From Here to There

Amsterdam...Part Twee (Dutch for the word two)

I am committed to wrap up my travelogue today....yes, I am sure you are eager for me to get back to my normal nonsense (with the word normal being used in the most broad spectrum sort of way).  The problem for today is whittling down this last post as I still had a number of things I originally planned to talk about. Things like cell phone usage in Europe, acquiring health care coverage for when you are overseas and buying media minutes for your tablet and/or computer.These things have changed considerably since our last trip abroad. BUT...I sense that it is time to wrap this up.  

 For the sake of expediency, I have opted to talk about lodging and transportation to and around Amsterdam.

Thought Number One:  Getting TO Amsterdam

We went to the  Andernach train station early for our 9:00 AM train anticipating arriving in Amsterdam around 1:00 PM.  What is the old Robert Burns poem about the "best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"? 

Although...just a quick sidebar:  Are we sure that is what he was saying?  That Scottish brogue being more than a tad indecipherable doesn't exactly say that. 

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane, 

In proving foresight may be vain;

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley

And lea'e usnought but grief and pain

For promised joy!

But, as I was saying, our plan was to leave Adernach and arrive in Amsterdam in time for a late lunch.  But...in a far less poetic rendition..Our plans went to shit.

We arrived at the Andernach Bahn station with time to spare, only to find out that the Regional Express train was running 20 minutes late.  No problem (yet) except for the fact that train stations in Germany aren't heated and that left an extra 20 minutes of freezing out bums off.  

Tick, tock, tick, tock....20 minutes comes and goes.  

After 40 minutes, it became exceedingly clear, that we would  miss out Dusseldorf connection for an ICE train into Amsterdam.  

Last one on is a rotten egg

Sorry...but I have to have another sidebar:  There are several types of trains in Germany. The smaller towns like Andernach have either  Regionalbahn or Regional Express trains to service their commuters.   (there are other types, as well,  but for the sake of this discussion...we were waiting for a Regional Express train.  The Regional Express train was to take us to Dusseldorf to catch an ICE train.  ICE trains are the super-fast trains that have fewer, if any,  stops between the larger cities. They reach speeds up to 320 MPH.  

Dusseldorf station..looking for a heated place to hang out

OK...back to the train.  The Regional Express train finally showed up in Andernach about an hour and 20 minutes late thus getting us into Dusseldorf around 12:30.  Needless to say the ICE train was long gone. We make our way to the Bahn counter to find out that the next ICE train out to Amsterdam is at 5:00 PM which would put us into Amsterdam at around 8:00. 

Despite the set back, we found a cafe  in the station and bought some Wifi for our Ipads and settled in for 4.5 hours. (I had bought European plans for our Iphones but not our IPads.) The 5:00 train was right on time, letting Bahn earn back a portion of my lost respect for them. 

Once we finally made it into Amsterdam it was raining, but thankfully, Hubby had picked a hotel that was less than 5 minutes from the train station.

The Sint Nicolaas...If you ever have occasion to travel to Amsterdam there are a lot of lovely hotels, but you would be hard pressed to find one as charming and as friendly as the Sint Nicolaas.

Looking toward the train station
from our window.

The building was once a harbor office that sat on a point where two canals met.  The canals were filled in at some point in the 19th century, leaving it in the heart of the city center and within walking distance of most of the major tourist destinations.  We booked the top floor room where the original hoisting beams remain.I am sure it is probably one of the smallest rooms in the hotel but it is the only room (out of the 27 rooms) that has a little Juliette balcony. This would be where the freight door would open as cargo was lifted into the harbor office back in the day.

After we got checked in we went out for a late supper at an Argentinian Steakhouse and walked around the city center for awhile

I was surprised to see how nice the Amsterdam Christmas Market was.  I expected that the German Markets would be superior as they are more widely advertised. but while the Amsterdam market is considerably smaller, the booths had things that I hadn't seen elsewhere.  With just 2 weeks before Christmas there were a lot of holiday shoppers out in both the Christmas Market and the Amsterdam shops.

Thought Number Two:  Getting Around Amsterdam

The following morning, we were excited  to wake up and  see sunshine...at least for the time being. It not only rained from time to time but at several points, it snowed.

As for getting around Amsterdam...you can walk just about anywhere but if you need or want other options there are trams, water taxis, (car) taxis and bicycles.

Yes, the bicycles are the normal mode of transportation in Amsterdam.  Depending on the website, the numbers vary but I've read articles claiming everything from 80,000 to 881,000 bikes are in the city. (click here for Amsterdam a City of Bikes )

a portion of the bike parking in front of the train station

 You probably would never need or want  a car (thankfully) as parking is a hassle. Our hotel offered a valet service if a person opted to drive into town,  but I never quite figured out where a person would park, even for that. 

On our first morning, we decided to walk to the Anne Frank House.  It was a lovely walk and was less than 15 minutes to the museum. The lines are usually lined up around the block so it is a good idea to buy your tickets online. 

Yet another sidebar:  As with all things dealing with the atrocities committed and  endured in WWII, visiting the Anne Frank House isn't meant to be cheerful.  It was interesting and informative and heartbreaking.  It had been years since I read her diary, but it was gut wrenching to see the actual diary and walk through the hidden annex. I re-read the book when I got home and found it more meaningful with an advantage of seeing the actual location. 

Upon leaving the museum there was a canal boat station within just a few yards from the museums exit. We had purchased 24 hour passes prior to our arrival so, it was just a matter of boarding one of the boats.

