Amsterdam

2014/07/01

Packed, had breakfast and prepared to leave Groningen, looked online and all the trains from 9am – 10:30am were cancelled due to track work. OH NO !!! Was about 8:40am at that stage and the last train to operate was 8:51am, no way would I make that. I rushed and tried even though there was no hope. Forgot to fill up my water bottle so got a bit thirsty later on.

Got to the station and prepared to wait, but they had busses going to Assen and then trains from there as the work was between Groningen and Assen. Was a massive load of people waiting for them. I stood in a good place so when the bus came was able to put my luggage in and then join the cattle trying to get on. Was able to get on with this other person as we had luggage loaded already so that was good. Got to Assen and waited for the train which was about 20min away, by then the other busses had come anyway so had I not go the one I was on it wasn’t a biggie.

Queue waiting for busses in Groningen

Using the train I was on I needed to change at Almere Centrum and was a 6min wait then got the train which would take me direct to Amsterdam Centraal. Having free “WiFi in de Trein” means the ride goes a lot quicker as can tinker online and catchup with my RSS feeds etc. Got to say things just work here, everything is super efficient. Got into Amsterdam at 12:20ish and headed to my accommodation.

I had decided to stay over in Amsterdam for 2 nights as I kinda couldn’t not seeing as I was going through here. It was an OK stay, I must say though having been here in 2010 and done all what I wanted to then, I did find myself saying “but wait, I’ve seen that already”. With it only getting dark at about 10:30pm it isn’t the same atmosphere around the Red Light District (unless you probably go later than that – which I never bothered to). Oh incase anyone is needing to budget or is interested (and no – I don’t know from from experience – I was just nosey so asked) 50 Euros gets you 20 minutes. There was the SWC2014 NEDvMEX experience which you will have seen the dedicated post about. I won’t go into all the things I’ve done here but will just share a whole load of photos of stuff rather.

Royal Palace

Rijksmuseum

Rijksmuseum & IAmsterdam Sign

Under Rijksmuseum

IAmsterdam Sign

Madame Tussauds

Magna Plaza Shopping Center

Buildings

University of Amsterdam

Canal

Elephant

Is really nice to see all the colours in the Flower Market.

Now some images from Vondelpark, was really relaxing wandering around there.

Weird Art, in the KFC buckets was Red Bull, Burger King and other brands trash

Amsterdam wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Apple Store here.

Looking down the center of the glass staircase.

My new favourite thing from Amsterdam is Stroopwafels, they are very sweet but very addictive. I paid E1.79 for a pack of 8, they are about the size of a coaster.

A few funny cars I saw here.

Canta LX

Renault Twizy

Now for a few pics just for a laugh.