Family Trip Report - London, Paris & Amsterdam - July 2016 AMSTERDAM DAY 1

Posted by Tina (Western NY) on 10/06/16 11:07 AM

Amsterdam Day 1 7/14

We were booked on the 7:16 am Thalys train to Amsterdam. I had watched the CaptrainTrain site & booked tickets as soon as they were available. I think I paid 35 euros each. The day before, I had arranged with the front desk of the Paris hotel for car service to Gare du Nord, for pick-up at 5:30 am. I think the desk attendant thought I was crazy & tried to tell me that 6:00 am would be fine, but I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get to the Station, then find our way around inside. The cost was 20 euros. This seemed fair to me as we had paid about 23 euro from Gare du Nord to the hotel on our arrival day. Between the 4 of us, we got our luggage down all 6 flights of stairs since the elevator was not working. The car was already waiting when we got down. We had a quick ride to Gare du Nord, with the driver chatting with us & pointing out various sights on the way.

It was time to say goodbye to Paris! We had a great time & like London, so many more things to see & do on our next trip! My husband and I happened upon a RS Paris show on PBS last night and watched it again (even though we own the dvd). We can't wait to return!

We followed the signs once inside Gare du Nord, but weren't really sure where to wait for our train. We found an information booth & were pointed in the right direction. There were a few people even earlier than us already in line! Husband & I got in line with the suitcases while kids went to buy some breakfast to eat on the train. Time passed quickly & soon we were allowed to board the train. Once again, we had 4 seats together with a small table in the middle. Daughter's suitcase was stored at the end of our car & the 3 smaller ones above our seats. I think we started eating right away & again the train pulled away exactly on time. We all got some sleep on the train. Train travel just seems so more relaxing than plane travel!

We had rented an apartment through Airbnb & our hostess, Joanna, had requested that we text her about a 1/2 hour before our arrival at Central Station. I wasn't exactly sure when we were a 1/2 hour away, but texted her a 1/2 hour before our scheduled arrival time. Of course, our train arrived exactly on time at 10:42 am. I love train travel! The apartment was about a 7 minute walk from Central Station in the Jordaan section. Joanna had given us detailed instructions, so we set off. Almost the 1st thing we saw was the bike garage. I've never seem so many bikes in my life! Of course we were amazed at all the bike traffic! Trying to cross the streets of Amsterdam is way scarier than London or Paris! There were lots of cute little shops and restaurants along the way that we wanted to check out later.

We easily found the apartment & Joanna was waiting for us, we didn't even have to ring the bell. The apartment was a traditional Dutch house. Joanna & her family lived on the lower level. We had the next 2 floors & the loft. Joanna took one look at daughter's suitcase and said "I don't think you're going to get that up these stairs!". We knew from the online description & pictures that there were several sets of steep stairs. Husband & son together got her suitcase up the 2 sets of stairs into the apartment, then up 1 more set of stairs to her bedroom on the 2nd level. Son took the loft bedroom.

Posted by Tina OP

Western NY

10/06/16 10:44 PM

85 posts

Amsterdam Day 1 7/14 continued:

This was a wonderful apartment - 3 bdrm., 2 bath. All the rooms were large, with big windows & the whole place was decorated in whites/neutrals. Joanna gave us a quick tour & showed us how the combo washer/dryer worked. She had a map for us marked with places of interest & we had her show us a few places that we wanted to find. She recommended a canal cruise & some restaurants. I can't say enough great things about Joanna and the apartment. My kids said they could easily live here! The first thing on our agenda was laundry. We'd only brought enough clothes to last us thru Paris, so we needed to wash clothes now (except for daughter - she had plenty of clothes!) Got a load started, then we all went to our separate rooms. Ahh, privacy! The kids had had enough of sharing the small Paris hotel room. Our room had an ensuite bathroom. I was so excited - a private shower finally. We all rested for a while, the beds were very comfy.

Once we got ourselves moving again, it was time to find a grocery store for some supplies. There were 2 stores not far from the apartment & we ended up at an Albert Heijn market. We love checking out other grocery stores, so we spent quite a lot of time in here just looking around, getting what we needed for just a few days & also getting some things that just looked interesting. When we were ready to check out, the lines for the registers were crazy! So many people that the lines snaked down the aisles, we just got at the end of one and waited. I had intended to pay for our groceries with my debit card. As the long line inched toward the registers, I could see that our line ended up in the cash only register. I had some euros, but planned to save them for restaurants & small purchases. Hopefully I had enough for the groceries or we'd have to put some things back! When we finally got to the front of the line, I explained our situation to the cashier. She said they had an ATM, it wasn't working today (of course). She was very nice about giving us a running total & in the end we didn't have to put anything back. Took groceries back to the apartment, daughter was craving mac & cheese and she attempted to make some for her dinner.

Husband, son & I went out to look for some place to eat. We found a small corner store/kebab place not far away & ate there. We all liked what we had & son ate there again another day. Went back to the apartment & neither kid wanted to go out again, so we went by ourselves.

Husband and I just started walking. I thought it was very stressful, trying to cross the streets with all the bike traffic. I'm used to pedestrians having the right of way, so this was a new experience! I also had it in my mind that you could walk along the canals, but that's where cars are parked. We walked past the Anne Frank House, which still had very long lines late in the day. Eventually we circled around, back to the apartment. Time for more laundry, then bed. We had an early start planned - our last food tour of the trip.