Adventures in Amsterdam

For those of you wondering whether to send your black dresses to the cleaners, we are still alive and busy exploring Amsterdam.  After leaving Anthem of the Seas on Friday morning, we took a private car to the Heathrow Hilton Garden Inn. It’s an excellent hotel, and we had one of the “runway view” rooms that kept us well-entertained.  We enjoyed seeing all kinds of planes and hitherto-unknown airlines.  Ethiopian Air, anyone? The only drawback to the hotel is that it’s accessed via Terminal 2, but our flight left from Terminal 5. We had to deal with multiple elevators and a train, but we finally managed to check our bags and made it through Security.  I failed to remove my iPad before sending my backpack through the scanner (not required before), so had to wait for a hand search. BTW, the job of hand-searching must require a very specific personality, because I’d be ready to kill passengers within minutes. 

Once ensconced in the airport club, we were delighted to find a help-yourself bar and lots of food. Prosecco at 9:30 a.m.?  Why, yes! Our British Air flight was delayed, but otherwise uneventful.  The flight was short enough that only cold snacks were offered in Business Class, and they hadn’t heard of Jack Daniel’s.  They offered scotch. Um, no.

Once we landed, we had a long walk to get to a very long line for passport control, then a long wait for our bags.  To get to the car service, we had yet another LONG walk , but we eventually found our driver.  The AirBNB/hotel, Eric Vokel, that Rachel found is excellent!  We have a 5th floor (6th to us) apartment with wonderful canal views from our terrace off the bedroom.

Here are some interior views. 

We arrived about 4:30, but needed a few provisions so braved a walk to a grocery store in cold, super-windy conditions with a few sprinkles of rain thrown in.  Alas, we passed the restaurant where we had dinner reservations, only to see a “Closed for renovation” sign.  On to Plan B — salad and pizza from the grocery store.  

Our apartment includes a combo washer-dryer, so our need for immediate laundry was dealt with Sunday morning. The Kimbros arrived mid-morning and visited with us until their apartment was ready.  In the early afternoon I accompanied them on a walk to a picturesque area with canals lined with houses and houseboats. 

Bicycles are everywhere, just as we were warned by the guidebooks, and you have to look sharp to avoid them. I returned to the apartment, but the Kimbros headed to a pub to watch the football (soccer) match between The Netherlands and Poland.  We watched on TV!

For dinner, we all walked to a very nice Korean BBQ restaurant.  Thankfully, Eleanor and Thomas knew the drill and expertly handled our complex orders via their phones. Yay for youth! We enjoyed lots of wonderful food, but failed to take a single pic. Sorry! It was fun to cook various meats and veggies on the griddles built into the table.  Our server kindly supplied me with a fork after I dropped a chopstick, allowing me to consume more food faster! The Kimbros were understandably exhausted after their overnight flight and seven-hour time zone change, so I assume they were asleep soon after dinner.  Sunset here is after 10 p.m. right now, and the sky starts getting light soon after 4:00 a.m.  I need a sleep mask!

This morning we have a canal boat tour, and the weather forecast looks good after the off-and-on rain yesterday. Look for pics of that adventure tomorrow!