Windmills of the clogs

The train from Brussels Central to Amsterdam Central is supposed to take 3 hours and we had planned to catch the 9:17 train. After looking at some strange words next to the train number on the electronic display, a number of tourists including us went up to the station personnel to ask and were told that it was cancelled, so we had to take the next one at 10:17. After getting in and going about 20 mins, there was an announcement that there was a problem with the track after Rosendal and there would be buses from there to Rotterdam, from where we could take another train to Amsterdam. Hmm. All this meant that we reached Amsterdam around 14:30, a good 1.5 hours later than planned.

Damrak

The bright side was that the day was good and sunny. The countryside we passed was lovely and green.We reached Amsterdam Central and walked to our hotel at Dam Square. The place really looked lovely and it was also full of tourists. After grabbing a bite to eat and cleaning up, we headed for a canal cruise which was quite interesting, passing a number of  attractions on the way.

After the cruise, we found we had plenty of time on our hands and a good 4+ hours of sunlight left, so we headed to Jordaan, where a friend from Amsterdam had told us we should walk around and see typical old houses. It was a short walk over a few canals and the area was quite nice. After walking around a bit, we sat at one of the cafes overlooking the Tulip Museum and had fruit beer and poffertjes (or small pancakes) a local specialty.

Rembrandtplein

Next we walked past Anne Frank’s house and reached Spui, where there were musicians playing in the square. Moving around Amsterdam by public transport is very easy with the tram services, though on the first day we didn’t need to use them.

Some more walking brought us to Rembrandtplein, or Rembrandt Square, where there were tons of people lazing about on the grass or in the nearby cafes. There were also plenty of “coffee shops” around, where one could get stuff to smoke or eat in the form of “space cakes”. More on that later.

Dinner was had at a Mexican restaurant near Dam Square, where we had to wait for almost an hour for the food to appear, though it was reasonably tasty and this made up for it. Next we headed east towards the red light district, where the “shops” had already opened for the evening. It was quite surprising to see the women parading their wares so freely, and we were also surprised how good some of them actually looked. After walking around for a bit, we headed back for a couple of beers before ending the day.

Dam Square

Next day, we planned to go on a half day tour to some places to see windmills and traditional villages. The tour bus seemed full, but we managed to get seats and make the trip. The first stop was Zaanse Schaans, a place which is famous for windmills and also cheese making. It was really lovely and we picked up some tasty cheeses too.

Next stop was Volendam, a fishing village on the Zuider Zee (the largest lake in western Europe, manmade to boot), where we got a quick lunch and caught a boat to cross over to Marken, where we visited a clog factory and walked around some old and traditional houses. We got the tour bus back to Amsterdam and arrived as the day turned rainy.

Windmills at Zaanse Schaans

We headed to Leidseplein, a happening square, but as it was raining, we had lunch at an Italian restaurant and then headed to the Van Gogh Museum, which was really worth the visit with its great collection of the Impressionist’s works. Nearby was the Rijksmuseum, which was a regular museum, but after visiting the Louvre, this seemed boring. After some space cake at a nearby coffeeshop, we headed back to Dam Square and our hotel. The space cake did not have much of a kick, so we decided to abandon further experiments.

For dinner we headed to Spui and to a nice Indonesian restaurant called Kantjil. After a tasty meal, we decided to walk around Dam Square for a bit. We were casually walking on a side road near the hotel, plenty of people around, when a car drove by so fast, that it splashed a whole lot of water from the side of the road on all the people there, including us. We were absolutely drenched. Luckily the hotel was close by, so we went back and changed. But it ended all further activities for the day.

Making cheese at Zaanse Schaans

Next day we were leaving from Schiphol at 5 pm, so we checked out, left our bags in the hotel and then went to Rembrandtplein. It was not very sunny, but not raining so we walked around and went into Tuchinsky, an old and famous cinema theatre, recommended to visit by our friend. Unfortunately we didnt have the time to see a movie, plus it would have been in Dutch! We also popped in to Van Dobben, a sandwich joint, but ended up sitting at a cafe at the square till it was time to head back to the hotel and pick up our bags for the trip to the airport. A nice day to end a good trip.