For the most part this was a boring day, as it involved getting up early, catching a flight from Riga to Frankfurt, waiting at Frankfurt airport for our delayed flight to Amsterdam, then finally catching our flight to Amsterdam and getting in well after 8:00pm. If I knew what I know now about the best way to book flights, we would have avoided having to go back through Frankfurt and thus had most of an extra day to explore Amsterdam. But the whole purpose of our trip was fulfilled today when I got to have a Pork McRib from McDonalds at Frankfurt airport (the weddings are only the secondary reason).
Anyway, when we eventually did get to Amsterdam, we both thought the airport was a great way to impress visitors, being quite unique, and having all signs in English. Unfortunately, upon leaving the airport, we were confronted with the truth about Amsterdam. Catching the train to Central Station at which we saw how dirty and smelly this city really is - particularly so after just visiting Hong Kong and Riga Old Town, both which were very clean cities.
Although most people speak at least some English when spoken to in English, their English is quite limited. Walking down the street, you never hear people conversing in English (noticing a theme here yet?), and all the street signs are in Dutch. We attempted to use the Metro system but could even come close to working out how - asking the information desk was not going to work as she had difficulty telling us how to get to the boarding area.
Anyway, we checked into an extremely nice hotel called Eden Rembrandt Square (the beds were as luxurious as we‘ve ever come across), a four star hotel right in centre of the main nightlife area of Amsterdam. So glad we took advantage of some cheap rates and booked this hotel instead of the usual Amsterdam style "hotel" we had originally booked. Despite it being after 10:00pm, we decided we would venture into town. We walked around the canals, which have no barriers whatsoever, and the cars park right on the edge. The streets are all made of cobble stone, but much more modern even cobble stones than those in Riga Old Town.
We ventured through the red light district and saw the ladies in the red-illuminated windows, and even saw some people going into the booths, after which they shut their curtains. The rest of the red light district was made up of sex shops, sex museums, peep shows and suchlike. It was an extremely busy area. We quickly visited Dam Square and Rembrandt Square (we will investigate these further later) and went to a “coffee shop”.
Like Frankfurt, everything seems to be so expensive here! Like the same price you would find in New Zealand, but in Euros.
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