An early start today for our long planned (or at least my long planned trip) to Amsterdam. The taxi arrived on time at 8.00am for the start of the journey up to St Pancras International that I had practiced a couple of weeks ago. Amazingly all the lifts were working and although it was quite busy as it was rush hour, our journey was straight forward and we arrived in good time. Colin wasn’t stopped by Security like the last time we travelled on Eurostar.
I had booked upgraded tickets for our outbound journey and I was really pleased with the seats. We were treated so well and less than an hour after setting off we were enjoying a nice light lunch - mine paired with rosé wine. Maybe a little early but once I changed my watch forward by an hour it was practically lunch time.
The journey was very pleasant although the countryside in Kent and France is pretty boring. I started to get excited when I spotted some windmills in Holland as we neared Rotterdam.
We arrived in Amsterdam bang on time after a very easy journey. The only slight downside was that the taxi driver tried to rip us off but after our experience in Berlin I was having none of it and refused to pay him what he asked. In the event the €12 I paid was spot on according to the concierge at our hotel. I had booked a five-night stay at Yays Zoutkeetsgracht boutique apartments. We met Gerrit the concierge whom I had exchanged emails with before our visit. He was so friendly and we had a lovely check in and even better arrival in our apartment for the next few days. It is a lovely space at the top of the old salt warehouse with opening windows and a great view over the canal at the front of the building. It is really big and there was a bottle of wine left for Colin’s birthday. It was very funny as we turned the television on and it turns out that we can get both BBC1 and BBC2 and therefore were watching Pointless with a cup of tea to rest after our journey!
After tea and biscuits we headed out on foot to try and get into Moeders restaurant - a traditional Dutch place. It was quite a walk and needless to say was full with a long wait for a table. I realised that we were not far from the ‘Foodhallen’ that was on my list to visit. It was a great place but unusually no cash was taken so we had to use our card at each place. I had a Mexican dish and Colin had Vietnamese… and I also got a side of Peppers Padron! We were flagging on our way back so took tram number 5 then changed onto tram 3 all the way back to our lovely apartment.
