for our bags to show up which is a really long time. We were some of the last people to get our bags which, after BA losing my bags about 5 weeks earlier, is a scary place to be. Thankfully our bags showed up and we were on our way.
Our hotel was just outside of central station in downtown. It is a brand new hotel built
in a building which used to be owned by a shipping company. The building is very cool and the hotel is very high end. Kel read about it in an online magazine and found out that they were doing huge deals because the hotel isn’t finished yet. We got our room for more than half off and thus are staying in a 5 star hotel for 3 star prices! YEAH!!
The rest of our first day was pretty dull. We got some lunch, walked around town a bit and bought a tourist card for sights and transportation and then took a canal cruise which was covered in our newly bought cards. The canals of Amsterdam are what truly differentiates the city. Unlike any other city in northern Europe, the waterways define the shape and architecture of the city. With houseboats everywhere and buildings built in order to have water access, the city was literally built for water.
That night we got a decent dinner, which seemed really cheap after leaving Iceland. Unfortunately it rained on us on the way to dinner which got Kel completely soaked and made us both really cold. We should know to carry our
Houseboat Garden
Photo By - Kelley Turnerrain coats but it had been so clear earlier that we figured everything would be great. It’s a little strange here right now because it’s unseasonably cold, about 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than usual. We love the cold but were expecting it to be warmer.
Museums, Canals and Pancakes Our second day was a bit of a whirlwind day for us. We usually take a city a little slower because we have more time than many travelers but, for some reason, Monday was just crazy.
We started the day by grabbing a cheap breakfast on our way to dropping off our laundry. Since laundries are never located in tourist areas, it was quite a walk to drop off our stuff. It always pays to take the extra walk though because our total laundry bill came to 10 euros.
From laundry drop off we decided to head to Amsterdam’s two biggest art museums the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. At this point it seemed like we would walk forever to get to the museums so we decided to get tickets for the hop-on/hop-off boat tour. Since we got a decent discount with our tourist
cards we figured it was money well spent. This saved us huge amounts of time since we were nowhere near a bus station or tram stop.
About 15 minutes later we got off and headed first to the Van Gogh Museum. This four story museum is almost completely devoted to Van Gogh and houses some of his best works. We had seen Starry Night when in Paris a few weeks earlier so it was kinda cool to be able to see the Sunflowers and some of the other most famous Van Gogh pieces. The crowd was actually pretty manageable which was also a plus since so many of the museums are swamped.
The Rijksmuseum was less than a block away. Kel and I are both big fans of some kinds of art but Flemish art is not really our thing. We figured that, since the museum was free with out tourist card and we were right there, that we would do a quick run through in order to see what all the fuss was about. We did a very fast run through and saw some of Rembrandt’s most famous works including the Night Watch which is deemed his
Amsterdam Crowds
Photo By: Kelley Turner best work. I was actually more impressed with the work in the Rijksmuseum than I thought I would be, most Flemish art is dark and almost scary. I was really impressed with the detail of the works we saw, especially of Rembrandt’s work.
We took the Canal Boats back to get our laundry and then stopped at one of the more touristy restaurants in town for a late afternoon snack. The Pancake Bakery is only frequented by tourists but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a place you should go. The Dutch are famous for their crepe-like pancakes and no place does them better than this particular establishment. I had “Dutch” pancakes which had whipped cream, ice cream and cherries on them…sweet and amazing. Kel had a Greek pancake that was like a huge Gyro in a pancake, not my style but she seemed to enjoy it.
Nearly stuffed with pancakes we decided to head back to the hotel to drop off the laundry and decide where to go to dinner. Kel lead us on a slightly circuitous path back so that we could head through the red-light district. Once again, no pictures but this is an area that
frowns on pictures. Despite the fact that prostitution in legal and regulated in Amsterdam, it still feels very sketchy. Scantily clad women stare out of their windows trying to get your attention and maybe get some business. I found the other people around me to be more scary than the women though. It seems that every sketchy person in the world has the dream of visiting Amsterdam. If you are in the thick of the tourist areas of town there is a never ending stream of sleazy men walking around. Think about it: how many other places can you go in the world that have legal prostitution and legal marijuana? It’s all a recipe for some of the trashiest tourists you will ever see.
After dropping off the laundry and resting a bit we headed back out into town for another iconic Amsterdam experience, the Indonesian Rijsttafel (translated as Rice-Table). The hotel gave us a great recommendation of a place that was about 20 minutes away (nothing is ever close in Amsterdam). Dinner consisted of 13 separate dishes of Indonesian food that has been slightly westernized in order to be palatable for the average European. This means that they
have tempered the spiciness and that the ingredients are clean and wholesome. The food was absolutely amazing from skewered prawns, to fried chicken in a spicy applesauce, to beef satay, and on and on. Every single dish was delicious which says a lot for any meal with this much variety. I challenge you to come up with 13 dishes at any restaurant that are all good, I think it would be a difficult task.
Since dinner we’ve been chilling in the room and, in my case, working on the blog. Hope everyone back home is doing as well as we are! Thanks for reading, you guys rock!
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Bruce / Daddy
non-member comment
Kel, It looks like the wooden shoe you were sitting in would do terrific on a luge course. I can see you enjoying something like that!