willjay & Robyn's 420 adventure

[Cisco]

Awesome report , thank you

[Willjay]

DAY FOUR (Sat 20 April) AMSTERDAM

Had a slow start to the morning, due to the loud activities in the middle of the night. We skipped breakfast at the hotel because we were meeting up with friends at Barney's Uptown on the Haarlemerstraat. After breakfast we walked through the Saturday Noordermarket. and the Lindengracht Market, checking out the vendor stalls ranging from fresh fruits, vegetables, meat & seafood, to socks, pashminas, shoes, and plumbing supplies. We picked up a few things to eat on tomorrow's train journey.

We meandered through the streets of the Jordaan, until we stumbled on Gunters & Meuser's hardware store. BJ is a tradesman, and enjoys checking out hardware stores when we travel, and buying little hand tools. Today his prize was a Schuil Holland wooden folding ruler.

We stopped briefly at the Paradox on 1e Bloemdwarsstraat, for a coffee, a Looza, to say hi to the dude behind the counter and to check out their recent renovations. Nice new bathroom. Continuing on our way back to the hotel to drop off our purchases, we heard music in the distance. Turns out that the Velvet Record Store on the Rozengracht was having "Record Store Day", with different live bands playing every half hour on the sidewalk in front of the store. We were lucky enough to catch Maison du Malheur, a four-piece band consisting of electric guitar, banjo, saxophone and tuba. They were great.

We took tram 14 to the Keizergracht to visit the Museum van Loon (Museumkaart) which is a period canal house dating from 1672. The original van Loon was one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company, which was reflected in the furnishings of the family home. We took the self guided tour through the first floor parlors, the second floor bedrooms, and the kitchen in the basement. We crossed through the backyard garden to the carriage house, where there was a special exhibition on Adriaen Dortsman, the architect behind the van Loon house and many of the other houses along the canals. It was interesting to see how the upper crust lived all those hundreds of years ago. BJ and I are both interested in architecture, so I'm glad we took the time to visit the house. If not for the Museumkaart, we probably never would have considered this museum.

We were feeling hungry after our canal house experience, but we didn't have enough time to sit down and enjoy lunch. We had to meet friends in less than a half hour. So we trammed down to the Dam and picked up some Prawn Sate from Wok to Go on the Damstraat, and wolfed them down as we hustled our butts over to Voyagers.

We had a nice get together, but we were still a bit hungry afterwards, so we walked down the Zeedijk to Wijs & Zohen, which is a tea house that has really good sandwiches, and beer. We both ordered Gerookte Kip, which was smoked chicken with cream cheese and parmesan cheese. Mmmm... delicious.

It turned out to be a beautiful Saturday in Amsterdam, which was evident by the amount of people on the Dam and bikes parked in front of the Bijenkorf. And if it's Saturday in Amsterdam, that means it's "stag party" time. I understand the camaraderieship of hanging with your buddies, but I don't get some of the costumes; I thought the man wearing a diaper, bonnet, and sucking a pacifier was a bit weird, but tonight it was a seven foot tall penis walking around with his friends. Yikes!

After buying some beer at the Albert Hein for tomorrow's train ride, we retired to our hotel and packed for the early morning journey to Germany. Heidelberg here we come....



DAY FIVE (Sun 21 April) HEIDELBERG

No time for breakfast at the hotel this morning, we had to catch the 8:05 train to Heidelberg, Germany. With advice from the Fodor's Forum, we had purchased our train tickets 3 months in advance on the bahn.de website so we could get the discount rate. The on-line transaction went very smooth, and it was nice to be able to print out several copies of the tickets... just in case.

We taxied to Centraal Station with a half hour to spare, but became concerned when we didn't see our train listed on the departure board. We walked up to the platform indicated on our tickets and discovered we were the only ones there. What happened to the train we had purchased tickets for?

We inquired at the International Desk, and were told, "Oh, that train left early", of which we informed the desk lady, "That's not the way it's supposed to work!" She re-booked us on the 9:44, which means we would be getting into Heidelberg too late to visit the castle, one of the reasons we chose the city as a destination. Oh well, this is what happens when you put your plans in the hands of the German Rail system.

So it's 7:45 on a Sunday morning, and here we are, standing in Amsterdam's Centraal Station with all our luggage, and nowhere to go for the next two hours! BJ remembers that Centraal Coffeeshop, directly across from Centraal Station, opens at 7:00 am, so that became our respite until it was time to finally depart from Amsterdam.

We arrived in Heidelberg at 16:12, only three and a half hours behind schedule. We taxied to our hotel, the Goldener Hecht (€91,00), which is located on the corner just beyond the Alte Brücke. We checked into Room #32, billed as the Mark Twain Room for its view of the Neckar River and the bridge. It was a nice size, simply decorated, clean room, although the floor was uneven, but I guess that's to be expected in some of these old buildings.

Paradox, Ace White Widow, Space Cake, Central, White Widow

[geekymonkey]

Great report! Thanks for sharing your adventures. Bummer about the train.

[Colino]

Great report, thanks!

[Cerebral]

Nice write-up, enjoyed and appreciated

[Sailor59]

Top stuff.

[Willjay]

I am going to try and import some pictures, mostly from inside some of the museums that we visited.


Amsterdam Schuttersgalerij

part of the Historical Mueseum and this part is free

[BigRigRob]

Great write-up Robyn, give WillJay a kick and get him to post y'all photos.

[ftcarer]

it was great seeing you both again thanks again for Wifeys present

[Willjay]

Amsterdam Historical Museum

[KeyMonCha]

...Sorry... Couldn't resist!

Cheers again, Willjay... Keep 'em coming!

[Willjay]

Amstelkring in the RLD or Church in the Attic

[TwoCanucks]

Sucks about the train...hope you enjoyed Germany...gotta go bavk some time.