Note: Not every photo I took will be posted in the blog. To see them all, click on the link to my photo albums.
Tuesday morning: I got off the plane, and despite being one of the last off, managed to be one of the first at the customs gate. I presented my passport, was asked how long I was staying, stamped, and passed through in a matter of minutes. I was ready for a bit more of an inquisition. But no "how will you be returning?" No "how do you intend to support yourself while you're here?" Just a "you need a visa to stay more than 90 days. Have a good visit." To tell the truth, I was a little disappointed. I'd practiced and everything! Getting my luggage was also really quick; my bag was the fifth one off the plane. Wow! If the rest went this smoothly, I'd be walking around Amsterdam in about an hour...
My next bit of fun was finding the ticket machines to catch the train from Schiphol airport to Amsterdam Centraal. I knew, from reading
tripadvisor.com that the machines didn't take bills, so I went to a kiosk and bought some mints to get change. I then trundled my astonishingly heavy luggage to a machine to buy a ticket.
I knew what to do, because I had practiced using the demo provided by the train company. I was psyched until I went to pay and noticed that, in fact, the machines don't take cash of any kind. Not even coins. I tried my debit card, but got the message "This card is not valid," which alarmed me only until I noticed that they only accepted certain debit cards (just as well -- I can imagine fainting from the $5 fee for a $5 train ticket). No matter: I would pay the extra fee to use my special chip and pin credit card I got for just such a situation.
"This card is not valid." Yeah, there goes my head popping through my eyes again. I had a very bad 20 minutes while I wandered around looking for a ticket booth or a machine that would take coins, wondering if I was going to be stuck a) for money in Europe because my cards didn't work, b) at the airport, and c) with an exploded head. Finally I was pointed towards the (giant, really obvious) booth and purchased my ticket. I think I was supposed to validate it before I got on the train and spent the next 30 minutes hoping no one would come and fine me. No one did, and half and hour later, I was in Amsterdam proper.
You can buy a tourist card (called the I amsterdam card) which gets you into various museums/tours for free and includes a transit pass. Idiot that I am, I just assumed the tourist office would be open when I arrived, so I had to wait an hour. It wasn't exactly the most picturesque place to wait, and it was grey and threatening to rain and kind of chilly. But the people were fun to watch. I really liked seeing all the bicycles coming out of the elevator to the metro. I finally got my museum/transit pass, found my tram, figured out where to get off the tram (fortunately "Rijksmuseum" sounds like it's spelled, er, without that j, because did you know they speak Dutch in Amsterdam? and it doesn't all sound the way it's written?), and got the hotel where, mercifully, I could check in early.
The first thing I wanted to do after dumping my increasingly heavy bags was take a canal boat tour, and luckily the starting point was a 5-min walk from the hotel. Unluckily I managed to get on a tour with a group of Canadian students, of all people. I'm sure I would have learned something if I could have heard the recorded guide, but I couldn't really hear it over the chatter and singing of Jonas Brothers' songs. My favourite comment from the girl behind me: "Oh look. Another building. It'd be nice if I knew what it was."
However, what a cool city. There are bicycles everywhere, people live in houseboats along the canals, and it's just picturesque all over the place with beautiful narrow houses, bridges, and cobblestone streets.
I was really feeling the lack of sleep by the end of the tour -- I kept resting my eyes "just for a second." My original plan had been to explore my neighbourhood and go for lunch, then the Rijksmuseum, but I decided to scrap the exploring and take a nap in my tiny little room.
Tuesday morning: I got off the plane, and despite being one of the last off, managed to be one of the first at the customs gate. I presented my passport, was asked how long I was staying, stamped, and passed through in a matter of minutes. I was ready for a bit more of an inquisition. But no "how will you be returning?" No "how do you intend to support yourself while you're here?" Just a "you need a visa to stay more than 90 days. Have a good visit." To tell the truth, I was a little disappointed. I'd practiced and everything! Getting my luggage was also really quick; my bag was the fifth one off the plane. Wow! If the rest went this smoothly, I'd be walking around Amsterdam in about an hour...
My next bit of fun was finding the ticket machines to catch the train from Schiphol airport to Amsterdam Centraal. I knew, from reading
tripadvisor.com that the machines didn't take bills, so I went to a kiosk and bought some mints to get change. I then trundled my astonishingly heavy luggage to a machine to buy a ticket.
I knew what to do, because I had practiced using the demo provided by the train company. I was psyched until I went to pay and noticed that, in fact, the machines don't take cash of any kind. Not even coins. I tried my debit card, but got the message "This card is not valid," which alarmed me only until I noticed that they only accepted certain debit cards (just as well -- I can imagine fainting from the $5 fee for a $5 train ticket). No matter: I would pay the extra fee to use my special chip and pin credit card I got for just such a situation.
"This card is not valid." Yeah, there goes my head popping through my eyes again. I had a very bad 20 minutes while I wandered around looking for a ticket booth or a machine that would take coins, wondering if I was going to be stuck a) for money in Europe because my cards didn't work, b) at the airport, and c) with an exploded head. Finally I was pointed towards the (giant, really obvious) booth and purchased my ticket. I think I was supposed to validate it before I got on the train and spent the next 30 minutes hoping no one would come and fine me. No one did, and half and hour later, I was in Amsterdam proper.
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| See the rest of my Amsterdam 2010 pictures... |
The first thing I wanted to do after dumping my increasingly heavy bags was take a canal boat tour, and luckily the starting point was a 5-min walk from the hotel. Unluckily I managed to get on a tour with a group of Canadian students, of all people. I'm sure I would have learned something if I could have heard the recorded guide, but I couldn't really hear it over the chatter and singing of Jonas Brothers' songs. My favourite comment from the girl behind me: "Oh look. Another building. It'd be nice if I knew what it was."
 |
| From Amsterdam 2010 |
I was really feeling the lack of sleep by the end of the tour -- I kept resting my eyes "just for a second." My original plan had been to explore my neighbourhood and go for lunch, then the Rijksmuseum, but I decided to scrap the exploring and take a nap in my tiny little room.
 |
| From Amsterdam 2010 |
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