Amazing Amsterdam

Duck on the canal in the rain!

Note the steel girders at the top of the buildings-used to be storehouses now used for getting furniture into apartments as the stairs are too narrow.

Canal scene

The Delft Houses used by KLM for Bols Genever for their business class passengers

A selection of Bols Liqueurs

The 30 smells- really hard to do- 

The Bols Bar!

Keeley and Stacey enjoying a cocktail made with Bols.

The horrendous stairs! They don't look as bad as they were in real life!

Up early to enjoy the full German breakfast at our leisure before catching the 9.46 train to Amsterdam via Osnabruck and Hilversum where we had to change trains. The train from Berlin, which we picked up at Osnabruck, was running very late so we didn’t arrive in Amsterdam till almost 4pm. Tired, hot and bedraggled we finally found our accommodation at Hotel Internationaal and walked into a bar to ask where reception was. The bartender said this was it and he was reception! I was a bit taken aback and didn’t know if he was joking or not, but then he said the other members of our party had arrived and had one key and here was the other. We had to walk through the bar and through another heavy door to be faced with the steepest set of stairs imaginable. We struggled to get ourselves up the stairs, and I didn’t ever want to go down again, so I had a cold shower and sat semi-naked trying to cool off. Our room has 4 beds, 4 windows ( only one partially opens), a TV, a sink, a cupboard and 2 lamps, and no bathroom! Definitely the worst room we have had so far! But to make amends, it has the best, be it communal, shower ever!

As I was too hot, tired and lazy to get dressed and go out, Elizabeth and Keeley kindly offered to go find something to eat. What a disaster! Elizabeth got shortchanged 5 euro and they “forgot” to put Keeley’s meal in the bag which she didn’t discover till she got back to the room. The chips were delicious though. Through the one slightly opened window, the aroma of marijuana pervaded the room and we all must have got high on it because we all got the giggles and could not stop. Eventually, we thought we’d pop a pill and try to get some sleep, which we did.

Stacey returned at some stage and tossed her hat in the corner and it sailed right out the one partially opened window. You definitely could not do it if you tried.  She ran downstairs to retrieve it but some guy had already picked it up and was walking off with it. She chased him and asked for it back and he obliged. I missed all this as I was in the depths of slumber, but I would have loved to have seen it.

We woke up to a rainy day, so my plan of going out to  Zaanse Schans was out the window. Haha! Trudging around a village, no matter how historical, is not my idea of fun, so decided to take the museum canal tour and stay dry. Firstly, breakfast- I was starving. A light breakfast is served in the bar downstairs, but, alas, they were all out of bread so we were recommended to a little café down the street and it was just what we needed. Keeley had a full English breakfast plus chips, Stacey had scrambled eggs, and Elizabeth had the same with the addition of salmon. I opted for the breakfast called Dutch Bouncer- when in Rome etc, which turned out to be the best breakfast of all. Half a kilo of delicious ham on two slices of toast topped with THREE fried eggs coated in another half kilo of cheese! AND freshly squeezed orange juice. I know where I am going for breakfast tomorrow. I could probably share my meal and still have had enough!

We found the spot where the canal boat starts and bought tickets for it and the Van Gogh museum to save waiting in line at the museum. Bloody expensive if you ask me. 15 euro for the boat and 14 euro for the museum. Ah well, it’s only money! The guy we bought the tickets from called the captain and they held the boat for us which was very nice of them, especially as we had just spent 87 euro! Elizabeth opted to do the hop on hop off bus as she wanted to see the Coster Diamonds. As we clambered aboard who should have beaten us but Lorelle and Kiryn, with the news that Dusty had died. Tears from all of us.

We all wanted to see the Anne Frank house which we did first. I read the book when I was a teenager so was interested to actually see the space where she wrote her diary.  Eight people in a few small rooms and not allowed to make a noise or see sunlight was totally unimaginable.  The saddest part was when we heard that Anne died in Auschwitz just one month before liberation. Her mother and sister had died and she didn’t know her father was alive. Well. That just did me in. I couldn’t hold back the tears, and I wasn’t the only one. Keeley was really interested, and not only read the whole brochure, but bought the diary and another historical book as she realized she didn’t know anything about the second world war, Hitler and the Jews even though I am sure she learnt about it at school. Travelling sure is a good teacher.

Back on the canal boat to the Van Gogh Museum, actually an art gallery where they have dozens of his paintings. As artists go, I quite like a lot of his paintings especially the landscapes and trees. There were some paintings done by other artists of his era, and it was while looking at one of these, I mentioned to the guy beside me that I didn’t really like it. We started chatting about art and his wife came up and joined us. We talked for ages about everything. He comes from Coventry and she comes from Thailand, and they live in a Welsh town called Machynlleth, and invited us to call in for a cuppa if we were passing through. Lovely people. Definitely made my Van Gogh experience more exciting.

Right across the road from the Van Gogh Museum was the Bols Experience- the history of the Bols Liqueur Company, tasting strips and then trying to identify the taste with no visual clues, then smelling 30 different liquids, and having to identify them. It was great fun. We’d say ”Oh, I know this smell” but just couldn’t manage to exactly name what it was. I think I got one correct, although I recognized more than half! Then we were able to choose a cocktail, print it out and give it to the talented bartender to make for us. I had a Strawberry Dream made with natural yoghurt liqueur and strawberry liqueur, fresh lemon juice and sugar syrup. I could have drunk a gallon of it! To top it off we could then try shots of liqueurs. We chose 8 to try. Mango, passionfruit, yoghurt, coconut, lychee, butterscotch, elderflower and the oak-soaked genever. I loved them all except the last one. It was disgusting . Poor Keeley had  to drink it!

Feeling a little tipsy, we headed back to the canal boat but not before Stacey picked up some cheap tickets to a show tonight for the 3 young ones.  We had a lovely driver who interrupted the boring commentary to give us the real deal. We didn’t get back to our hotel till 6, downed a quick scotch and dry in the bar.( didn’t want to clamber up those stairs as we were going straight out to dinner at a Thai Restaurant that has been recommended JUST AROUND THE CORNER) I will never believe anyone who says anything is just around the corner again. It was around the corner but not just. We actually passed about 20 restaurants before we reached ours, The Bird. Everyone must recommend it because it was packed and not cheap. Even the bottle of water was 6 euro. The green chicken curry I tried to eat was extremely HOT and SPICY. And they didn’t have any coconut rice or coconut prawns-my favourite! The girls hurried off to their show; we took our time ambling back to our beds. On the way, we came across a group of accordion players and singers all with song books singing their hearts out, who invited us to join them- even offered us a song book, but since there was not a single chair left in the café, we politely declined.  We managed to ascend the stairs any which way we could- for me it was crabwise- and hit the sack. Off to Brugge tomorrow.