AMSTERDAM

Tuesday, June 16th – Day 5 (BRUSSELS – AMSTERDAM)

We checked out of Hotel Brussels. They called Le Taxi Bleu to take us to the Midi Train Station. He charged us while we were paying for our hotel room. Unbelievable.

At the midi Station the info guy told us we couldn’t go ton the 7:52 train because it was the fast train and you needed a special ticket for it. Our train let at 8:16. So we went for a hot chocolate and a muffin.

We went up to the platform 19 and watched for the train. Then a train person came and told us there was a switch of platforms and that the train going to Amsterdam was leaving from platform 20 now. Just as he said that the platform train that we needed to catch drove up. We had to run to catch the train or wait for the next train which was who knows when. So we rain down the stair dragging all our bags and then lifting with all our might up the stairs. We didn’t think we were going to make it. The lady outside of the train started blowing her whistle which meant the doors were going to close. Lexi jumped in the train first. Krista was second but there was a pile up of people ahead of Lexi so she couldn’t move. Krista wasn’t in so she had to push Lexi a bit so that her bag could get inside and the train door could close. We made it. The best part is the seats at the front were still available and a large area that we could keep our bags. Thank god.

Krista sat beside a man who was going to Antwerp. After he got off a lady took his spot who was from Ghent and was going to Rotterdam.

The train conductor said they were having power troubles and we were going to have to get off at a different station in Amsterdam not the one that we all needed.

We were about an hour away from Amsterdam. The Dean of Rotterdam University sat beside Krista. He was going to Helsinki and then to Russia on a study. His job is awesome. He gets to travel all over the world on a regular basis for school studies.

The trains power continued to short out but we made it to Amsterdam.

A long story short while we were waiting on Platform 3 to go to the Amsterdam Central Station a train guy came and told us that there was another change and we needed to go to platform 1 to go to the central station. Just as he said that the platform 1 train that we needed arrived. Here we go again…but this time we didn’t make it because we didn’t have stairs to drag our bags down they were escalators. So we had to wait 20 minutes for the next train. We were not happy and we were very very hungry.

The train arrived and we made it to the central station. The Taxi to our hotel was going to be 15 euro or walk because you could almost see our hotel from the station. We chose to get the taxi to take us there because of all our bags and we were exhausted and hungry and with our luck we probably would have gotten lost.

Hotel Ben was a total of 120 euro for 2 nights. The stairs to our room were straight up. No elevator. This was going to be fun with our bags!! It took Lexi and Krista together to get their suitcases up the stairs.

After 3 trips up the stairs our bags were in the room. We dropped our bags off and went around the corer to eat at Wok to Walk. Krista had a noodle and vegetable sweet and sour chicken dish. Lexi had the same but with a peanut sauce.

Then we went to C & A where Krista bought jeans pants and a jean skirt. It is her favorite store since Prague.

Afterwards we stopped at the info booth to get directions to Anne Franks House.

We found it very easily and stood in a short line to get in. It was 8.50 euro and you could not take pictures. The Anne Frank House was amazing. They had short videos playing in different rooms of the house. It is hard to describe how we felt inside the house. Her story is amazing and our hearts sank as we looked at her pictures. We read the quotes on the walls. The Quote that really hit us was when Otto Frank said “Parent’s don’t really know who there children are”. He is right. You think you know who someone is but really you don’t.

We left the museum and went for a steak and mushroom sauce supper. Mmmmm delicious. It came with fries and a salad. We drank Heineken beer of course. 25 euro each! Just as we finished we looked out the window and there was a guy who looked familiar. In came Aaron Delane. (He used to teach at ACA and then moved to AIS in Kuwait). He was very excited to see us because he had been alone for 2 days.

We moved to another café and had a beer and waited for Mike another teacher at AIS. He was with Corey and Stephanie also teachers from AIS. We walked towards Remprandtplein to find that group and drink with them.

We found them at a pub called Escape. We had more beers. We were all hungry so we got fries. Lexi and Krista decided to share but Krista was hogging all the fries from Lexi. Hehe

We walked through the red light district. There were girls in the windows posed in glow in the dark undies. Street by street we walked past these windows. If the curtain was closed it meant they were already busy. If open with a girls she was ready for business.

As we walked we lost Mike and Corey so we looked for them a bit. Then we sat down and had a drink at a pub close to where we lost them. Stephanie went into a few pubs around the area as we drank our beers and found the boys. They stopped because they were tired of walking.

It was getting late and Aaron needed to catch his flight in the morning so we decided to call it a night.

Still hungry Lexi and Krista bought a bag of chips before heading back to Ben Hotel. We would like to note that our hotel was right on the edge of the red light district. There was a few rules we had to follow at this hotel. 1) If smoking open a window. 2) No drugs. 3) No bringing home guests.


Wednesday, June 17th – Day 6 (AMSTERDAM)

We woke up to a jack hammer outside our window. Both of us had a nice headache. The shower at Ben’s Hotel is not the best. It is hot, then cold and trickles out. No pressure.

Our tummies were rumbling as usual on this trip. Especially Krista all she thinks about is food, food food. We knew exactly what we wanted for breakfast. MCDONALDS!! Bacon and Egg McMuffins. The disappointing part was they did not have hash browns…only croissants. Grrr.

We walked past the dam and wax museum and looked inside the window. The Royal Palace. We walked all the way to the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum.

The art exhibit at the Van Gogh Museum was very nice. It was interesting to see how has art changed as he met other painters. Fact: Vincent did not sell a single painting during his lifetime and ended his life by suicide.

For lunch we went to the Hard Rock Café. We shared nachos and a BBQ Cheese Burger with onion rings. Krista had a frozen strawberry dacari. Lexi had a frozen berry drink.

We walked and shopped and decided to go on the canal boat cruise. It was a very clam ride that made us both very sleepy.

Afterwards we walked to China town looking for a massage because our backs hurt. We found nothing. It is near the Red Light District and believe it or not some women were out in their windows starting to work.

Back at the hotel we listened to music. We took pictures on photo booth on Lexi’s laptop. We took some pretty funny pictures!! Time for a nap…turned into a BIG Sleep and woke up in the morning! Oops