Amsterdam: Going Dutch

We boarded the evening 5:15 PM Easyjet flight from Prague to Amsterdam on Friday. We landed at the legendary Schiphol airport at around 7 PM. We were immediately awestruck by the atmosphere and did not feel like leaving the place to head  for the city. Once the feeling sank in, better sense prevailed and we took the train from Schiphol to the Amsterdam City center, which took around 15-20 minutes. Thanks to the long days, it was still day-light as we reached the city center. Since we were booked at a hotel which was far away from the center, we decided to hang out at the city center and enjoy the evening. Firstly, we took a ten minute walk from the train station towards the Dam square. The place was buzzing with people, mostly tourists, all in typical Friday mood and ready to party. We took a walk through the lanes and went past plenty of restaurants and canals on the way. The walk also led us through the “infamous” lanes for which Amsterdam is famous for (irony!!). Suddenly I could see a glass room, a scantily dressed lady inside with a price tag attached on the glass. Had a good laugh and thought maybe a bachelor’s party is apt for the place.

Time was running out so we decided to have dinner and set-off for our hotel. We had chicken steak at one of the Argentine restaurants around Dam square (not that we did not locate an Indian place but we thought we’ll leave the Indian for the next day).
Our hotel Tulip-Inn was on the last stop of the metro line in Gasperglas. From there we had to walk for twenty minutes to reach our destination. It was quite late when we arrived in Gasperglas and we were probably the only ones who disembarked from the train over there. Luckily, we spotted a board displaying an arrow showing the direction towards Tulip Inn. After an anxious, we reached our hotel and checked in.
The next day we reached the city-centre at around noon and took the one-hour canal cruise through the city. The canals flow throughout the city giving it a Venice-type look, the only difference being there are roads all along it as well. Canals are an important mode of transport and in a lot of places are lined with houseboats. Most of these are legal and were built when there weren’t enough houses to live in the city.
Once done with the cruise, we had a sumptuous English brunch – scrambled eggs on toast and then walked to the Dam square. There is a Madam Tussauds museum right there but the queue was a bit long so we decided against an entry. And anyways, we agreed that in the European summer, the outdoor was a better place to hang out. So we applied this same policy as we “visited” Anna Franc house and Van Gogh museum. “Visited” as in just walked till the building and settled to stop there itself after looking at the queue at each of these places. All these places were covered by short tram-rides. The entire area had a lane dedicated to cyclists and there whole lot of them moving around the place on rented cycles. It was very tempting to hire one and go around but was too scared to lose the way in that maze and in addition it was a bit late. The crowd since noon was huge, an ocean of humanity one can say. It was hard to believe that the football World Cup final was over nearly two months back. The area around Van Gogh museum was great to hang out and click photos as you have a giant monument showing “I amsterdam” built in red and white (its better to check that out in the photos). The tourists were having a gala time clicking snaps in different poses in front of each letter.

When finally the sun had set we went about souvenir shopping. Being in Netherlands, an Orange t-shirt was a must. So we both bought one each and to go with that were the usual magnets for the refrigerator.
For the second consecutive Saturday, we decided for dinner at an Indian restaurant (honestly at the end of the day, no food tastes better than Indian). This one was right on Dam square and perhaps one of the oldest ones established in 1981. And like in India, we had to wait to get seats, such is the crave for Indian food. Following dinner we made our long trip back to Gasperglas and to Tulip Inn. We got a chance to take a look at the beautiful hotel for the first time and ended up having a post-dinner hot chocolate. The next morning our Wizzair flight was from Eindhoven airport and not Schiphol. So got up a bit early, headed for the city center and took a one and a half hour train ride to Eindhoven. From the Eindhoven station, a bus took us to the airport and in 2 hours we were in Prague at around 1:30 PM.