Our first day in any city is always… a challenge. Amsterdam is no different.
First, plane reservations and hotel reservations always make sense when you make them. I swear, I am going to start making notes to myself about my choices when I make them… so that later when I have to live them maybe I’ll at least know what I was thinking. I booked us on a 2:45 flight from Geneva to Amsterdam. I think I’d figured that meant we didn’t have to get up before the sun to get to the airport 2 hours before the flight. I also paid for speeding boarding with Easy Jet so that if we aren’t at the airport 2 hours early, we wouldn’t get stuck boarding last and begging people to give up a seat so we could be together.
We left St. Martin d’Uriage a little after 10 this morning. We got to the airport a little after noon. I had high hopes that it would be a better experience than the airports we’ve used in France. No. And the Easy Jet check in experience was a far cry from easy. When we first arrived at the airport waaaay too early, I was a little annoyed. But it turned out to be a good thing. It ended up being around 1:0 by the time we got through the poor substitute for a queue. I heard a lot of British English spoken, but saw a lot of very French attitudes about lining up. (the French don’t)
Our airport lunch of cafeteria spaghetti and a fruit cup set us back about 50 Euros. In the gift shop by our gate, Bill gave in to the begging and bought a new Barbie doll. I sure hope she enjoys the trip. I was kind of hoping for a magazine in English, but even my longing for something to read couldn’t make me want a copy of Cosmo or Newsweek for 10 Euros.
When the gate agent finally called for everyone with the speedy boarding to proceed to the gate, everyone with a boarding pass stood up and pushed forward. It was just like trying to board a plane at Charles deGualle in Paris. We had so much trouble pushing past the people trying to sneak through that the gate agent actually paged us… although by then we were standing right there waiting for someone to take our boarding passes.
The Amsterdam airport was a completely different experience. It’s modern, clean, wide open. We could read the signs. We’ll see what we think of it when we leave. In the baggage claim area there was a kiosk to buy train tickets. We’d been told how super easy it is to take the train into Amsterdam. So Bill bought the tickets, we got our bags and discovered the train station was just steps away actually inside the airport. Bill read the board and said we needed platform 3. So down the escalator we went, a train pulled up to platform three and we got on. Something didn’t seem right but before we could get off, the doors shut and we were off. So we sat down. After a couple of stops the conductor came around checking tickets. He barely checked ours before telling us wrong train. We asked if we should just get off at the next station and catch the right train. He said yes. What he didn’t say was that the next station was another 20 minutes away.
So, it took a lot longer than we’d expected… and that it should have. But at long last we made it to Amsterdam’s Central Station. Not a place to be at 6:00 on a Friday evening. Crowded. And not as clearly marked as the airport. Finding the taxi stand required some perseverance, but Bill finally found it. We had to. Our hotel was 2 kilometers from the train station. A bit farther than I’d remembered from when I booked it. (Why that hotel? I don’t remember anymore!)
Bill was excited about the room. It’s on the same floor as the executive lounge. And we arrived at Happy Hour. Bill’s happiness ended when he went down the hall and his key didn’t let him into the lounge. I knew I hadn’t paid for it; still, it would have been a nice mistake.
Kaitlyn was in no mood to explore or behave at dinner, so we went to the restaurant in the hotel. (ah, yes, one reason I chose it. A restaurant) We sat at a corner window and watched all the bikes to by. That kept Kaitlyn pretty well entertained. It kept Bill and I pretty well entertained, too. We saw a woman who’d covered her bike in plastic flowers so she looked like a cheap parade float. There was the businessman on his bike, wearing a suit and talking on his cell phone. Lots of people rode on the back of bikes, sitting sidesaddle… including a woman sporting a bright pink cast on her leg.
The evening wrapped up with some disappointing tv… nothing at all for kids. Kaitlyn insisted on watching an infomercial for some crazy round hairbrush/dryer that spins automatically. Oh, yea, the infomercial was in Dutch.
The plan for tomorrow is to hit the 2 big museums that are walking distance from here… then take a taxi to the boat at 4.
I’d better call the front desk for a wake up call and to find out what time our included breakfast is. Overall, this hasn’t been a bad day. But as is the norm for day one of a trip, it hasn’t been stellar. Here’s hoping to a real improvement tomorrow.