When it's spring again...

February 2020

We love Amsterdam.

 Day One

Although worrying noises were beginning to come out of China, our sole concern at this time was the potential disruption of Storm Ciara. It was, however, a very leisurely start to a quick break in Amsterdam as we left Fratton station headed for a midday direct Eurostar to the Dutch capital. For some reason when we booked, the cheapest ticket out was in business class so we had a very relaxing and comfortable journey arriving on a late afternoon in early February.

On our first trip to Amsterdam back in 2012 we stayed at a lovely boutique hotel just off the Museumplein and in a fit of nostalgia we had booked the Hotel Jan Luykens again for what may turn out to be the last time. On booking in we were told that it would be closing in October. I dare say it closed earlier than that. It was a nice hotel and very conveniently located but lacked any dining facility. Accordingly we scout around for dinner and head for Sama Sebo a very popular Indonesian restaurant. The weather is wet and without a reservation we seem to be out of luck but as we pass along the outside looking for an alternative, one of the waiters waylays us with the offer of a seat at the bar if that would suit. It does indeed. We order the rijsttafel and stuff ouselves stupid on the most delicious and varied food.

Day Two - The Hague

We have started to want to explore further afield and so we are going to The Hague. Dutch trains are frequent and efficient so with only a fairly early start and a quick change in Utrecht we arrive at Den Haag HS mid-morning and head for our first stop; the Marithuis museum.

The Maritshuis is home, among other things, to The Goldfinch and Girl With A Pearl Earring, the latter attracting quite a crowd as we enjoy the many works of the Dutch Golden Age. It's a lovely museum gallery and well worth the trip on its own.

Through the Binnenhof, the old Dutch parliament buildings, we walk to the small Museum De Gevangenpoort exhibiting preserved relics of past crime and punishment, and the next door Galerij Prins Willam V, a small but delightful art collection. By now it's lunchtime and we eventually find a suitable café in the town centre.

Wandering the shopping centre and arcades, we decide there's enough time to visit the Escher museum before Storm Ciara will hit and force us to stay. Twigs are already being blown from the plane trees as we approach what turns out to be a highlight of the trip. It really is time to head back to the station now and we arrive in good time to find a seat on the high speed train to Utrecht which is suddenly not going anywhere. Everyone piles off and starts to stare at the departure board and I quickly realise that the commuter train on the next platform is going to Utrecht and we grab a seat before it fills to the brim with passnegers from the Intercity. It transpires that the cancellation was due to a broken down ICE which we pass near Gouda with one of its pantograph hanging off. 

The on train guard tells us that there's an ICE coming that will get us to Utrecht marginally quicker than the commuter train we're on so we take the chance and get off at one of the small stations and wait for longer than we we led to believe but it arrives and without any more drama we get back to what is now a very blustery Amsterdam. It's too early for dinner and we always like to rest up at our hotel if we can, so we do. 

The trouble is now that the storm is in full sail and our restaurant is thorough soaking distance away and we enjoy tasty traditional Dutch fare while quietly dripping on the floor at the window table.

Day Three - Rijksmuseum, diamonds and cheese

There's a very nice café just around the corner from the back of the Rijksmuseum where we have a pleasant breakfast before heading into the museum itself. It's always worth a visit and today is no exception and we spend all morning there breaking briefly for a beer and apple cake. Between the Rijks and our hotel, which we have often passed without entering is the House of Bols and the Diamond "museum". Watching craftsmen at work before resisting attempts to sell us expensive diamonds passed an hour before we stride firmly into the House of Bols for an excellent tour of its history and that of Jenéver before cashing in our free cocktail chits, having another cocktail, spending a small fortune in the shop and striding somewhat less firmly out again. The rest of the afternoon is spent at the hotel.

On the way over, flicking through the Eurostar magazine, there's an article on cheese which includes a rave revue of a pop-up fondue restaurant in an old factory site on the edge of the Westerpark. It's a bit out of the centre but sounds exciting so I get the phone out, find the website and manage to book a table in what turns out to be a very popular venue. It's quite a tram trip and we warily enter the complex, passing closed shops but also some bars that look promising. Eventually we find it right at the rear and with some relief, as we're still an hour early, pile into a very 'hip and trendy' nearby bar for a pre-dinner drink. The night turns out to be brilliantly memorable, the food, welcome and service excellent and fully cheesed up we get the tram back to the hotel.

Day Four - North Amsterdam

The ferries from the Centraal Station across the Ij are frequent and free! We've decided that today we'll explore further afield and head towards North Amsterdam where I've heard of an artists community in an old factory which is a vibrant centre duting the summer but even in winter has much to recommend it. It sounds like a plan so we catch the tram to the station cross the Ij and breakfast at Pont Neuf. 

