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Published: April 30th 2009
Not to say that India wasn't fun, because we had a great time, but Europe will be a lot more relaxing and less of a struggle. . . we hope.
We arrived in Europe relatively unscathed from our month long adventure in India and were very excited to start the next chapter of our travels, starting with Amsterdam. The city known for its easy going lifestyle, famous artists like Van Gogh and Rembrandt, beautiful canals. . . and of course, the infamous Red Light District and "coffee shops".
As soon as we picked up all of our luggage, Rob called his cousin, Patrick, and we got directions to meet him at his place. We made our way to Platform 1 to catch the next train to Amsterdam Central. It seemed our bad luck with catching trains was a thing of the past since our train showed up right as we got to the platform. We hauled our 300 pounds of luggage onto the train and we were on our way. Rob asked one of the locals how we'll know when we reach Amsterdam Central, to which he replied "this train doesn't go to Central. You need to go in
Rob and I
All dressed up for the weddingthe opposite direction." Even though we were both frustrated by our ongoing string of bad luck, we had to laugh it off. We got off at the next stop, got onto the right train heading to Amsterdam Central, and were on our way - all with our 300 pounds of luggage.
Our next step was to catch a cab from the train station to Patrick and Kyra's place. Patrick had told us beforehand that it should be no more than the base fair of 7.50 euros. When we approched the first taxi he told us it would be 20 euros because of our bags and that there was two of us. We couldn't believe it! We thought we had escaped bartering for taxis in India. Apparently not. After asking several taxis we finally found one who would use the meter. However, he was starting the base fair at 12.50, and not 7.50. At this point we just wanted to get somewhere to rest and agreed to the price. We arrived at Patrick's, with the meter at 15 euros (the driver took a wrong turn), unloaded our bags and the driver then tried to charge us 20 euros due to
the extra luggage. After some brief arguing he accepted the 15 euros and we were on our way.
After some quick introductions, hugs and hellos with some of the family, Rob and I took a much needed nap before dinner. At dinner I met the rest of the family. It was a wonderful feeling for both of us seeing people whom we could sit down with and talk to in english again. Also, dinner was amazing, in part because it was non-indian food and also that it was home made. Side note: Once Rob and I had western food again, all of our stomach issues went away almost instantly.We were staying with Rob's family about a 20 minute train ride outside of Amsterdam in a town called Almere. After dinner we all headed "home" and Rob and I had a pretty early night.
We decided to sleep in a little bit because we had an exhausting couple of days. We slept surprisingly well, considering we were staying on an air mattress that didn't quite fit in the laundry room. That afternoon, we headed to Patrick and Kyra's place to drop off a few things that they had agreed
Rob's token wedding dance move
Doesn't it make you proud, dad? to store until we head back to Saskatoon. After we dropped our things off, we headed into town for a local specialty, considered weird by some Canadians. Now let us explain something. When you're in a place like India for so long there are a few things that you realize you take for granted back at home. For us, these things included clean water and air, fresh fruits and veggies, space to walk on the side walk and, most of all, mayonnaise. The fresh frites (fries) and mayo were so much better than either of us could have imagined.
The days leading up to Patrick and Kyra's wedding, we spent a lot of time doing family things, such as celebrating Aunt Sue's birthday and going to a dinner at Kyra's parents' home in Tilburg. For Rob, this was a good opportunity to visit with his family that he doesn't get see as often as he likes. For myself, it was great to meet the rest of his family that he so often raves about.
The Friday night before the wedding Rob and I met up with Patrick's friend Kevin for some beer and to see the local improve
Patrick
The happy groom show called Boom Chicago. On Rob's last visit to Amsterdam, Patrick brought him here and he's been telling me ever since that it was one of the funniest things he had ever seen. Improve comedy tends to be hit or miss and that night it was a definite miss. I still found it funny, but not as much as Rob hyped it up to be. Rob, on the other hand, was thoroughly disappointed, as it didn't compare to last time.
The following day we trained into Baarn for the wedding, which was held in a breathtaking castle. They couldn't have picked a more beautiful location. The entire wedding was great and the food was absolutely exquisite. We found everyone, especially the Dutch, very friendly and easy to talk to. We were quite impressed that everyone, young and old, were tearing up the dance floor well into the night. Many of the people outlasted Rob and I on the dance floor, partly due to being up late the night before and Rob's poorly made indian shoes pushing on his already throbbing toe.
The next morning, everyone crawled out of bed for breakfast with varying degrees of headaches. Afterwards, we
Ultimate Cheese #2
Aunt Sue had us pose like this all said goodbye to Kyra's family with the customary three kisses on the cheek. We all piled into the rental van and headed back to Almere for a much needed afternoon of rest.