The boat tours are a wonderful way to get around Amsterdam.  You can buy boat passes for various lengths of time.  Within whatever time frame you purchased, you  can get on and off the boats as often as you like to visit museums, or any of the cities districts. The boats will pretty much get you to any part of Amsterdam. BTW...all the different companies follow pretty much the same route.

Because of time and space limitations as far as this blog post goes,  I won't give you a play by play of every museum, church, monument, shop etc. that we toured.  (I hear you collectively sigh the sigh of relief). We managed to see most of the districts with enough time to go back to Dam Square and hit a couple more shops for souvenirs before it was time to retrieve our luggage from the hotel. (We checked our bags at the hotel after checking out earlier in the day.)

On the day of our departure, we were scheduled to catch a 5:00 ICE  train into Cologne.  Once we were back in Cologne we would catch a Regional Express back into Andernach.  Again...Gang Aft Agley.  That Robert Burns really knew what he was talking about.


This is the second part of the video that is a compilation of photos from  my husband's 2 prior visits and my visit into Amsterdam.  The first video that includes the hotel and Anne Frank House pictures was on my last post  Two Sided Guilder.  

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Around the Water Cooler 9/23/2011

One of the big stories that have people talking this week is the big changes over at

It seems people are NOT happy about it either.  A lot of unfriendliness is coming out as a result of the new homepage and how the status updates feed into the site.  Oddly enough the most talked about subject on TWITTER today was FACEBOOK.   Talk about social media overload.

As for other stories in the news;

I AM SHOWING AND I AM TELLING

I guess when you live in the "Show Me State" (whoever thought of that as a state motto might want to rethink it about now) you start at an early age with the "show" part. A kindergartner in Sweet Springs, MO surprised his teacher and the police officers when he pulled his mother's crack pipe and and several baggies of "rocks"  from his backpack.

What was not a surprise was the arrest of his mother on a charge of possession of a controlled substance and a count of first degree child endangerment.  Bond has been set at $7,500.00 for 32 year old

Michelle Marie Cheatham.

The drugs were tested and found to be methamphetamine and worth about $3700.00.

According to Police Chief Richard Downing told KCTV5 that this was a "first" in his law enforcement career and that when he called the prosecutor about it, the prosecutor exclaimed, "you're kidding me aren't you?"

Sadly, no!

Seems like this "show and tell" was really a show stopper.

A TRAINED CAT

Down by the station early in the morning...and later in the evening, the commuters in Melbourne, Australia will see Graeme, the cat sitting on the train platform to see his owner coming and going to work. The cat's owner, Nicole Weinrich, says her cat always sits behind the yellow line while waiting for the train doors to open as he is extremely safety conscious.

When not greeting or saying goodbye to his owner, the social cat is mingling with the other commuters or sunning himself.  He has become quite the local celebrity as he works the crowd to get pets and pats from the commuters. The Herald Sun recently interviewed some of Graeme's fans.  He was described as gorgeous, friendly, amazing, regal and aloof, but in a good way,

On several occasions, Graeme boarded trains to take a ride down the line only to deboard  couple of stops later.  His owner worries about that but says he seems very aware of how the station works. 

http://video.heraldsun.com.au/2131780176/Feline-trainspotter


Graeme has a Facebook page.  Seems Graeme has a sense of humor as well.

BLACK CATS REALLY ARE UNLUCKY

At least for Kelly Schaffer of Cookeville, Tennessee.  After having a black cat cross the road in front of her car, Kelly made an X on her windshield.  Evidently this was to protect her from back luck.  But as luck would have it, she lost control of her car and ploughed into a yard. In fact, she continued through the yard and ran head on into another vehicle. Schaffer was transported to an area hospital and charged with not having a valid driver's license or insurance.

Don't X and drive. 

 IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE

University of Pennsylvania students were confused on the first day of scheduled class when their professor failed to show up.  In all fairness to the professor, he had an excellent excuse.

He had died five months earlier.

Dr. Henry Teune, was scheduled to teach a political science class at the Ivy League university on September

13th.  An hour after the scheduled class failed to start due to the teacher being MIA, the students received an email telling them of of  Dr.Teune's passing.  The administrator apologized for not having cancelled  the class.

The story was reported on Monday by a Penn student Blog in a post titled "The Worst Thing to Happen To A Class Ever".

Excerpt:

The post began: "How annoying is it when you drag yourself out of bed to class and the professor isn’t there? You’re all like, what the hell is this guy doing, worst class ever, etc… and then you find out, via an email sent while you’re waiting in class, that the professor isn’t there because he died. And the department forgot to tell you."

According to an obituary published in April in the Daily Pennsylvanian, Dr. Teun had been a faculty member since 1961.  He was chairman of the department from 1975-1979 and Vice Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in the 1960s.

Gone and completely forgotten.

THE THREE YEAR OLD IS PACKING HEAT

A mother was arrested shortly after her three (that's right...3) year old interrupted her drug deal by firing a 12 gauge shotgun into the roof of her drug buddy's minivan.

Marietta, GA- Shania Sutherland allegedly brought her toddler and 5 year old to the Rite Aid parking lot where she had made a previous arrangement to sell drugs to Brandon Donahue.  She had her friend, Leah Porter,  drive her to her appointment in Leah's Chrysler Town and Country van.

After a passerby heard the shot and called the authorities, police located Sutherland hiding in the drug store and the children hiding in the Donahue's (the drug buyer) car. Porter was picked up a few blocks away.

According to WSB-TV an investigation has been launched to assessing Sutherland's fitness as a parent.

What no babysitters available for scheduled drug deals?  No worries, take the kid and give them a 12 gauge to amuse themselves with.  


The Good for the Day... a smart pet


The Bad for the Day...stupid parents

The Weird for the day....

The Weird for the Day...