Day 5 Amsterdam

Well the alarm went off at 7am and I jumped for joy. Why? Because I slept about 2.7 minutes all night log. Erf. Guy had an equally bad night. He thinks it's the bed. I think I have bags under my eyes. Germany knows how to age a girl. Reaching for my eye cream...

Zipping up the big bag required my bum to be sitting on it. How does that happen...our clothes seem to be getting bigger. But we both agreed be brought too much stuff on this trip. Next time we'll remember this and just make plans to do laundry. Saying goodbye to our room, we headed down and caught a taxi to the train station. Could we have walked there? Yes. Was it raining? Yes. Did the taxi cab say "Short ride" when we got to the station? Yes. Were we sorry we took a cab? No! (It was several blocks actually!) At the station, being over an hour early, we purchased a few pastries in the cafe and I had a Starbucks rivaling caramel macchiato.  After a nice breakfast we headed to the track our train was supposed to come in on. So speaking of the BIG bag a few minutes ago, let me just say the ONLY track that didn't have a down escalator was of course ours. We did manage to get them down the stairs without incident, but again we are still rethinking our poor clothing decisions. A train arrived at the time our train was supposed to arrive and we were a bit confused, so I asked the lady next to me and she assured us our train was next. When it did arrive and finally depart Hamburg station, we were 20 minutes behind schedule. Our layover to change trains at the next town was 20 minutes....

Guy and I dubbed this train as the "Library Train". I've never been in a car filled with so people but be so quiet. I leaned over and seriously whispered to Guy, "I gotta pee" and the lady across from me smiled. No private conversations to be had on that ride. So as I was reading my magazine, I glanced down at my watch and told Guy we were getting close. We got our bags down from the overhead area and made our way to the doors to be first out. As of right now, and we are still moving, we have 2 minutes to catch our next train. As the doors opened we heard the conductor say something about the train to Amsterdam but it was in German. All we knew was we needed to run. I have a new respect for Guy as he bolted down two flights of steps with 99.5 pounds of bags in his hands. A group of us were running to track 12 and there sets our train. Whew! But alas, the doors had already shut and people from our group were trying to push the open button and were screaming at the conductor to wait! I mean screaming! Ok, so I don't speak German, but there was an older guy standing there kinda hollering back at us and I know what he was saying..."Yelling and banging on the train won't make it stop". Yes, it pulled away slowly, mocking us as we stood in frustration.

Staring at each other, we shrugged our shoulders (universal symbol BTW) and went up to the ticket counter. We weren't sure which line to be in, so I stood in the info line and Guy went to the ticket counter. I knew I was in the right line because the guy from our train, wearing lime green, was letting the info guy have it with a raised voice and shaking his fist in the air. I asked the girl in front of me if she spoke English but she said no. I was dying to know what he was saying. Anyway the info guy asked a question and about 8 people raised their hands and he gave them all a piece of paper. Darn! I know I needed one of those pieces of paper, too! So I could see Guy next door and we were both making our way through the lines at about the same pace. One of the guys who got a piece of paper was walking by and I asked him if he missed the train to Amsterdam. He said yes! He went on to tell me apologetically that he had only 3 minutes to catch his next train and had to go, but it was complicated and they would tell us how we might be able to get our money back. Money back? I just want a ticket to Amsterdam. So when I got to the ticket guy, he said the next train was in 2 hours and he slammed his stamp on my paper and handed it to me. I said, "So I just show this on the next train and this is all I need?" He said, "yes". In the meantime, Guy was in an actual ticket line and the lady there said we could get on with what I had, but she could reserve us a seat. A seat. Not two seats. So they have plenty of "free" seats and we'd just have to see how it went when the train got there.

One thing about the big suitcase is the make nice seats. So as we waited for the train we pulled our suitcases off to the side and plopped down and ate our sandwiches we had purchased at the breakfast cafe. We people watched and had some interesting conversations about other cultures. Funny how we stereotype so quickly....and how I wish I spoke every language. :) Fearing missing our next train, Guy dragged me out to the track way too early (usually that's fine but it was only 52 degrees out there!) So I sat in a little waiting area that had some glass around it and chatted with a lady from Germany that spoke minimal English, but I think she wanted to practice with me. So I obliged. She said she has a friend here from Florida and in August she hopes to go there. She has lived in Hamburg for over 30 years and there was a famous singer that either came from there or has a big house on the lake we stayed by. She seemed surprised I had never heard of him. She was nice and fun to talk to.