The area is being heavily redeveloped and it's a long and sometimes confusing walk to our destination but we clock a fleamarket on the way and eventually find out target which thankfully is both open and houses a more than acceptable bar where we recover from the chill wind with large coffees before exploring further. It's definitely interesting and will be on our agenda next time we visit in the summer but there's not much happening now so we head back to the fleamarket for a fun time regretting we did not have a large van with us. Calling up the bus timetable on the phone we find and catch a bus back to the ferry. Just along the way is the eyecatching Eye filmmuseum where we have lunch and spend the afternoon.

Our last dinner this trip is at De Belhamel, a very good restaurant, beautifully decorated in art nouveau style and with a great view down the Herengracht canal. It's very popular and the food is sublime, as is the bar where we stay for a nightcap before we go back to our hotel for the last time.

Amsterdam offers so much for the traveller that we will surely be back again, pandemic or not.

Day Five - Home

Our journey home suffers from the after effects of the storm as some of the high speed lines are unuseable and it soon becomes clear that we will miss our Eurostar connection as our Talys ICE trundles through some of the minor lines around Rotterdam, Eurostar are ready for us however and we are booked on the next available train. They've received some criticism lately for their attitude to honouring CIV commitments for those with separate rather than "through" tickets, but we do have through tickets and the process is clear and easy.

We grab pasties at Waterloo and get home about two hours later than scheduled. As I finish this, over a year later, we have only managed a drive to our friend's house in Germany in the summer for a few days and it looks unlikely we shall be heading abroad again until 2022. Fingers crossed.


Carbon saved 50kg

Amsterdam

May 2015

Our third visit to Amsterdam was lovely; it's an easy-going city perfect for a short break and we always have a great time. Our previous visits have been in winter so a trip in spring is a welcome change, especially as on our first trip coincided with frozen canals and the lowest temperatures for 20 years. One of the main reasons we've come back again is to visit the newly refurbished and fully reopened Rijksmuseum as well as to enjoy a much needed holiday. Usually we opt for the Iamsterdam city card, but this only gives a 10% discount for the Rijks, so planning ahead I discover that there is also the 30 day Museumkaart which will get us in to everything the city card does, plus the Rijks, for free. Alongside a four-day travel pass from GVB it works out at much better value all round. Armed with this information and a clutch of train tickets we set off from Fratton on a promisingly sunny morning.

Booking a through ticket via Eurostar.com is both simple and usually excellent value as the Fratton to London portion can be very much cheaper this way and is valid for travel from whatever terminal you arrive at, across London, to St Pancras. However, every time we approach the underground clutching our Fratton to London International tickets, we are ever more certain that they will fail to open the barrier and we'll have to show them and explain ourselves to the busy TFL attendant to let us through. And then of course, out again. Why this should be is beyond me but these frustrations aside, boarding the Eurostar is as straightforward as ever and we're soon on our way.

Brussels midi station is still a bit on edge after the recent attacks, so the usually convenient escalator down from the Eurostar platform is closed.  We end up working our way around and down to find the Thalys departure area where no-one is as sure as our Eurostar train manager was as to which platform the train to Amsterdam will be leaving from. Twenty minutes, we are told, and all will become clear. Hanging about for this revelation in a rather stark waiting room is fine but there's no departure board in there or indeed any other information source so we're taking turns to check the board before our train appears proving the Eurostar announcer right all along. However, there's a little more confusion as we're initially directed towards the wrong train but a very helpfully strident platform assistant points everyone across to another Thalys arriving on the other side of the platform and we're soon hurtling through Belgium at speeds far in excess of those managed by even the fastest UK trains. A standard class seat in a Thalys is also much more comfortable, even if the much trumpeted WiFi is patchy at best.

Arriving in Amsterdam I realise my complacency in having been twice before means my planning has fallen short of actually getting to the hotel, I haven't even brought a map, so after buying our travel chipkaarts there's a few minutes working out where the hotel is exactly and what tram we need to catch to get there.

The hotel is in a very nice area by the Vondelpark and looks quite promising from the outside but once inside things get different very quickly. We have to pay in advance which is never a good sign, and there's no lift. We're on the third floor. Struggling up the increasingly steep stairs I manage to knock a picture off the wall before the stairs turn up the final flight almost vertically. The bed is great but the bathroom is pokey and a bit worn and, get this, we share a window with next door!

Tuesday

Breakfast is not included and at an extra €10 per person, not worth it, so we head off towards Museumplein for on the way is Bagels and Beans where we enjoy a fresh and tasty.breakfast in a funky setting before our visit to the Stedelijke, which is rapidly becoming my favourite modern art museum. Alongside the regular and intriguing exhibits there's a special exhibition of the Amsterdam School, the architectural style movement looking a lot like the bastard child of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Vienna Secession and absolutely fabulous.

