MAY 13, 2018
The train journey on 12May was a long one – departing CPH at 8am, and arriving in AMS at 9:30pm. We didn’t get to our flat until 10pm so it was a very long day. After snacking at odd times and on odd stuff on the train, by the time we got to the flat I was happy to have a beer and some nuts and head to bed!!!
I ordered up the Amsterdam card while on the train but was unable to collect it until the shop opened on Sunday. We walked from our flat in East Amsterdam to Centraal Station to get an idea of the neighborhood and get a sense of scale here. After collecting the card, we wandered abit around the massive station and then jumped on a canal cruise. The day was grey and chilly, with spots of rain, so the enclosed boat was a nice way to see parts of the city and get warm.
I got a nice photo of a spot in the canal, only viewable from the canal, of seven bridges…. I can’t count them all, but was told the view is the only one in AMS where you can look down a canal and see all the bridges at the same time.
We ended up walking back to our flat after the canal cruise, and in the rain. We wanted to stop at Frank’s Smoke House and restaurant. We met a wonderful woman at the counter who sold us some beautiful smoked salmon, some whitefish, and some pate. We didn’t meet Frank but he smokes an enormous amount of fish every week. He’s also from Baltimore!!! We got some good directions to a great supermarket where we got some of the basics for the flat as well as some fish for dinner.
MAY 14, 2018
A much brighter and prettier day! We took the tram into the central part of AMS to go to the Maritime Museum. A terrific place and we highly recommend it. We spent nearly 3 hours there! The tour started with a timeslot reservation for the 10:30 (we just missed the 10:15) viewing of the Virtual Reality tour of 17th century Amsterdam. It lasted about 10 minutes but was really fun!!! It was our first VR adventure and the views – 360 around as well as up and down, as if you’re flying through the air in old Amsterdam was really fun. It was mostly of the harbor, ships moving, sailing, or being built as well as seeing seaman off from the docks, saying goodbye to families. I should have gone back and seen it again. It was good…..
We took a quick detour to catch the city views from the top of the Science Museum. It can’t be missed when downtown and it’s an easy walk up from the street. We opted not to visit it as we wanted to find lunch and get to the Van Gogh Museum by 4pm.
The Van Gogh Museum is a must stop for anyone in Amsterdam. It’s a very well organized museum, and the collection is extensive. You need to reserve your entry time in advance which was easy enough and permits the museum to somewhat control the number of people wandering the 3 floors of the museum.
We spent 90 minutes there and then headed for the tram to get back to the flat. The sun was out, the day was warm, and even at 6pm, all the green spaces were covered with people on blankets, enjoying the sun, which sets at 9:30pm here.
MAY 15, 2018
Our last day in Amsterdam. We started slowly, getting caught up on this and that before departing on the bus to the central train station where we could catch ferries across the river, for free!!! So we took one and walked around. We saw some incredible house boats – more like 2 story multi bedroom homes that happened to be on a floating foundation. Some had incredible views across their “lawn” to the river, as well as the attached small boat for getting around. It would be so easy to cross the river, get into your favorite canal, and put-put to your grocery store. Wouldn’t that be a fun way to go shopping!
We walked along to cross a canal and found a lock in operation. There was about a 3ft drop from the river to the canal and we saw a small boat navigate through. The gates at each end have two ports that are covered. When dropping to the canal level the upstream ports allow the water to flow out into the canal until the level is reached. When going to the river, the river side ports are opened and the water pours into elevate the level in the lock to match that of the river. It was really fun to watch!!
We wandered farther to the riverfront and found a great spot to watch the river and have lunch. Afterwards we did a quick view of the very modern film museum. It’s a place where you can watch screenings throughout the day or you can sit in a small, 2 person pod, and pick one of maybe 500 different films to watch in full length. There are headsets and a panel for making your selections. Looked like fun if you had a rainy day.
We headed back to the ferry to take us directly across the river. We decided to catch another one that went farther – and we had no idea where it was going. We rode it, for maybe 15 minutes, and got off to walk around – see more boats, as well as an interesting arrangement of container homes. I can’t tell how many containers constitute one home and how you get to them. Maybe from behind? And does one live in a column or a row???? With limited windows it’s hard to tell.
On the ferry back we had to slow considerably to allow a cruise ship to leave the port. We’ve never been so close to such a large floating object. Many people were on the many decks waving and enjoying the sun. I wonder where they were headed?
We headed back to central station to catch the #22 bus back to the flat. It was time to pack up and get ready to depart – tomorrow is the TGV train to Paris!!!