Finally, after nearly 2 years on this soggy little island, we were able to ride the rails 4 hours to Amsterdam. The ride via Eurostar (with a stop in Belgium) costs about GBP130 and, given it goes from city-centre in London to city-centre in Amsterdam, is about as easy as intercontinental travel can get.
We took a 3-day long weekend, and given the small size of the city (about 1 million people with a famously compact pedestrian-friendly core), it was just enough time. Hotels are a touch expensive (not much choice under EUR100) but the beer was cheap and the food was great!
We stayed in the Jordann, a gentrified neighbourhood just outside the old central area. In Amsterdam the old centre is the capital of vice (reminded me a but of Queen & Bathurst) but the Jordann is more grown-up, less pott-y, more quiet, and filled with gorgeous shops and cafes.
We’ll be back.
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- Koning Bridge?
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- Not all of the buildings in the city are totally vertical. Most of the city was built in the 1600s when the Dutch economy was Europe’s largest
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- Lovely weather!
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- Electric car. These things were everywhere…
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- …as were these Dutch bikes!
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- Public art exhibit. Oddly, most the the Dutch we encountered spoke fantastic English, only a few had the characteristic Dutch accent
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- Can you import a street? To Toronto? Wholesale?
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- Check out these guys, schlepping a crate of bananas up to the 4th floor.
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- Bike garage outside the central station! Look at ‘em all!
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- A typical scene – this may be the largest hill in Holland!
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- Inside Antwerp’s rail station (we had a bit of a detour on the way!)
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- Anne Frank House
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- View from out hotel room!
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- The sun came out for us – autumn is a great time to enjoy European cities, with leaves changing color and tourists at a (relative) lull
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- Note the size of the windows in these places. Many of the street-level apartments do without window coverings, so you can see the lovely things locals have in their kitchens and living rooms
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- Canals everywhere
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- The Vondelpark, a huge greenspace just south of the old city centre
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- Scene in the Vondelpark
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- Wooden shoes! We only saw one person wearing these – the guy giving the tour at the wooden shoe factory. Needless to say we chose not to pick up a pair…
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- We went on a bike tour with a couple of New Zealanders (yup, they were potheads)
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- Flowers galore
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- And the high-speed Thalys train in the bizzare Antwerp station (note the bi-level rail lines)
