.
20140420 Easter Sunday afternoon. PhotoLink

Intentions: To Amsterdam on our own on the Thalys high-speed train, to arrive about 1600. We’ll check in our Hotel Ibis Central, adjacent to the station followed with a basic walk down the Damrak to the Dam and back. We’ll have dinner somewhere. Scroll down for the rest of our stay here.

Actuals: We traveled. We were up at a reasonable hour, even though neither of us slept well. The house personnel helped us from room to car. The driver of the black Mercedes sedan must drive the F1 circuit on his off days - we passed everyone and arrived at Heathrow T5 in record time. The service people there trotted out a wheelchair for our use. We went through the security and up to the business lounge. We ate small things and had a drink. Luckily, our gate was right beneath the lounge and we hadn’t far to push D to the plane. The short plane ride was perfect.

A young blonde Dutch lady met us at the plane with a wheelchair and pushed D to an electric cart & mounted the wheelchair to its rear. Then she took off on the cart all the way to immigration, got our passports stamped, transferred D back to the wheelchair and out to the taxi. What a great reception!!!

The taxi took us at a moderate rate into the city and to the Ibis Hotel adjacent to the central train station. It’s spartan, but convenient.

I took a hike to get Euros and look around. The Tourist Office was closed for Easter, so I couldn’t get the IAmsterdam pass which allows free tram, bus, and metro travel that I want to use to get D around town. I found the HOHO (hop-on-hop-off) bus office, so we’ll do that first tomorrow, then get the pass.

We walked to the train station to test D’s leg and look around. She couldn’t take much more than that so we returned to the hotel. It’s not her foot or ankle, but the calf tendon that’s limiting her. Between the hotel & station there is a two-story bicycle parking garage, and bikes in racks everywhere, very few of them locked. Since it’s Easter, there aren’t many people moving around the station and tomorrow is a holiday, we won’t get to see the usual bike jam until Tuesday.

We ate in the hotel’s little restaurant (chicken soup, mucho bread, spaghetti bolognese) and returned to the room to take it easy.

The construction of this hotel is weird. There’s a narrow building parallel to the tracks; the hotel uses floors 0 (ground floor) through 7 of this part. There’s another slim building built over tracks 2 & 3 outside the trainshed; an overpass connects them on the 5th floor going over track 1. In this building, the hotel has floors 5 through 9; floors 0 through 4 don’t exist because the trains run underneath it. Interesting.


Amsterdam Overview: Click anywhere on the map for Google Maps of Amsterdam. The station is about where the (s100) sign is located.







20140421 Monday Amsterdam PhotoLink-O PhotoLink-D Photos may take considerable time to download, large collections.

Intentions: Examine the Church of Our Lord in the Attic, then ride a tram or two to get used to them. Take in the Van Gogh museum.

Actuals: We had breakfast in the hotel buffet. Not worth the money but large and good. Then we hopped onto the HOHO bus. We did a round of the city (hope to link to a map here) and noted places we might *do* later. But the partly sunny sky turned gray and then a light rain began. When we returned to the trip origin, we hopped off and returned to the hotel to avoid the damp.

D took it easy for a bit while I decided to chase down our cruise ship. I’d found out where it was berthed today using an app called Vessel Finder. So I walked through the station to the waterfront and along it to the cruise ship terminal. It was closed (no departures or arrivals today) so I had to walk around it to the River Navigator. I went to the desk and stated I was going to board in two days. The staff was happy I was already here and would not be a problem. They told me the cabins would be ready at 1230, and that we could board after 1100 and wait in the lounge with coffee.

So I walked back in the intermittent rain and, despite my umbrella, got my herringbone jacket all wet. It now smells like a yak and weighs about 40 pounds.

We took it easy till mid-afternoon.

Then I got out my raincoat and we attacked the HOHO bus again, looking more seriously for food spots or interesting things that wouldn’t require much walking. Since I had my raincoat on, the rain stopped. Our ride was fun and we took more pictures, but we didn’t find anything that fit. So we hopped off at the origin in front of the station.

We walked up Martelaarsgracht in Burgwallen-Nieuwe Zijde, and were accosted by this dude standing in the door of Argentino San Thomas restaurant. He begged us to come in and swore they had the best steak in Amsterdam and asked us where we were from and all that. Dolores thought he was entertaining and wanted a steak anyway, so we went in. Funky atmosphere, somewhat desert and old west, maybe Argentine. We had the house red, not bad. The steaks were excellent; tender & juicy. Lana could have a ball here.

We left in a leisurely mood and walked a couple of back alleys, looking in shops. D found her Amsterdam pin in one. There wasn’t much in the others, so we walked into the station to the place we’d bought snacks and wine yesterday. It also had cute kid-wear, which does pack easily and doesn’t take up much room and is easily rationalized as a gift and so forth. You know the end to that one.

Then D was fading so we went back to the room to settle and do computer chores.

D’s problem in walking is centered now on a pulled calf tendon/muscle. The ankle is ok, and the rib bruises are ok. But because of the calf problem, she favors it and that throws her hips and back out of alignment. The upshot of all this is that she can’t go long distances. But she’s improving.

During the chores, I went to the vending machines area. Bought a diet Pepsi for D and a Heineken for me. Yup, beer machine. See picture.


20140422 Tuesday Amsterdam PhotoLink-O PhotoLink-D

Intentions: TBD. In passing, find River Navigator’s berth for use tomorrow.

Actuals: We found the RN yesterday, so that’s done.

We went to breakfast at Smit’s Koffiehuis on the canal in front of the station. Canal cruise boats going every which way, but not as many as the holiday yesterday. The food was nice but quite different. The bacon was fried in with the pancake, one piece in each quadrant; the pancake was thin (in the Swedish manner) - see the pictures. It was good, though.

I went off to the GBV (Amsterdam transportation) office and bought day passes for the trams, buses, etc. We got on a tram and went to Dam Square. We walked around and looked into Nieuwe Kerk (new church). Very stark, possibly the Calvinist influence. We went into shopping center but it turned out to be very upscale so we departed. Another tram took us to the flower market where D went nuts because she couldn’t buy any at 50 cut tulips for 7 Euro. When we get home, we’ll send for a few bulbs and grow a few on the lanai.

D started fading, so we returned by tram to the hotel. She rested and played computer games.

I took off to find the station’s *good* restaurant for which we saw advertising but couldn’t find earlier. I found it. Looks good, so we’ll eat there tonight.

Then I took the tram to the Muntplein stop and walked into the V&D department store. I wandered all over the men’s area and found nothing I could use back home. Very European styling that wouldn’t look good on me in Florida. I did come across some shirts on sale. I bought one of them and came back by tram to the hotel.

I saw in my travels several tiny cars called “Canta’s”. Tiny. So I looked up some information on the Canta, which is made here.

We went down to dinner at the Grand Cafe. On the way I pointed out the area of the cruise ship terminal to D; you can’t see it from the hotel because the trainsheds are in the way.

The server for dinner was very nice and spoke fine English. D had a French merlot then Flemish Stew with potato & vegetable. I had malbec and pork tenderloin with potatoes au gratin. The room is dark and old wood based. Comes off quite nicely.

We wandered back to the hotel after that (slowly) and started doing things we’ll need to do either tonight or tomorrow to get us ready for the ship. I can hardly wait to put things away in our cabin 341 so we can settle and be in one place for a time.