Amsterdam in a day!

Today (3 May) I went to Amsterdam on the TVG/Thalys.  It was an early start leaving Paris Nord at 7:30pm.  The trip was very fast to Bussels and then it slowed down considerably.  I am now on my way back to Paris.  It seems that the return ticket I have is for two weeks time.  I don’t know how that is possible given that I made sure when I booked that it was a return on the same day.  I know that a couple of times when I was checking the booking that it insisted on putting me on this one two weeks later but I thought I had fixed it.  So I am going to have to fix it up with the conducteur when he checks my ticket.  At least there is a spare seat for me but for how much longer I don’t know.

 

Amsterdam was an interesting old city, I did not venture further than walking around it.  First I did a boat trip around the canals.  While it was nice and sunny the wind was bitterly cold and I was thankful that I had brought plenty of warm clothing, but I had not brought my warm hat.  The canals and houses around it are quite beautiful, brown brick with a range of gables including a hoisting arm.  The canals themselves are filthy with lots of cans, bottles and plastic floating in them. 

I met a nice woman who was taking her grandson on her first trip to Amsterdam and we chatted for a little while.  She was a delight and could speak good Engish.

Anne Francks house

I had lunch in this delightful café I found on my walk, and had a nice burger sans the buns with handcut chips, and a couple decent coffees.  I almost went into café called a coffee bar when I remembered that they are places where people smoke marijuana.  Even at the middle of the day walking past them there was a whiff of cannabis in the air.  I must say it is a very civilised way to deal with a drug. 

Houses at weird angles

I spent most of the rest of the day looking at the place. I went past the house that Anne Frank lived in which has become a bit of shrine, even at this tme of the year there was a queue of people waiting to get in.  Apparently it was an hour in length. 

Like Strasbourg the old city is a place for bikes. In fact the number of bikes was not unlike that experienced in Shanghai when we were there eleven or twelve years ago.  Most of the bikes are like our grandparents might have ridden.  I saw very few of the high performance ten or more speed bikes.  I was a bit of hazard to them as I often walked out in front of them, but after a while I listened out for the ringing of the bell which was rung if there was a possibility that a pedestrian was going to walk in front of the cyclist. 

It seemed most of the central city was full of tourists and young people (who were on bikes).  All the shop assistants and servers in the cafes spoke English so it was easy as I don’t have one word of Dutch.  Everything was in three languages, Dutch, German and English.

Toward the end of my meandering I happened on the red light district with the prostitutes who show themselves in the window.  It was an interesting concept and it really felt like a meat market but at least if you want you can look before you make a choice. 

Before I boarded my train I spent a wonderful hour or so in a nice bar in the warm sun, cold air, having a beer and watching the people.  It was very nice. 

Holland is very flat and is clearly very wet.  I know that Holland has glass houses but I had no idea of the extent of them.  About half an hour out or so out of Amsterdam there were glass houses as far as I could see.  It was just amazing.  You would not want to have a tornado as the flying glass would be something to behold.  The other thing that was really noticeable is how flat it is in both Belgium and Holland. 

The trip to Holland and back is made of two parts, one part to Brussels and return is at really high speed.  The countryside just flashes past.  Brussels to Amsterdam seems to be at about half the speed.  I expect they have not put in a high speed line.

I got back to Paris without having to show my ticket.  Fortunately there were sufficient empty seats for me to shift to as my seat got taken by people who joined the train between Amsterdam and Brussels.  I spent half the trip practising in French what I was going to say to the conductor if he checked my ticket, I think I could have done it in French although he probably would have tried get me to speak in English. 

It has been a long day and it is nearly time for me to go to bed.