25 June 2009
View from our room
When I checked in yesterday, the receptionist told me I could have breakfast at the hotel for €18 instead of 20. Since I had not had an opportunity to stock up at the buffet on the ship because of our early debarkation, I decided to go ahead and do that.
Canal from the restaurant
Breakfast was a really big spread, bigger than a Hampton Inn even.
Buffet
There were hot hard boiled eggs, bacon, scrambled eggs,
Breakfast eggs
About 15 kinds of fruit from melon and peaches to prunes
yogurt, a toaster to make toast,
Various kinds of Bread on the buffet
Three kinds of cold cereal
Croissant and butter
Jars of jam etc. on the buffet
Cold meats and cheese (and butter)
Tea
Plus coffee, milk and juice.
We packed and left the hotel just at noon. They called a cab driver for us to take us to the railroad station although everyone keeps telling me I should take the streetcar. NOT
The cab driver wanted us to pay him €180 to take us to Amsterdam but I didn't accept so he dropped us on the back side of the station. My bag got very very heavy while we were on the ship. I later calculated that it was about 53 pounds.
When I tried to buy a ticket, none of the ticket machines would take a US credit card, so I had to walk from the back of the station to the front to get tickets. Eventually I left B with the bags and walked up to the money exchange area. It has gotten warm and was sunny, so I was drenched with sweat when I got there, and the lady in the booth gave me a packet of towelettes kind of thing - they were printed with $100 bills (Ben Franklin's face). The train tickets were € 26 each but then they gave us the wrong directions to the train. There were steps to go up to get to the platform and I just can't carry my bag and neither can B.
Rotterdam train station
Every time someone helped me (and they did), they basically had trouble lifting my bag. It was very stressful and tiring. Because of the wrong directions, we ended up on the local train instead of the fast train. But I was not going to go up steps and down steps to get to the fast train and I didn't really care as long as I got to Amsterdam. We went through Utrecht.
My granddaughter holds the Towelette with $100 bills on it
View from our room
When I checked in yesterday, the receptionist told me I could have breakfast at the hotel for €18 instead of 20. Since I had not had an opportunity to stock up at the buffet on the ship because of our early debarkation, I decided to go ahead and do that.
Canal from the restaurant
Breakfast was a really big spread, bigger than a Hampton Inn even.
Buffet
There were hot hard boiled eggs, bacon, scrambled eggs,
Breakfast eggs
About 15 kinds of fruit from melon and peaches to prunes
yogurt, a toaster to make toast,
Various kinds of Bread on the buffet
Three kinds of cold cereal
Croissant and butter
Jars of jam etc. on the buffet
Cold meats and cheese (and butter)
Tea
Plus coffee, milk and juice.
We packed and left the hotel just at noon. They called a cab driver for us to take us to the railroad station although everyone keeps telling me I should take the streetcar. NOT
The cab driver wanted us to pay him €180 to take us to Amsterdam but I didn't accept so he dropped us on the back side of the station. My bag got very very heavy while we were on the ship. I later calculated that it was about 53 pounds.
When I tried to buy a ticket, none of the ticket machines would take a US credit card, so I had to walk from the back of the station to the front to get tickets. Eventually I left B with the bags and walked up to the money exchange area. It has gotten warm and was sunny, so I was drenched with sweat when I got there, and the lady in the booth gave me a packet of towelettes kind of thing - they were printed with $100 bills (Ben Franklin's face). The train tickets were € 26 each but then they gave us the wrong directions to the train. There were steps to go up to get to the platform and I just can't carry my bag and neither can B.
Rotterdam train station
Every time someone helped me (and they did), they basically had trouble lifting my bag. It was very stressful and tiring. Because of the wrong directions, we ended up on the local train instead of the fast train. But I was not going to go up steps and down steps to get to the fast train and I didn't really care as long as I got to Amsterdam. We went through Utrecht.
My granddaughter holds the Towelette with $100 bills on it
- Next entry in the series 'Go to Amsterdam First (1950, 1965, 2009, 2016, 2018, 2022)': Amsterdam's Golden Tulip in 2009
- Previous entry in the series 'Go to Amsterdam First (1950, 1965, 2009, 2016, 2018, 2022)': Dinner with Friends in Rotterdam 2009
