We took a train from Hengelo to Amsterdam at around noon and we arrived at Amsterdam central at about 2 in the afternoon. We headed straight away to the tourist information office to get ourselves a proper tour of this place. The office was packed, lots of lost tourists such as ourselves were asking for tours, hotels and where the red light district was. LOL.
With the help of the very honest and informative tourist agent, we took a canal cruise tour and will be heading to Zaanse Schans (windmill strip) later in the afternoon. I wanted to see Anne Frank’s museum but the agent told us that it’s already full for that day and the next. Too bad, as I am a big fan of her diary. Note to self: book an Anne Frank’s Museum tour way in advance.
The canal cruise is highly recommendable and Amsterdam’s really lovely. After the cruise, we went to a Chinese restaurant just across San Nicholas church. The area was where the tourist hostels were, lots of people drinking beer on the sidewalk. The atmosphere was very hippie? They were having a water-balloon fight. Yes, all these grown men throwing water balloons at each other out on the streets, from a bedroom window, from inside a restaurant, from the store shops – it was chaotic! The meal we had was probably the cheapest we’ve had during this trip, I am not so sure if it’s just the restaurant that we went to or Amsterdam is just really cheap. Anyway, 2 Dutch men sat beside the table next to ours. One guy started hitting on me in less than 5mins after they sat down – right in front of my aunt. Hahahaha. He was asking me out for dinner right then, it was worst than what I encountered in Venice. He was asking for my number, e-mail, facebook account and he said he will wait for me at 7pm the next day in some place somewhere in the city. I do believe he’s high. LOL.
After our meal, we went to the famous “red light district”. Shops with signboards of LIVE SEX SHOW on top of it will be seen one after the other. Too bad it was too early to see these LIVE sex shows when we went there and I doubt that my very devout Catholic aunt will be happy to see that. I made a mental note while walking past thru these shops, I SHALL RETURN. :p
We then took a train headed to Uitgeest at Amsterdam Central. The train departs every 30mins at platform 11A. We got off at station Koog Zaandik which was about 20mins (4th stop) from Amsterdam Central. From Koog Zaandjik, Zaanse Schans was just about 10mins walk. IT WAS WORTH IT. The place was lovely and cozy and very very Dutch. I don’t know why the place wasn’t flanked by tourists, probably all the tourists were busy watching the live sex shows in Amsterdam while smoking their weed. We spent a good hour in that place taking photos of the quaint little houses with windmills beside it and little bridges over the small canals surrounding it. It was lovely.
We then headed back to Hengelo and dozed off to sleep right away. It was already close to midnight when we arrived back home.
Hi, your pics made me miss Amsterdam , especially in these hot sandy Dubai summer days:) I like your blog
Thank you… 🙂 xxxx
Nice Zaanse Schans photo – better than what I managed from the same spot on a grey day. But there’s a great looking hotel in Zaandam now… happy travels, Richard
tshttp://richardtulloch.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/zaandam-is-this-hollands-strangest-hotel/
Hi Richard!
I saw the hotel, it IS strange but really really nice. I was not able to roam much around the area of Zaanse Schans as we only went there for the windmills. I would love to go back there though.