On the train it looked like someone was in our seat (note: seat, not seats) so we just chose two "free" ones together but we'd be facing backwards for 3 hours. No worries. Now this wasn't the Library Train, it was the foul language train. Three rows away there are two American kids and this girl has a filthy mouth and to top it off she is loud and wants everyone to hear her. She was flipping back and forth between English and German on the phone, so Guy was thinking about asking her if she'd cuss in German if she didn't mind. That way we wouldn't know what she was saying. We endured "Rated R" girl for about two hours and as the train filled and more people were talking, she became less noticeable. The worst thing is her dad called her and she was telling him her flight on Sunday was cancelled. So as she became more animated with the story (which we'd already heard) she began cussing and saying the worst of all words to her dad! Sheesh. Just a shout out here to our parents for setting a good example and/or giving us a good smack when our mouths got out of hand.

Arriving at the W Hotel we entered inside and were quickly escorted to the 6th floor where the reception desk and bar area was located. The elevator was tight but I rode it because the bellman was with us and he had a radio. So let me tell you...the doors open s.l.o.w.l.y. I would be one and done in that bad boy. So after checking in, I took the stairs down to the 2nd floor to our room and the stairs are fantastic with glass doors on each floor. Very open and in the center of the hotel. Ahhh...if they could all be like this. Most times we are going through hotel laundry rooms or back kitchens to get to the stairs. Ok, so now...the room. This is a brand new hotel and extremely modern. The floors are painted concrete with a big red rug under the bed and artistic lightning. The sink is just at the end of the bed and the shower is a frosted glass pod also out in the room -with really no privacy to speak of (getting in and out of the shower that is). The toilet is in a little room by itself and is fully mirrored on the outside and solid red on the inside. The door opens like a refrigerator, no real handle or lock. The pictures will help explain.

Since we were running late from the train snafu, we changed and freshened up and headed out to meet Olesya for dinner. Olesya is a friend of mine that I went to grad school with at SIU. She is originally from Ukraine but lives just 45 minutes or so from Amsterdam with her boyfriend, Jan Hein. We had been chatting for a few weeks about my upcoming vacation and were hoping to get to meet for dinner. She actually made dinner reservations for us tonight (recommendations from Jan - a local) and then again for tomorrow with my other "surprise guest". (Blog followers stay tuned). So our GPS was doing a pretty good job of getting us to the restaurant, but we thought we'd gone too far and turned around. That really messed up Google Maps. So I asked a young girl and she said it was just down the road. She was super sweet and wished us luck. But as I turned around, there stood my Olesya that I haven't seen since 2011. Still exactly the same. Fun, beautiful and always a great conversationalist. The food was awesome at the Brasserie Harkema, but the conversation was even better. After dinner, it was about 9:30pm and we decided we would head out to one of her favorite pubs, Café Papeneiland, and there Jan Hein would be meeting up with us (he was working late). We took the "scenic route" and walked around Amsterdam with all its glorious waterways and bridges. At 9:30 it is still slightly daylight and we got the feel of a Dutch evening as the cold misty air ruined our hair but made the walk refreshing. On the way to the bar my phone died, so Olesya had a charger and we plugged it in at the pub at a table around the corner. I heard one of them say "We won't take it with us".  I hope not!  Also, this pub is a favorite of Bill Clinton's and when he is in Amsterdam he always gets their apple pie! So of course we didn't have dessert at the Harkema in anticipation of this pie. It did not disappoint! After a bit, Jan Hein was able to join us. Being a chef, he and Guy had lots to talk about in between funny stories of his past adventures. I can't tell you how fun our evening has been. It is getting late and Jan has to work early in the morning, so we headed back to the hotel (passing the apparent making of some kind of movie). It's just past 2am now, but I wanted to finish the blog while everything was fresh. But don't worry...my morning will consist of sleeping in and when I wake up I"ll be looking again through my bag of local treats that Olesya brought me tonight as a gift. Especially the one I'll be tasting with my coffee!

What a great day. Sorry for typos...it's late.