We pick up day two at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport. Our flight was due to arrive at 5.55am, and landed about 5.25am.
There was a long taxi to the terminal, we went through Passport control, waited for our bags at the carousel and went straight out from baggage collection to the train station – so convenient having a train station at the airport!
Used the ticketing machine to buy train tickets to Amsterdam Centraal. We had just missed the previous train, so had a 15 minute wait for the next one.
We arrived at Amsterdam Centraal and had a short walk (500m) to our hotel, where we left our bags in the luggage room so we could go exploring the city.
We started with breakfast at Starbucks. It was still very early and not much open yet.
After filling ourselves with coffee, croissant (Ulick) and Cinnamon swirl (Sara). We went on our way exploring the city. We had a nice stroll around the Centrum (the innermost borough of Amsterdam), admiring the old buildings and uniqueness of them, including how much they lean and the hooks, as well as how tall and skinny they are.
We then walked towards Anne Frank House where we had a 9.45am timeslot (these were booked three months in advance)
Because it was only 8.45am we went and had some pancakes (Sara) and poffertjes (Ulick) at a nearby pancake cafe.
Anne Frank House was on my list to visit from the first day we added Amsterdam to our itinerary. Having read the book (The Diary of Anne Frank) several times, it was a must.
It was very moving to see the place where Anne, her family and others were hidden during the Second World War. The Secret Annexe is small, and it’s hard to imagine being in such close quarters with people for so long, just in order to survive.
Following our visit to Anne Frank House, we went on a one hour canal cruise – which was very useful in trying to get our bearings around Amsterdam!
The tour pointed out highlights of the city. Amsterdam has over 100km of waterways and around 250 bridges, including the famous Skinny Bridge, and the seven bridges (pictured).
After all this adventure we decided to head back to the hotel and see if we could check in yet. It was after 1pm, but our check in time was 3pm. Luckily for us, our room was available! Perhaps not so luckily – our room was on the 4th floor (and the elevator was under renovations!)
So we collected our rucksacks from the storage room and climbed the 66 steep steps to the top of the building. At this point you might be thinking top of the building = penthouse. Adjust that though to be more like attic! ???
The hotel (XO City Centre) is basic, but centrally located. The stairways looks a bit well trodden and I was concerned about what we were going to find behind the door when we got to room 432. I needn’t have worried, the room itself is renovated and quite comfortable (also quite cosy!). There is free wifi as well as a Nespresso machine and television with something like 90 channels (mostly Dutch).
We enjoyed long awaited showers and had a lie down.
We decided to scrap the Red Light Walking tour I had on the itinerary for 8pm, as an early night was in order. So instead used our Holland Pass to gain entry to the Body Worlds exhibition nearby. In this exhibition there is around 200 “plastinates” of the human body. These bodies were donated by their owners to science and then underwent a process called plastination. It was fascinating to see body parts of display like this. After the first few you view you almost forget that they were once living, breathing people and think of them as models.
We stopped by McDonalds on the way back from the exhibition to grab a quick dinner to take back to our room, watched some American Pickers (it was in English!) Ate dinner and went to sleep. By the way, McChickens in Holland are much nicer than Aussie ones!
