Amsterdam

We arrived at Schipol with severe jet lag. In desperate attempts to get to sleep, we got up very early on Sunday morning, took some Benadryl and I had a few drinks to help get a little drowsy. I didn't manage to fall asleep for more than a few minutes (thank-you, crying baby!) so by the time we landed, I was very groggy.

Almost no line at immigration, and by the time we walked what seemed like 4 miles to the conveyor belt from our plane, our luggage was getting dizzy waiting for us. Then it was time to get a train ticket, and our first problems with our trip. I went to one machine, and figured out I had a choice of a quick train, or a milk run, and 1st or 2nd class on either. UberGeek had wandered off, so I wasn't able to get his opinion, so I gave up the machine to the line behind me. After waiting in line at the next machine, UG put in his credit card, and out popped a ticket. Just one. With no English writing on it. Hmmm. It looked a little off, and several people ahead of us had problems with the machine. So we found a train info desk, and asked if what we had was a ticket. No, what we had was proof that UG's credit card was rejected. So we went and waited in line #3 for the manned ticket booth, and paid a premium of 50 cents per ticket for the conveince of being able to ask questions. Unfortunately, the vendor wasn't any more talkative than the machine.

Me: 2 people to Central Station, please.

Him: 8.60.

Me: Um, the machine offered us first class or 2nd class, what's the difference?

Him: 4 euros.

So I took whatever he was offering and moved off. (And my credit card worked, I guess I get to control what gets spent while we are here, mwahaha!) We found our way to the train platform and got on the train that was waiting. It said Central Station, but there were no other distinguishing markings. I didn't know if it was the high speed or milk run, or even which one I had bought tickets for, and I didn't see any indication if this was the 1st class car or 2nd. It appears to have been the high-speed, because we didn't make any stops. And nobody came around to check our tickets, so I'm glad we didn't buy the more expensive option. I assume the colour of train is supposed to tell people which is the right one? Or is the Dutch writing a clue?

On arrival at the station, there were no signs indicating which way to the street, so we had to just wander aimlessly until we walked out a door and saw our hotel straight ahead. Welcome to Amsterdam.

Fortunately, the hotel had our room ready. But while I was in the washroom, UG fell asleep. I decided to join him for a quick nap. We woke up 6 hours later at 3pm. Maybe it wasn't a good thing the hotel let us into the room?

We wandered around the old town for a bit, had some food in an outdoor cafe in Dam Square, and then came back to the hotel to call the bank to find out what was wrong with UG's credit card. Their suggestion was to cancel his card and send him a new one. To our address in Calgary. Gee, thanks but no thanks. Great travel card! I am also having numerous problems using my own Visa. It works, and most places take it, but only for purchases over 20 Euro. So no snacks or bottles of water. It's extremely frustrating because I use credit cards for everything at home and we weren't planning on taking out cash since we're only here for such a short time. The only time I have to carry cash is in 3rd word countries. And Holland.

We then went out again after dark to check out the red light district. I am not comfortable posting most of my observations here, especially since my mother is the only one reading this. But I did overhear one conversation I can repeat:

Guy#1: Hey, look at all the swans (pointing to the 2-3 dozen swans swimming around in the canal).

Guy#2: Swans? What swans?

We walked through a coffee shop, but I hadn't anticipated how smokey they would be (duh!), so we didn't stay. There are a lot of bakeries/pizza joints around. I suspect you can probably tell the popularity of the coffee shop by the size of the bakery across the alley.

One odd thing we've noticed is that Argentinian barbeque restaurants are as prolific in Amsterdam as Starbucks in Seattle. We're starting to get nervous if we walk more than 2 blocks without seeing one.

Today, we took the canal bus, hop-on/hop-off tour. We decided to hop off at the Van Gogh museum. The canal bus company advertised tickets through them at a 1 Euro discount, and with no waiting in line, so we bought them before "just heading around the side of this large other museum to get to the Van Gogh museum." More accurately, go all the way around to the far side of the large building, and then walk 4 blocks with no signs, see a building that says "Van Gogh Museum", walk all the way around it to find that there are no doors, and then notice the building next to it also has a sign that says "Van Gogh Museum" which is not visible from the direction of the canal. Turns out *this* is the Van Gogh museum. We find the front door is marked by a large hoard of people. But we pre-bought tickets, right? Wrong. We get special tickets that allow us to use the line to the left, which is just as long as the regular line, but moving slightly slower. And we had paid full price. Oh, and it's pouring rain. And I sprained both my ankles 3 weeks ago. If we hadn't already pre-bought tickets, I'd have gone back to the canal as soon as we realized the VG museum was NOT right next to the first museum, and NOT signposted anywhere. I complained to a staff member at the museum, as a suggestion that they make signs, and when people have pre-bought tickets to bypass the lines, they actually get to bypass lines. And she laughed at me. Between the lack of signs, not being able to use credit cards and horrible customer service, Amsterdam is not very tourist friendly. I have met a couple of very nice people. But generally, I don't feel welcome here.

Then we took the canal bus to the floating flower market. Again, the map was wrong, and although it should have been 200m from the dock, after 200m, we found a sign (finally! although it wasn't in English) that said 300m to the "Bloemenmarkt". At least the neighbourhood and market were great. I really wanted to buy a suitcase full of tulip bulbs, but I don't want to have to deal with customs in South Africa and Swaziland. So I bought some wooden tulips.

Then we hopped the tram (instead of waiting another half hour for the next canal bus) to the inner city windmill and the Dapper Market, billed as one of the top 10 international shopping experiences in the world, comparable to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. It's outdoors and the weather was terrible, so it didn't live up to the advertising. But we did get the world's best eclair and berliners (jelly filled donuts). Those alone were worth the stop, and I may have to go back tomorrow! I also bought some fabric which will probably just be added to my collection of fabrics with no intended use. When I asked the man for 2 meters, he looked stunned for a few seconds. I then held up 2 fingers and he said "Oh, English! That sounded like something completely different in Dutch!" He wouldn't tell me what it sounded like in Dutch, so I will forever be wondering what I said.

Tonight we went to the Sex Museum, which was a little more educational than the red light district (in a text book way) . I didn't see Rasputin's genitals in a jar, but I did see ivory carved into a penis!

Tomorrow is UG's birthday. He gets full control over our activities. It may be completely nerdy, or something I am not allowed to repeat.

Oh, and the hotel internet is slow, so more pictures will have to wait. :)