Travel to Amsterdam - there is no train to Bielefeld

In the morning, we started our journey to Amsterdam one hour earlier than planned due to last-minute construction work. Little did we know that it would also take significantly longer...

Our first longer involuntary stop was at the train station in the small town of Wrist: Since the railway had only sent an old bus as a direct connection from Rendsburg to Hamburg, it was completely overcrowded and delayed.

Unfortunately, squeezing ourselves in did not help because the train did not wait for the rail replacement service.

So we spent an hour at the Wrist train station, which was not particularly worth seeing. But this was not the only small train station with an unplanned stay on that day...

We then continued from Hamburg to Osnabrück, where our train to the Netherlands started. Unfortunately, the originally booked direct connection to Amsterdam no longer existed due to construction work, so we boarded the regional train to Hengelo. However, we did not arrive there. The journey ended in the previously unknown town of Rheine. The train conductor announced that he would now go to Bielefeld and we all had to get off.

So we found ourselves at the station with other confused passengers and the train continued empty. There should have been a train to Bielefeld 10 minutes later, but it was canceled - just like every other train there that day. Maybe Bielefeld does not exist, and who knows where the train conductor was taking the train. In any case, none of the passengers waiting on the platform were informed that this train was going to Bielefeld - otherwise, someone might have joined...

We had to wait a bit longer, but then we got a train to Amersfoort, from where we continued to Utrecht.

We finally reached Amsterdam Central Station after 8 transfers (instead of the originally planned 3 transfers) and a 3.5-hour longer journey time (which doubled the original travel time).

After a short stay at the hotel, we set out to explore the old town.

The streets near the train station were incredibly crowded, and we understood why the city of Amsterdam plans to limit the number of tourists.

A sweet smell greeted us everywhere in the streets, emanating from the coffee shops.

Long queues had formed in front of some shops selling fries and waffles. The food seemed to taste particularly good here.

After a walk past small, crooked houses, illuminated canals, and narrow alleys, we returned to the hotel to rest for the program of the next days.