Day 1: Arrival in Amsterdam

Day 1:  Arrival in Amsterdam

We arrived at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam after a completely uneventful flight.  Then the fun began.  Our first order of business was to exchange our voucher for “Holland Passes” that we bought on line.  This involved several queries to various official-looking individuals and traipsing from one end of the terminal to the other (and we’re not talking about Lebanon Municipal Airport) schlepping all of our bags.  Next, we stood on line for about ½  hour t a kiosk to purchase a train ticket into Amsterdam Central Station.  The machine required at least a Master’s Degree in Computer Science to operate it (thus the long line).  Marty and I began to navigate through the menus thinking we were doing much better than the average kioskite, when we got to the payment screen and the machine asked for my PIN.  Since we do not have PIN’s for credit cards, I thought we must have made a mistake, and tried all over again.  NO go.  Again and again we were asked for a PIN and as our exhaustion and our frustration mounted, we snapped.  I began thinking about checking with KLM to see when the next flight to Boston was.  Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and Jeri and Toby found a live person from whom to purchase tickets.  We were then informed that the problem we had was not us, but in the Netherlands, all credit cards required either a PIN or a special chip.  What we were told was that we were not going to be able to use any of our credit cards, ANYWHERE!  We were S.O.L.  Flying back to Boston was again high on my to do list.  We paid cash for the tickets and began to search for our train.  We missed the first train literally by seconds.  We then ran to another platform (requiring going up and down a steep moving ramp) only to find out the this next train was a “fast train” which we did not have tickets for.  We then had to run back to the first platform (again, up and down) and finally began to make our way to Amsterdam Central Station.  Not the greatest introduction to the Netherlands.

            Central station is a  20 min. ride (once you get the right train) from the airport. The weather was iffy, rain or heavy rain, but we needed to stretch our legs and decided to walk to our hotel, The Pulitzer.  The walk allowed us to get a feel for the city early on introducing us to the hazards of thousands of cyclist who stop[ for nothing.  People here cycle for transportation (unlike most of us in the US) and like most drivers, multitask.  We saw cyclists, talking on cells, texting, carrying umbrellas (open), carrying boxes  and carrying multiple children.  We were told there are several bike accidents each day.

The canals, here, are everywhere.  I don’t think you can walk 4 blocks without having to cross a canal.  They are quite beautiful, most tree-lined with houseboats and barges along the quays. 

We made it to the hotel, dropped off our bags (rooms not yet ready), and began our explore of Amsterdam.  Westerkerke, one of several Protestant churches in Amsterdam is about 100yd from our hotel.  The Anne Frank House is directly next door to this church.  We did a quick explore of the inside of the church, but were unable to get to climb the steeple.  They allow only 6 people each ½ hour with a guide.  I think we will try tomorrow morning, 1^st thing before Dave and Molly arrive.

       






Our next stop was across town to the Resistance Museum (Verzetsmuseum).  We were pretty beat so we piled into a cab rather than trying to find it.  Unfortunately, the cabbie also had no idea where it was and dropped us nearby.  We had to do a little exploring to find it.  On the explore, we found a great bakery that had the best apple turnover any of us had ever had (the Ed Rooth Warme Bakker).   The Resistance Museum was interesting, but what we all took away from it was how very little the Dutch Government did to try to prevent the persecution and deportation of Jews by the Nazis.

            Leaving the museum, we decided to walk back to the hotel across the city.  We found a variety of interesting sites including  the Hortus Botanicus (botanical garden), the Jewish quarter,  Dam Square (the heart of Amsterdam), and the  fringes of the red-light district.  Coffee shops abounded in the red light district.  “Coffee shops” are not Starbuck’s, and I’m not even sure if they serve coffee.  On there menu you will find the charge for an ounce of a variety of   strains of marijuana, magic mushrooms, etc.  You can get high just walking past the open doorways from the 2^nd hand smoke.  Just so you know, the second hand smoke was all that any of us inhaled.

            We had 7pm reservations for an Argentinian steak house, Castell (this is how we planned to get Marty to an Indonesian restaurant tomorrow night for rijstaffel).  It was  a bit of a hike, but the city is great to walk around.  The restaurant was interesting (food was great)- we sat on couches surrounding a fireplace with our food balanced on our laps on wicker trays.  In theory, a nice touch, but in practice, very difficult to cut steak on your lap, even with the 8” blades we were given for steak knives.  Of note, our waitress told us it was her 1^st day back at work, just having her wisdom teeth out a week before.  I’m glad we had the conversation after dinner- who knows what I might have had “extra” in my steak had she known what I did for a living earlier.

            After dinner, we strolled back to the hotel.  It doesn’t get dark here until nearly 10:30, so it was very pleasant.  Can’t wait to see Molly and Dave tomorrow!