Rob and I spent the following two days exploring some of the sights of Amsterdam. We started off the first day at the Rijksmuseum where we saw the famous "Night Watch" by Rembrandt. We finished up there around noon and headed to the closest sight on our to-do list, the Heineken Experience, a.k.a. the Heineken brewery. There we learned the beer's history, how it's made, and how to properly taste this legendary brew. Due to the fact it had been ages since our last drinking extravaganza (besides the wedding), our tolerance had been quite low. In the whole experience, we were given two beer in the taste testing, and another two in the bar at the end of the tour. Needless to say, we left the tour feeling a little tipsy at about two in the afternoon. As a result of our Heineken buzz, we felt the need to get some greasy pub grub, which we satisfied with a couple chickpea burgers (sounds good Dad, eh?),
fries with mayo, and another Heineken.
Other than going to the Sex Museum, which was nothing more than a few novelty items and explict pictures from the early 1900's, we just wandered the heart of Amsterdam. That evening we visited the Red Light District. Since Rob had been there a couple years ago he was aware of what it was all about. I, on the other hand, had never been there before, and was quite surprised by how attractive the girls were, the variety of "clientele", and the many elderly tour groups perusing the area.
For our last day in Amsterdam we tried to complete our sightseeing to-do list. First stop was the Anne Frank House. The line up to get tickets was around the block so we decided to skip it for now, and see it when we return to Amsterdam to fly home this summer. We then jumped back on the tram and headed to the Van Gogh Museum which took up the better part of the afternoon. From there we decided to take a canal tour, which was recommended to us by several people as the most informative and unique way to see Amsterdam. This
may be true if the speakers work on the boat, however, we were unable to hear about 80% of what was being said about the surrounding sights. It also didn't help that we were the youngest tourists on the boat by at least 40 years. We passed several other boat tours with younger tourists drinking, laughing and having a good time. I guess we took the wrong tour. The most lively part was when we passed by a boat of local boys who decided to show us their shiny, white asses. The elderly women went crazy snapping photos and yelling in French.
The next day we had to get up early to pack our bags, say our goodbyes to everyone and catch our train to Berlin. As usual, we were running behind schedule. We ended up being three minutes late to catch the last train into Amsterdam to make our connection onto Berlin. Thanks to Rob's quick thinking, he remembered that the Berlin train made a stop in Hilversum, only a short train ride from Almere. We caught the next train to Hilversum and luckily, made our connection to Berlin.
We arrived in Berlin about six hours later.
Despite getting on one wrong tram, we eventually made it to our hostel.
We started all of our sightseeing the following day with a walk down to Museum Island. There we saw the Egyption Museum, which wasn't nearly as interesting as you may think, and the Pergamon Museum, which was fascinating. There were parts of the actual Pergamon Alter, and many other ancient Greek and Roman ruins. The museums took up a large part of the day and so we ended it off by simply wandering the lively streets of Berlin.
Over the next few days we saw such sights as the Berlin Zoo, Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag Building, Jewish Memorial, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie Museum, the German History Museum, a couple of churches, several historic buildings, and famous public squares. We won't go into detail about these sights because otherwise this blog will never end and we'll never leave our hostel.
We had been riding the subways many times in Berlin and never once saw a ticket official on any of the trams. For the majority of our time in Berlin we didn't buy tickets, since it didn't seem neccessary. On our last full day there
while exploring the city we got on a tram for a very short trip without buying a ticket. Within seconds of being on the tram we saw the ticket official walking down the aisle checking everyones tickets. Rob and I looked at each other and hoped that the tram would stop before he reached us to check our non existant tickets. When our stop did not come soon enough, we tried to pass off our Eurail passes as our tickets. When this didn't work, we pleaded ignorance and played up the dumb tourist act. This also proved futile, as he clearly didn't care. He kicked us off the tram at the next stop, which luckily was ours, and proceeded to record our information. Minutes later were walking away, both with 40 euro tickets in our hands, with no intention of paying. From that point on for the rest of our time in Berlin we payed for the subways, but we didn't see another ticket official again.
This wraps up Germany Part 1, as we'll be returning in a couple weeks. When you hear from us next we'll be in Krakow, Poland.
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Kathleen
non-member comment
So nice to get your updates! I love reading them. :) A quick note on the Anne Frank House - the line up is perpetually around the corner. I booked a ticket online in advance and it was maybe a tiny bit more than having to wait in line, but so well worth it. It really is an immensely moving museum if you are able to see it on the way back around. Best of luck on the rest of your travels, take care and much love, Kathleen p.s. you both look fabulous!