Pakdokter and partner travelled to Amsterdam and Edinburgh (this time) with two other couples who had been regular travel buddies for many years. Ravee and his partner, Siti, and Dolah were pakdokter's and pakdokter's partner's classmates in medical school. Dolah and his partner , Sandra, have been together for about 30 years. Their children grew up with pakdokter's children and spent many many weekends playing together at each other's homes.
The KLM plane left KLIA at around midnight. The plane carried a full load that it was hard for pakdokter to believe that the world was in a state of recession!
The Boeing 777 of the KLM was quite comfortable with a good leg space in between seats. And the food served was commendable.
pakdokter, freezing, in front of Amsterdam Central Station, at 7 am in the morning..
the Amsterdam Central Station...
walking the streets of Amsterdam in the wee hours of the morning...
still dark at 8 am....
Arriving at Schipol at 5.30 am local time, Amsterdam was still blanketed in darkness. It took about one hour to collect our baggages and clear immigration checks.We headed to the train station for a short direct train ride to Amsterdam Central Station. After having been to Tokyo many times, the trains of Europe still have some catching up to do. One has to lug the bags up or down at least 2 steps from the platform on to the train or vice versa. This would have been problematic if one has a huge and heavy bag to carry. In Japan, the station platforms were always flushed to the same level as the train and one has only to pull one's bag easily from the platform into the train.
As pakdokter had checked out the location of our hotel from the internet before the trip and decided that it would be 'walkable' from the station, we decided to take a morning walk from the Central Station to our hotel, the Rembrandt Classics.
The walk allowed an opportunity for snapping pictures of Amsterdam at early morning hours....
As pakdokter had checked out the location of our hotel from the internet before the trip and decided that it would be 'walkable' from the station, we decided to take a morning walk from the Central Station to our hotel, the Rembrandt Classics.
The walk allowed an opportunity for snapping pictures of Amsterdam at early morning hours....
The first thing that struck pakdokter about Amsterdam was how friendly and helpful the Amsterdamers were. At the station, as Siti and Ravi were struggling to carry their bags down the steps, a young gentleman offerred to help carry the bag for Siti. And while walking the street and looking at the printout of the Amsterdam map for direction, an elderly boatman, without being asked, stopped and helped pakdokter with the direction to the hotel.
These two incidents gave a pleasant start to our holidays.....
at the canal cruise boat terminal along Damstraat..
half-way from the train station to the hotel...
tranquil....
Amsterdam trams along Damstraat..
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