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Published: February 28th 2010
Let me just start by saying my past week doing a mini Euro-trip was amazing. It’s still kind of crazy to me that Allison and I could just plan a trip and make it happen!
It started out last Friday, February 12. Allison had brought her big rolly suitcase to my house, where I added my things to it and we set off for the Gare (train station). We had decided that since the Dublin leg of our trip consisted of flying, it would be cheaper for us to pack one bag together, so we would only pay for checking one bag. Stay tuned. You might think it’s silly to mention the initial packing of the suitcase, but I feel like this large green vessel actually played a significant role in our travels, so I decided to include its initial state.
We arrived at the Gare with ample time for our 12:02 train, and easily found our platform. We just hoped on the first 2nd class car we saw, which happened to be a pretty small one, and only one other man was sitting there. However, after about 10 minutes of us sitting a few rows behind him speaking
and him trying to sleep, the power of English in a French country worked its charm and left us with our own train car for our journey to Paris. I worked on the rubix cube, and am coming closer to being able to solve it with papers. Alas, I still have not completed the final steps because the last part was kind of detailed directions in French and just caused me to scramble all the colors up again.
The Gare we arrived at in Paris wasn’t the same one that our train to Amsterdam departed from, so we worked our way to the metro system with our slightly overloaded backpacks and our large suitcase. However, Paris itself is not exactly made for large suitcases, least of all its metro system. To get to the metro, you have to buy a ticket, which you put in this thing, and then these doors open for one person to walk through. However, we realized that the walkway gets slightly smaller as your walking through the doors. We realized this when I was pulling the suitcase behind me and all of a sudden I stopped because the suitcase didn’t fit behind me. I
The Amsterdam Sign!
I'm in between the m and s...tried to pull it slightly, and then the doors closed again on it!!! Thankfully Allison was still on the other side, so we were both pushing and pulling and eventually we got it free, but the corners look a lot more worn now…
Also, the metro system doesn’t have as many escalators as you might think, and is certainly lacking in elevators. So this meant that I carried the suitcase up and down many flights of stairs at our various metro stations. Again, stay tuned for more exciting suitcase carrying stories.
We got on our train to Amsterdam with plenty of time to spare and enjoyed our ride through France, Belguim, and Holland sitting across the aisle from an 8-year-old and her grandmother who was teaching her English. (It was really adorable.)
When we got off the train in Amsterdam, it was about 5:30 and already dark. We left the train station to be greeted by a beautiful church and skyline—something I hadn’t been expecting! We followed the intricate directions to the B&B that the owner had emailed Allison, with tons of unnecessary details but in the end we were able to find it in about five minutes
which was nice. As instructed, Allison rung the small black doorbell three times and a short balding/graying man appeared with a gold chain necklace saying in an easily understood accent “Ah! The girls are here! Come in!” Allison and I gave each other the double-eyebrow raise before following this man (Wimmo) into his apartment. (Pictures included.) We sat down on the couch he showed us to, then went to the other room to get our reservation information and such, and to get a “surprise” for us (!?!?!) We had NO IDEA what to expect, so, left dumbfounded on the couch, we just waited Wimmo’s return.
He ended up being really nice, returning with a map of the city and circling all the attractions he thought we would like to go to (including the world’s only museum of handbags and purses, which yes, we did go to). He told us where we shouldn’t go too late at night, how you won’t find coffee in Amsterdam Coffeeshops, and how to get the best deal on the tram system. Then was time for our surprise. (Uh-oh, right?) He asked if we were prepared and when we apprehensively said yes, he responded with,
“You guys won the lottery! You have a super-mega-upgrade for free!” And he showed us how he had hand-written this on our reservation and underlined it about twelve times. Allison and I glanced at each other, mildly confused. Wimmo explained to us that since we had made our reservation online through some third party booking thing, they had signed us up for the cheap room which was actually no longer available, so we get to pay the same price the website told us but instead we got a STUDIO APPARTMENT!!! It was pretty sweet. We had our own fully equipped kitchen, two couches, a eating counter, coffee table, and a big bed (with towels arranged for us on the bed in the shape of a heart—haha. Made for a nice, romantic Valentines’ weekend.)
We then went to the closest cheapest restaurant that Wimmo had directed us toward, which was pretty cheap until we got the bill, seeing that we paid for the water we drank and the ketchup we had asked for on our fries. Oh well. We then went to Albert Heijn, the grocery store to stalk up our sweet studio apartment for breakfast and lunch the next
day, then went back to our sweet pad and chatted for a while and went to bed before too late so we could get up to beat the lines at the Van Gogh museum Saturday.
