:: Saturday, August 28, 2004 ::

"Sold my plasma in Amsterdam / Spent it all in a night" *

or, Amsterdam, Day 1

So here it is, the long-awaited and much-promised Amsterdam trip report.

After a long, relatively uneventful, and mostly sleepless overnight flight from Dulles (Note to self: wear more than a short-sleeved shirt on international flights - it's damn cold on those planes!), and after a brief layover in the scenic Copenhagen airport, I arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at 10:30 in the morning on Thursday, August 12. After leaving one of my bags in a locker, I hopped on the express train to Amsterdam Centraal Station. After a quick look around and a stop in the Tourist Office for some maps and info, I hopped onto Tram #4 and headed for the Hotel Prinsenhof, located in the Grachtengordel, the "girdle of canals" that encircles the Old Centre of Amsterdam.

The Hotel Prinsenhof is located in a historic Amsterdam canal house on the Prinsengracht Canal, outside of the city center (and therefore a little quieter), but still close to a lot of the city's attractions. When I knocked on the door, the top half opened, and I was confronted with some very steep stairs. Looking up the stairs, I saw the manager on duty on the floor above, who opened the door for me with ropes and pulleys when I told him my name. After checking in, I was taken up the steep, winding (and very typical) Amsterdam stairs to my room on the top floor, or more accurately, the attic. Even though it was bit of a climb, I really enjoyed my room. It had a lot of charm, with the peaked ceiling and exposed beams, and felt very European to me. Typically for small European hotels, I had to share a bathroom, but since this was the attic, I only had to share it with the other room up there, and never had any problems. I really wanted to just go to sleep, since I had been up for almost 24 hours, but I knew I would never get my internal clock set straight that way, so I resolved to stay up as long as I could. So after a short rest, a shower, and a change of clothes, I headed off into Amsterdam.

My first stop was a little tearoom (basically a cafe) close to the hotel called Cafe Panini, where I ate lunch (a prosciutto panini, of all things) and tried to recharge my batteries a little. It was cloudy and rainy in Amsterdam, and I had left my umbrella in my suitcase at the airport, so all I had was a light rain poncho. But the rain was mostly intermittent, so I headed south, crossing the Singelgracht, the last of Old Amsterdam's big encircling canals, on my way to the old Heineken Brouwerij and the Heineken Experience.

Heineken was brewed here between 1864 and 1988, when the company moved its brewery outside the city. Now it's a sort of beer museum, though probably its greatest attraction is the three free beers you get as part of the ticket price at small pubs scattered throughout the building. The old brewing facilities were pretty interesting, but I was so tired that a lot of it was a blur. In fact, I only drank two of my three free beers, though I did get a souvenir Heineken glass as part of the package too.

After the Heineken Brewery, in an attempt to stay awake through constant movement, I headed into De Pijp ("the Pipe"), Amsterdam's first suburb, so called because the apartments in the brick tenements on the narrow streets were said to resemble pipe-drawers, since each had small street frontage but extended deep into the buildings. I headed down Albert Cuypstraat, which hosts a daily market that stretches for more than a kilometer, selling all manner of everything - basically a combination flea market-produce stand-discount street mall. Not seeing much of interest there (and getting rained on), I wandered through the Sarphatipark, a big park with paths and a lake, built before De Pijp itself as a picnicking area for the bourgeoisie.

Now late afternoon and very tired, I headed over to the Amstel River to take me back towards central Amsterdam. I walked up the river, saw the Amstel locks, and looked for the Magere Brug ("Skinny Bridge"), supposedly Amsterdam's most famous bridge. But I was such a zombie by this time that I somehow missed it, even though it is apparently very close to the locks, which I did find.

Heading back to the hotel, I stopped off at a little Italian place for dinner. I don't remember the name, unfortunately, and it wasn't the best meal in the world. Not that the food itself was bad - I think a combination of jet lag, exhaustion, a lot of walking, and maybe the beer at Heineken had made me feel sick and dizzy, so I left having hardly touched my dinner. I stumbled back to the Hotel Prinsenhof, and struggled to stay up a little longer before finally going to sleep.

I had left my window open, and was woken in the very early morning by the loudest thunderstorm I think I've ever heard. Even as exhausted as I was, the thunder woke me up - it felt like it was crashing right above the roof above my head. So I closed the window, dried off the windowsill and table under the window, closed the curtains to try to block out the lightning, and fell back asleep again after a little while.

Next: Amsterdam, Day 2

*Note: I didn't really sell my plasma in Amsterdam. The title of this entry is a reference to a verse in my new theme song, Euro-Trash Girl, by Cracker. (Thanks, Tom!)

:: posted by Rob 5:08 PM [+] ::

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