Lunch is at our favourite old style (but actually modern) café up by the Blauwbrug. We discovered its welcoming embrace during our first visit that freezing February and spent half the afternoon lounging on their sofas drinking coffee and mulled wine and stroking the cat before venturing out into the cold again. Now unfortunately cat-less, it's still a nice place to go and we enjoy a fine sandwich before heading back to Foam, the photography gallery, where there's a couple of  thought provoking interpretations of the migrant crisis.

Our first two evenings have followed much the same course; beers at Het Hok before traditional Dutch fare at the very popular The Pantry two doors down. ''Traditional" here means various flavours of mash with a smoked sausage or giant meatball alongside other hearty cooking like ham hock and beef stew. The food is delicious and the atmosphere convivial.

Wednesday

Wednesday is all about the Rijksmuseum. Well, nearly all.
It's another sunny day as we stroll across Museumplein past the holocaust memorial and iamsterdam sign. The entrance to the museum is through the basement so, skipping the queues with our museumkaarts in hand, we dive in.

We spend more than half the day exploring the newly and brilliantly refurbished Rijks. And while much attention is focused on the "Gallery of Honour" with Rembrandt's Night Watch taking centre stage among some of the greats of the Dutch Golden Age, the lower galleries house examples of some of the most exquisite craftsmanship you can imagine and there are other stunning works at every turn. The museum displays are well organised, by date mostly, but it's worth taking some time to plan your way around as it's not necessarily obvious which is the best route to take. The first floor, for instance, is in two unconnected halves as the roadway cuts through it. All things considered it's a brilliant way to spend a few hours even if the lavatories are harder to find than you'd prefer.

After a late spot of lunch we head off across the city so we can visit Rembrandt's House again. Our route to Waterlooplein takes us for the first time in three visits along the metro, which is as clean and efficient as you'd expect and after a wander through the flea market we arrive. To my mind Rembrandt van Rijn was something of an alchemist with paint and a trip to this house museum is always a joy, for me at least. Today we are in time for the paint mixing demonstration and we discover they've recently opened the top floor showing the studio space his students would have used, and in the new building there's a great exhibition of nudes drawn by him and his contemporaries too.

Across the road is a bar on the canal and a much needed beer is enjoyed while watching the boats pass by. On the opposite corner of the canal, nesting in a half submerged boat, is a family of cootes and unfortunately one chick has got out onto the water. One of the parents desperately tries to persuade it back into the boat, a task seemingly beyond the chick's capabilities - the side of the boat is a good foot out of the water - unfortunately all to no avail as a seagull swoops down and carries the youngster away. Nature red in tooth and claw, so to speak, was not what we were expecting in this quiet corner of Amsterdam!

Today is also the day in the Netherlands when they remember the war dead. There's a two minute silence at 8pm and a big gathering in Dam Square with the King attending, which is throwing the tram schedules well out of whack and we end up walking most of the way back to the hotel for a rest before dinner. We've booked at the Koffiehuis van der Volksbond where we've dined on previous trips and it's just as lovely as before, even if it's a bit weird being there in daylight on a warm spring evening. A perfect end to the day.

Thursday

The following day is Liberation Day, a public holiday, and the crowds are out in force on another beautiful sunny day. We wander up to Dam Square with a view to seeing the World Press Photo exhibition at the Niewe Kerk but it doesn't open until the afternoon so we visit the fairly dull royal palace instead before pottering about the city centre and having a beer by the Niewe Maarkt.

After returning for the photography exhibition and some coffee and cake we decide it's high time we took to the water. There are boats of all types and sizes thronging the canals and more than one collision but it's wonderfully relaxed and good humoured and we have a ball.

Dinner is at a nice little restaurant in the centre that our friends have used before. There are no reservations taken at this very popular place so timing is everything. We get one of the last tables and enjoy a decent meal with excellent service.

Oh, and if someone offers you a Dutch salted caramel lolly just politely decline. If you don't, at some point later your mouth will be filled with the most hideous liquorice powder and you'll be left gagging into a nearby canal.

Friday

Friday morning sees us grabbing breakfast in a café near the station before catching the train home. Brussels' Eurostar experience is about the most relaxed of the three principal stations and aside from a brief stop at Calais, completing the set, we're back in London by (late) lunchtime. We're travelling back to Portsmouth via London Victoria and thanks to the ongoing disorganisation of British railway operators we stand, necks craned, staring at the departure boards for an eternity until just five minutes before departure it finally shows us which platform our train will be leaving from. This, naturally, precipitates a mad rush for a seat in the right part of the train before we can settle down for the final leg home.

Carbon saved: 50kg