While we took a little more leisure time in the morning than originally anticipated, it was much needed and we still got the the Van Gogh museum before the line was too long. (After figuring out the tram system, and finding out that the circle building that says Van Gogh museum on it next to the tram stop actually has no doors and therefore the actual entrance is across the road.) While the museum was probably the single most expensive thing we did in Amsterdam, it was well worth the money. I thought that Van Gogh’s paintings were especially interesting to see because he used so much texture in his works which really just isn’t captured in posters. It was amazing.
After a few hours at the museum, we took a canal ride, which we thought would be freezing cold…until we realized that you’re inside a heated boat with windows everywhere and a glass roof! Amsterdam really surprised me by its beauty. Not
knowing much about the city before I actually went there, Allison and I were both the most pleasantly surprised by Amsterdam and its beautiful canals and modern yet European looking buildings. The boat ride had a guide who said the same information in English, Dutch, French, and Spanish, but the English accent was so strong we understood more from listening to the French translation!
After the boat ride, we went back home for lunch by accidentally stealing a ride on the tram. We had bought a 2-pack of baguettes that you put in the oven for 10 minutes and some ham and brie—simply delicious. We then went to the museum of handbags and purses (where we didn’t pay an entrance fee—we think admission was free?? We hope at least…) The museum was so cool! It was basically a 3 or 4 story house with all the rooms displaying handbags from throughout the decades—starting from about the 1700s! Most of the information signs were only in Dutch, but there were a few English ones sprinkled around too.
We then walked home in the freezing cold through the red light district, just to see it, and stopped in a souvenir
shop where I got clog slippers! A perfect Dutch souvenir! We made ourselves dinner in the room before going out again to try to find one of the spots that Wimmo had told us would be fun (he labeled in “party” on our map) but once we got halfway there we realized we had forgotten the map and didn’t want to risk walking in the wrong part of town, so we turned around and went back home, stopping in an Irish pub on the way to watch some winter Olympics. By the time we found the pub, I was pretty sure I knew which was the B&B was, but I checked with the bar tender before we left, just in case. (“If we turn left and keep going, we’ll run into the train station, right?” to which he replied, “The train station? Yeah, turn left, keep going, YOU CAN’T MISS IT.”) So we left, turned left, and about three steps later saw the huge train station. He must have thought we had the worst sense of direction ever because we were pretty much literally across the street. I guess still better safe than sorry…
We got up early again
on Sunday to see the Anne Frank House, which was pretty close to our B&B. We woke up to snow, and, a beautiful and peaceful (almost abandoned) city, which our guidebooks had told us would happen early on a Sunday morning. Standing in line for the Anne Frank House, we met a couple from Seattle (in their 50s) and a man from Australia (probably around 40). We chatted with them a bit, and the woman from Seattle asked us if we had checked out any of the coffeeshops. When we responded no, we hadn’t, that wasn’t really our thing, the Australian chimed in that he had checked out plenty and was planning on finding another one this afternoon. The Seattle couple asked him a few more questions, which left Allison and me with the impression that we may very well be the only people to have ever visited Amsterdam without smoking. Not the conversation we were expecting to have at 9am but that’s Amsterdam I suppose.
The Anne Frank House was cool, the bookcase that hid the staircase up to their rooms was still intact, and there was actually a lot more room than I was expecting! Still a
very small place for 10 people to live for 4 years (or however long, I forget the actual amount of time) but there were two stories that were hidden with lots of small rooms!
We checked our of our fabulous B&B after Anne Frank, but were able to leave our giant suitcase there until our train at 5. We went to the Botanical Gardens in Amsterdam, which was a better idea in theory since most of it was outside and covered in snow. However, there were a few greenhouses, including a butterfly house and a warm tropical greenhouse. It was nice to be warm…After leaving the gardens, I found my first hazelnut latte since coming to Europe and wow was it delicious! After the pick-me-up we continued following our map to the Van Loon Museum—an old canal house in Amsterdam. After walking up and down the same road three times, and finally finding the intersection it was supposed to be at, we looked up and realized that the shop on the corner was in no way the Van Loon Museum. Then we realized that it wasn’t located on the corner, but slightly down a side street. Once this realization
was made our directional problems disappeared.
The museum was cool (it kind of reminded me of the Pittock Mansion in Portland). It was a three or four story house with lots of rooms decorated from the 1800s. We left with the perfect amount of time to return to our B&B, give our last farewell to Wimmo, and hop on a train to London.
Overall, Amsterdam was a major success.
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emilyyyy
non-member comment
glorious!
how fun! that trip sounds so delightful! and i'm so jealous of the van gogh!!!!!!!! do you realize what an awesome life you're living currently??