Holland September 2018 - Trip to Amsterdam

This was probably our sixth time in Holland, but we had never been to Amsterdam before. We wanted to make up for that today and drove there despite the rain. The journey took just over an hour, and the rain also eased off during the journey, so it was only drizzling lightly now. We were able to park easily at one of the numerous Park and Ride car parks outside Amsterdam. The system is really good, the Germans could learn a thing or two from it to reduce the heavy traffic in larger cities.

Now to the system: the car is parked at one of the P+R parking lots. With the ticket you receive when entering the car park, you buy your train ticket for Amsterdam from the machine. There you can select the P+R train ticket, which costs only 5 euros for 2 people. We now take one of the regular trains that take you to Amsterdam Central Station in a few minutes. You have to remember to check in and check out with the tickets you got from the machine at the small boxes by the door when getting on and off. This is important because otherwise you will have to pay the regular fare, which is much more expensive. You also have to remember this for the return journey.

After a few minutes, we arrived at Amsterdam Central Station, where we started our city tour. Admittedly, we were somewhat aimless and just walked around. As a first stop, we passed through the old town, where I treated myself to a tasty waffle for breakfast. But the best thing about Amsterdam are the many canals that run throughout the city. After a while, we also passed by the Anne Frank House, but unfortunately, we did not visit it. Tickets can only be purchased online in advance, which is really stupid!

But what we did from here was take a canal cruise. I will talk about it in the next post.