Amsterdam: windmills, cheese, clogs and Thai food

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The train trip to Amsterdam was pretty straight forward. Arriving at Paris Gare du Nord an hour before our train we had hoped to grab some lunch after working out where our train left from. The lunch choices were pretty limited and there was pretty much no where to sit. Thankfully though I was carrying a pre-made seat on my back (my backpack) so perched on that while we waiting.

Through a 'security' check which, even though it was an x-ray machine, I have read that this is more to make passengers 'feel' safer as the same checks don't apply at other stations, for trains going in other directions, or even for this train when it stops at other locations.

We had booked first class so the three hour journey came complete with wifi, snacks and drinks so we availed ourselves of this services. Coach was pretty comfy too with more space to spread out than on a flight.

On arrival at Amsterdam Central we grabbed a local train and then it was a short walk to our accommodation, another Airbnb apartment. We 'checked in' - this time to a spacious studio that had a couch, bed and small table and dining area. Probably triple the size of our teeny tiny Paris hotel room.

We grabbed dinner and a drink at a gastropub around the corner which, due to it being a Friday night, was really busy. Decent food though. Then it was home to get though the washing! Exciting Friday night.

The next morning after grabbing breakfast (pancakes) we grabbed a tram into town for (another) free walking tour.

Amsterdam, while predominantly known for its prostitution and drugs, is a very pretty city. It also sits, in its entirety, under sea level, which is quite unique and means that they have had to create ways to stop the city flooding during wet weather. It is also a very flat city (and country) so we even climbed the highest peak in the city, a tiny hill that was a mere 1.5m tall.

We had a local guide on the walking tour again, a history student studying at the local university. The tour started with the Red Light District. After walking down 'luxury' alley (the streets are apparently named are the types of women in the windows) we then walked down 'Big Mumma Alley.' I do feel sorry for the women standing half naked in the little rooms being gawked at by tourists and waiting to earn some euros. I am sure there are worse jobs but it is definitely a public way of being a prostitute!

Amsterdam is also made up of lots and lots of canals - apparently there are 165 of them. What that means is lots of bridges, and lots of places for drunk tourists to fall in the water and drown.

So we walked over the widest bridge and saw the narrowest house, which was 1.8m wide. When the houses were built you paid but the amount of street frontage, so apparently this house gets wider once you walk in!

The guide also explained why some of the houses look like they lean forward, backwards, right and left. Essentially Amsterdam was built on some sort of swamp, and the older houses are held up with lots and lots of wooden posts. But these rot over time. And are expensive to replace. So generally they don't get fixed until the house becomes structurally unsound.

Many of the houses also have hooks coming off the roof. The stairs to second story apartments are very steep - the ones going into the accommodation where we are staying would be incredibly difficult to carry a suitcase up let alone anything bigger.

So - when you need a new bed or move apartment, what do you do? Apparently the hooks are used to help lift furniture and the like up to the higher units so that you can then pass things in through the balcony. Pretty smart, although sounds like a lot of work too.

We also saw the National Monument, the Old Church, the Anne Frank House (Skye - I found it this time, although I did have a tour guide!) and the Royal Palace.

Mid way through the tour we stopped at a cafe for optional food and toilet, and the tour ended near Anne Frank's house. The house is apparently tiny and due to how long the lines usually are they now have a new ticketing system, meaning without pre bought tickets you can't get in until later afternoon.

We opted instead to grab a late lunch (given the pancake breakfast) and then wander through town, taking the 45 minute walk home rather than the tram. Was very pleasant as the weather had somewhat improved by then and the drizzle had stopped. Also enabled us to see some of the less touristy parts of the city, plus some pink flamingos in a nearby park.

We headed out to a localish Thai restaurant for dinner - ended up being some of the best Thai food I think we've ever had. The spring rolls were fresh, hot and had real veg in them. The Chilli Basil Chicken was super tasty as was the Pad Thai. Mmm. So good. Another Yelp success.

The next morning we were up early as we had a booked a half day coach tour to 'experience three quintessential icons of the Dutch countryside — windmills, cheese and wooden clogs'.

We got to the allocated meeting point at the advertised time, just prior to 9am. Not sure what exactly went wrong, but it seemed to be a missing bus (but we had a guide). So instead of leaving at 9am it was closer to 10am by the time we left.

And it didn't improve much from there as far as tour quality was concerned. One of the biggest hold ups all tour ended up being the fact that this tour was being run, simultaneously and by one guide, in English, Spanish and German.

This meant that not only did you have to listen to the Spanish (if you tuned out, all of a sudden you'd realize she had changed back to English unannounced) but it also took her three times as long to get through her speel. But you couldn't wander off either as she didn't communicate what was next or what was expected of us. So it was slow going. However, I do have to say impressive at the same time, I always admire people who speak two languages let alone can run a tour in three simultaneously.

First stop was Zaanse Schans, an open air museum about 15 minutes out of Amsterdam. The museum is known for its functioning windmills. We also got to see how clogs were made, both historically and in the current age using machines which take about five minutes.

We also had a quick wander around the 'museum' although as we didn't have a lot of time we didn't get a chance to get inside one of the windmills or see the cheese museum.

We then headed to the town of Edam where our guide led us around the cobbled streets. We saw lots of historical houses. Guide was almost impossible to hear in the cold and wind. The town was quite pretty though - I assume cheese is named after it.

From there it was on to a former cheese weighing house and current dairy farm to hear how cheese is made. We also got to taste lots of different sorts of cheese - and ended up buying some. Guessing we won't be able to bring it back to Oz so we'll be buying crackers to eat it with over the next 10 days or so!

Our final, and most disappointing, stop of the day was a fishing village called Volendam. From our tour synopsis, it was here that we would 'gain a new found appreciation for Dutch culture through fascinating craft demonstrations.'

We were initially told we would have an hour here, which sounded like enough time to wander around and check it out, find bathrooms and grab lunch. The guide spent nearly 10 minutes standing at a map of the town talking us through the layout of the place (in three languages). By the time we had gotten to where we would also meet later on, and a reduction in our hour to 45 minutes, we barely had 30 minutes.

Twenty of these were spent trying to get some food. The chips were... Well, chips. And the Dutch pancakes, covered in butter and icing sugar, were delicious. But with no time to explore or wander it was a 10 minute walk back to the bus with our guide, and then a drive back into Amsterdam.

Got back later than expected due to the later than expected departure, so we knocked off a spot of souvenir shopping before heading back to our apartment.

The next morning we were up and left for the 10:30am train to the airport for our 1pm flight. Despite it being Ezyjet, the bag drop was super easy with an organized queue, unlike for SAS at Berlin! Grabbed a spot of food to eat, exchanged and spent the last of our euros and had some time to relax before boarding. Full flight which ended up being delayed as air traffic control reduced from parallel to single runway ops when we were about to push back from our gate. But we made up time en route to equal out in the end.

Next stop - Edinburgh in Scotland!

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