Having a mother who emigrated from Holland in her preteens, Amsterdam had always been on my list of must-dos. It sure didn’t disappoint. Just a short 10.5 hour flight from Edmonton via London and I was at the beautiful Schiphol Airport, reportedly the fourth busiest airport measured by international travelers in the world.
Amsterdam is the capital and largest city in the Netherlands. Despite this, online travel boards indicated that a nine hour layover would provide enough time to get an idea of what the city had to offer. That is, if everything went smoothly!
Although the airport is well organized with English signage, I still had a difficult time purchasing a train ticket. After trying my three North America credit cards in the machine to no avail, I resorted to standing in a ticket agent line.
Ticket in hand, it was off to the train station located beneath the airport. After a couple of assurances from fellow passengers that I was on the right train to Amsterdam, it was off I go. After thirty minutes, it was obvious that I was on the wrong train.
Following a brief, but frustrating exchange with a train operator I found myself at a train station in the middle of Holland. This was my first introduction to the inhospitality of Dutch citizens. Having only large Euro bills and a bunch of credit cards that refused to work in the ticket machines, two different stores turned down my request for change even after purchasing items.
After eventually purchasing the right combination of items to produce the exact amount of change required for the train ride back to Amsterdam, there I was back to the task at hand, experience as much as I can in the remaining seven hours.
Upon leaving Amsterdam Centraal, the amount of people astonished me. Bike, buses and people occupied almost every square inch of the city. The architecture was outstanding, the canal system beautiful and the blending of both, a site to behold.
The red light district lived up to its billing and it was amazing to see the variety of what of being offered behind those windows. The coffee shops or live shows didn’t intrigue me, so I can’t offer a review of these two activities which seemed to attract large crowds. The lineup to visit Anne Frank's house was huge and my limited time frame didn't permit a visit to any of Amsterdam's faamous museums.
Shopping was a mixture of American stores and tacky tourist shops, definitely a disappointment if shopping was your focus. Bars/pubs could be found everywhere, but a word of warning, the bar owners do not appreciate you attempting to use their washrooms without first buying something, so plan accordingly.
To sum up my briefexperience, I have to say that the beauty and reputation of Amsterdam lived up to its billing. The people however, were the rudest that I have experienced in my travels through 20 different countries. Would I go back, definitely, but my expectations would be different.
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