We arrived in Amsterdam early Monday morning after an all night flight from Boston. Those red eyes are tough. The airport is huge and the concourse went on and on -- we wouldn't have made it if Drew didn't qualify for transport by cart. (I am already dreading the return flight from Budapest as it is two hours longer.) Viking took care of our luggage and transport to the hotel, thank goodness. They could not, however, fix the weather and our introduction to the City was a heavy downpour.
I had tickets to the van Gogh museum for 2:00 so had to get busy and figure out how to get there. Ended up taking a taxi because I didn't have time to figure out the tram. The van Gogh was certainly an amazing museum but very, very crowded -- especially so if it was a well known painting. After only a couple hours the crowds were too much. Ended up taking another taxi back because finding a tram stop was beyond the ability of my sleep-deprived brain.
The jet lag advice is to stay up in your new location until it's dark so somehow I managed to do that even I hadn't slept the previous night. The only problem was my alarm didn't go off and somehow I slept until noon Amsterdam time. Completely missed the scheduled walking tour, not to mention being completely discombobulated. My ticket to the Rijksmusem was for the afternoon so I had to hit the road almost immediately. Now there's a museum that is over the top -- just a wonderful experience. Not nearly as crowded even around the famous paintings and an extraordinary collection above and beyond the Dutch Masters that is their big calling card. I saw some of my favorites and what a treat that was.
I managed to find a tram station this time and took the tram back. The fare was 4 euro compared to 20+ for a taxi so it pays to use public transportation. I like to do that anyway because it gives me a chance to observe the areas that we travel through and the people as well. Gives me a better sense of the of the country to spend some time with the folks who live there, traveling as they do.
Riding on public transport and walking around has been enjoyable. Walking is a bit dangerous because of traffic, trams, bicycles and mortorcycles. Keep your head on a swivel and look in all directions twice before stepping off the walk as even the bikes are moving fast. So many bikes!
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