The Adventures of Doug and Bec: AMSTERDAM

We arrived in the Netherlands at about 8:00am after the overnight ferry. In hindsight we should have done a day ferry ride (which is cheaper as you do not need to pay for a room) and enjoyed the facilities of the ferry which was like a cruise ship and included bars, cafes, restaurants, cinema and a night big open deck. The ferry cost about $150 each and despite the fact that it was night time, was a good way to get to the Netherlands.

Once we arrived at the port we disembarked to the train station and caught the train north to Amsterdam. We had to change trains and one stage on the trip and just jumped on the next train to Amsterdam (without knowing it was a more expensive high speed train). We discovered this when the conductor checked our tickets but he was very nice about it and even told us which trains are cheap and which are not and let us off on this trip. We had anticipated a 2 hour train to Amsterdam but it ended up taking about 40 minutes which got us there a lot earlier than anticipated!

Once in Amsterdam we caught a tram (for the first time on this trip) out towards our hostel, which despite the lacking directions from HotselWorld, was quite easy to find. We arrived about 10am and check in was 2pm so we left our bags and headed out for an early lunch followed by some relaxing in the hostel common room.

On our first day in Amsterdam we headed back to the main train station to meed up for a bike tour that we had booked the previous night with the same company that ran the Edinburgh Tour that we really enjoyed a few weeks earlier. The bike tour basically went for 4 hours and took us all around the canals and various city areas of Amsterdam and included frequent stops with some good information from the tour guide. Amsterdam is riddled with bike tracks and lanes so it was definitely a great way to see the city! One of the highlights of the bike ride was going to the I Am Sterdam sign to get a few photos...

After the bike tour we headed to the Anne Frank house where we spend some time wandering around the rooms and learning about her amazing story. Bec had just finished reading the book and was especially interested in the information and photos that were on display.

When we arrived back near our hostel we found that the next building down the road was actually on fire! There was a fire truck and the building was roped off and billowing out black smoke. Unfortunately we decided to grab a quick takeaway dinner and when we went to go up to the hostel we found that more fire trucks and police had arrived and that our building had been roped off! They had not evacuated people out of the building but were not letting anyone else up. The building was huge and we were at the opposite end to the end close to the fire and had to wait in the cold (and some rain) until about 10pm before they let us back inside! By this stage we were exhausted and happy to get to bed!

Day two in Amsterdam and we headed back to the centre of the city to get a cruise around the canals which is the typical sightseeing way around Amsterdam. Unfortunately after such a good bike tour the day before this was quite disappointing and the staff were not very nice. For anyone who goes there I wold advise to do a bike tour rather than a boat tour! The bike tour is a bit more expensive but is twice as long and more than twice as good!

From Amsterdam we had planned to catch a bus to Belgium but unfortunately by the time we got to the bus ticket shop we were too late for the last bus and ended up having to take the train which was twice as much (42 Euro rather than 21 Euro Amsterdam-Brussels) but ended up being very comfortable and a lot faster!

We arrived in Brussels late in the afternoon and headed to our hotel called Martin’s Central Park Apartments which we had booked to have a bit of a relax after a few days sleeping in bunk beds!