Two days in Amsterdam? When going Dutch means there’s just too much to see and do, you have to go for it.
It’s been a while since I posted here – apologies for that – but I’ve been too busy writing and travelling to do much travel writing.
The writing component has been finishing a new James Dunbar novel, Twisted River, due out in October from Echo Books and starting a history of Australian Army engineers (sappers) in WWI, due out next April.
The travel has been even more varied. In four weeks we hit Holland, Norway. Scotland, four cities in Poland, then Prague and briefly, Frankfurt and Saigon. The reason we dropped in on Saigon was because we flew to Europe and back on Vietnam Airlines – more on that later.
Having just got home a week ago, I am on the move again, writing this on a flight from Sydney to Auckland. No rest for the wicked freelancer.
Back to that trip, the first week was a cruise from Rotterdam to a couple of small ports in Norway then Lerwick in Shetland (Sue was working her passage as a travel writer, I was excess baggage).
The Poland component – on our own dime — was tacked on as we were going to be in Europe anyway. And we prefaced the cruise with two days in Amsterdam, following the same logic.
Just to be clear, two days in Amsterdam is not nearly enough. On the other hand, it is a really expensive city.
For a start, the mid-range CitizenM Amstel hotel room was close to $500 a night and that was on their reduced members’ rate. That may have had something to do with the fact that the city was about to go into full-blown party mode, celebrating its 700th anniversary.
But everything is pricey. After a while you stop reminding yourself that the Euro is worth about two dollars. A basic coffee seems palatable if you kid yourself that it’s six bucks rather than twelve.
So what did we do in our short time in the Netherlands’ largest city? We visited the Rijksmuseum, of course, to reacquaint ourselves with Rembrandt’s epic Night Watch as well as view the almost-as-impressive Waterloo to pay homage to Sue’s alleged antecedent, the Duke of Wellington. You’ll have to read her next historical novel The Duke’s Secret to understand that reference.
We took a canal boat exploration with Those Dam Boat Guys, on an electrically powered cruiser skippered by an Aussie name Julian. There is no better way to see the city and get a crash course in its history.
We ate fresh new-season cured herring from a street vendor and visited the Prins Hendrik Hotel where jazz genius Chet Baker fell to his death (or was he pushed?).
We ate a fabulous meal at the sumptuous Seafood Bar and the next night drank Dutch beer (but not Heineken) upstairs in an Italian restaurant near the red light district. Oh, and we strayed into the street where the ladies of the night display themselves in shop windows while swarms of English “lads” display their genetic proximity to neanderthals in the laneway outside and their chavvy female companions look on with expressions that can only be described as WTF?
Apart from the prices, one word of warning about Amsterdam is that the stairways are incredibly steep and narrow in many older buildings. If your hotel or Airbnb listing doesn’t specify lifts, be very aware, especially if you are carting a lot of luggage.
Amsterdam would definitely be worth a longer more leisurely visit. HIGHLIGHT: The Those Dam Boat Guys cruise was hugely entertaining and informative. LOWLIGHT: Almost being run over by the thousands of cyclists who own the streets and roads, hurtling along at Tour De France speeds.
Up next: Cullen skink in Shetland
