oy, what an exhausting trip it was to amsterdam! **warning, super long post ahead. enter at your own risk**
for starters, i was sick the entire weekend (and still have a bit of a sore throat) which made it much less exciting.
the trip on the ICE train from Köln to Amsterdam Centraal was nice. though, surprise! i was "randomly" chosen to have my passport screened. nobody else in the entire wagon, but me. i'm starting to see a pattern here.
got to Centraal (which i will here on forth refer to as AC) and had to figure out their train system in about five minutes. (this didn't pose too much of a problem, because it was very clearly marked, unlike the DE-Bahn...) so I figure out which platform i need, and go to the ticket kiosk. it differs a bit from the debahn, in that you choose your destination, and, well.. it's rather hard to explain. it felt more user friendly. SO, i go to make a payment, and wouldn't you know it, but the paying with notes (bills) section is X'd out. they only took EC cards, Visa/MC, and coin. as i only had about 4€ in coin, and the trip for both of us from AC to Zaandam was 9,2€ i had to pay with my visa. which they then proceeded to charge a 1€ transaction fee. whatever, i was tired and my throat hurt, i wasn't going to try to find another kiosk, wait, and then risk missing my train which was to arrive in 4minutes.
we rush to our platform, and the train was already there. so, two stops, about twelve minutes, and we're in Zaandam. hooray! even better, we could see the hotel from the train station! big hooray! however, they are completely redesinging the area, so we had to figure out how to get INTO our hotel. LOL it took going in and out and up and down, and we finally found it. checked in, the receptionist's english was impeccable, which always makes me feel very guilty, and i took a nice warm shower to shake off some of the "sore throat funk."
that evening we spent slumming around Zaandam, which is a pretty cool little town. the thing that surprised me, though, was how early everything closed. generally, if it was past 20.00, things were closed. which is fine, because i was exhausted, and feel asleep shortly after 21.00 anyhow. (i know, i'm ridiculous) plus, i wanted to feel better for my trek around amsterdam the next day.
so, saturday, we wake up early so we can take Amsterdam head on! we head to the station, find our train we need, and go with excitement in our eyes!
we had intentions of seeing four museums. 1) the torture museum 2) the sex museum 3) the erotica museum 4) the tea and coffee museum
museum 1 was *fairly* far south on the list, so we decided to hit that one first. plus, it was the one that sounded the most fascinating to me. and it definitely was. seeing the devices used in the middle ages to torture, and humiliate people, was awful. however, it made me start thinking about some of the things we do to people now. (Elisabeth and i had a conversation about this last night, too) we really aren't *that* much better than back when they made people sit on spikes to rid the devil. i think the only change is that we don't do it for witchcraft or heresy now. and now we have electricity.
after museum 1, we were getting kind of worn out. and the city was CRAMMED with people. it was almost impossible to walk anywhere without molesting some perfect stranger. so, we spent a few more hours taking in the sights, stopping in an awesome Nepalese market, conversing with the very nice nepalese owner of the market, and decided to make our way back to Zaandam w/o seeing 2, 3, or 4.
when we got back to Zaandam, i was a bit disheartened. i had all of these very romantic ideas of Amsterdam (rather, of the Nord-Holland area) and they had very much faded. but, i remembered seeing something about an open air museum north of the city, so i did a bit o' research and found the name of the place. found a train that would take us there, and we headed off!
HERE was where i fell in love. i am, sometimes, SUCH a midwesterner. i got to see all sorts of brightly coloured houses, bridges, and then, the windmills. oh, the windmills of fairy tales. the windmills one pictures, when one pictures the netherlands. it was, obviously, much less crowded here, so i could act as much like a tourist as i felt. and i did. i very nearly skipped along the pathway while taking in the sights. okay, it wasn't that bad...
anyhow. after i nerded out for several hours in Zaanstadt, we headed back to Zaandam, and wandered around the town some more.
sunday (yesterday) we gave Amsterdam another shot before our train left. it was much less crowded because it was colder than saturday. so, we wandered around, and made our way to museum 2, the Sex museum. very cool. a little cheesy at times, but totally worth 4€ if ever your in the city. there were some very very old sexually related artworks, and some more modern as well.
last thing for today- we were on the ICE back from AC->Köln, and guess who was "randomly" chosen to present his passport this time? Yours truly. LOL. the ride back was much nicer, though, we were in a separate car with a chatty woman from Moscow, and a sleeping dutch woman. (oh, aside- every time i've traveled so far, i have been asked to help someone with his or her luggage. it appeased the inner boyscout. LOL)
kudos, if you read this in its entirety. especially if you made it without falling asleep. LOL
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