Amsterdam: Capital of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

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We had a few hours to spare the morning on the Rhine so after breakfast, we walked along the river and ventured into an old church near our hotel. It was warm out and town was crawling with day tourists. It was amazing how scarce it got by 21:00. The final journey was to the lower countries-Netherlands and Belgium-which are called that on account of being low lying lands near the deltas of 3 rivers. It was a four hour and 3 train transfer journey to Amsterdam-with lunch in Cologne-as we arrived in the Dutch capital at 16:30. We understood why this part of our Eurarail pass required reservation as the final train to Amsterdam was packed. We hopped in a cab to check into our hotel, which was situated next to a canal in the Jordaan neighborhood. It was one of the more international hotels of the trip as people from all over the world checked in and out. Dutch speaking Asians were managing the place-what a novelty to us in America whose frame of reference is so different. For example, the interaction in Italy in which an Indian man and a Chinese man were conversing in Italian blew our mind! Soon enough we headed out to explore and eat. Based on a recommendation we received, we decided to go to an Indonesian restaurant on the outskirts of the Red Light district. When we finally reached the address, to our dismay, we discovered that it was now a fried chicken establishment. We were not happy but knew we had a plethora of options and as the area grew rowdier, we decided to make ourselves scarce. In our research, we read over and over the risk of theft so it made sense for us to be smart on where we went and when. It was by now 21:30 and the fear of places closing had us stop in at a pizzeria near the square. If bruschetta with hot tomatoes and bland pizza don't convey the point, let's just say, unlike in France or Italy, all food establishments in Holland are not created equal. After dinner, we poked around in the lively square and then headed to Jordaan. We could tell there would be a lot to see in Amsterdam-fortunately we had 3 nights.

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