So ... hope you enjoyed the blogging, I know I enjoyed reading comments and emails from people back home. I'll be sure and sent out another email once I have the photos uploaded - we've taken some great ones of Amsterdam!
Til later,
C & M ¶ 6:48 AM 0 comments
Hi all,
We’re still trying to work out a solution for getting pictures uploaded, so far no luck with using USB cables in our local internet café to post the pictures. I may need to wait until we get home to add pictures to these last couple of entries.
Now on with the updates.
Monday, September 11
We woke up even before our 5:45am wakeup call, not wanting to miss our flight out of Gatwick. Our hired car picked us up promptly at 6:30am, and whisked us to Victoria Station, where we caught the Gatwick Express without incident. We got to Gatwick Airport very early – about 3 hours before our flight was to take off, and thank goodness we did! We endured the longest security lines I’ve ever been in, and carryon was very restricted – I couldn’t even take my lip balm! I also got a full pat down and extra thorough bag search – the woman who searched my bag was really checking out my half sack of Italian Roast ground coffee – I guess she thought maybe I had some drugs stashed in there or something.
Finally we made it through security and into the slowest line ever for breakfast at McDonald’s. Normally I turn my nose up at that stuff, but when you haven’t had anything to eat and no prospects of eating for several hours, a Sausage McMuffin sounds pretty damn good.
We were flying EasyJet to Amsterdam, and that meant that they boarded in “boarding groups”. Since we had gotten there so early, we were in the A boarding group and thus would have our pick of seats. Or so we thought. They wound up just opening the gate doors and everyone boarded at once, no order to it whatsoever. Fortunately, we reacted quickly and were able to snag two window seats near the front of the plane , me sitting just behind Michael. As the plane continued to board we were both happy that we had the middle seat free. However, at the very last minute, four very loud and very sweaty men got on the plane and guess where two of them decided to sit? Oh yes ... right next to Michael and I. Seems they just made the flight by the skin of their teeth. Lucky us.
During the 50 minute flight to Amsterdam these jerks never shut up. Not only did the dude next to me keep talking to the dude next to Michael, from time to time one of them would yell to another one of their mates sitting further back. But the icing on the cake was they spoke what we think was Gaelic, which was about the most grating language we’ve ever heard - except for maybe German.
After 50 minutes of hell, we landed at Schipol airport, made our way through Passport Control, and collected our luggage. We purchased our tickets for Amsterdam Centraal Station and got on board. Ahhhhhhh … Amsterdam and a canal-side meal were less than an hour away!
About 30 minutes into the train ride, we really started to get worried. Things just weren’t looking right, even though the monitor clearly stated Platform 2 for Amsterdam – which is where we boarded the train. I found a conductor and told him we were worried we were on the wrong train and he confirmed our fears – I had missed the “fine print” saying that the Amsterdam train on Platform 2 did not stop at Amsterdam Centraal! We were bound for the country – a town called Amersfoort to be exact! He told us that there were several others on the train that made the same mistake, and that we just needed to go to Platform 7 once we reached Amersfoort and it would take us back to Amsterdam.
Reaching Platform 7 meant dragging our bags up a flight of stairs, over the tracks, and down another set, but we made the train with minutes to spare.
Arriving in Amsterdam an hour late, we purchased our tram passes and waited for one of three tram lines to take us to Spui – except the trams never came. There was a lot of construction, and I think the trams were getting backed up in the mess. After about 10 minutes of standing around with no tram in sight (and a huge backlog of people increasing by the minute) we hailed a taxi to take us home. It was the best 10 Euros we ever spent. After checking in and showering up, we had a bite to eat and then explored for awhile. Later that night, we had some fantastic pannekoeken , at our favourite pannekoeken place from prior visits, and then walked home and stared out our window, marvelling at our view. We turned in fairly early, exhausted from the stress of travel and the constant heat.
Next up: a Segway tour of Amsterdam, and Amsterdam on foot
