December 8th, 2024

We have arrived in Amsterdam after an overnight flight to catch a Rhine river cruise to do the Christmas markets. When we finished the world cruise Viking “gifted” us 3000.00 dollars each for sticking with them after the big itinerary change because of the middle east. We decided to use our credit on the Christmas Market cruise.

We left Tallahassee around 6pm on Saturday and flew to Atlanta and then from there to Amsterdam. We arrived in Amsterdam at 10:30am on Sunday the 8th. Our hotel is right across from the central train station and if we had not been so tired from very little sleep on the overnight flight we might have attempted the train from the airport to the hotel. Instead we did a taxi and I was not expecting the taxi to be as expensive as it was. The taxi was actually an electric Mustang and it seemed more like a Mercedes sedan. It had a huge touch screen that was one of the largest I have seen. The hotel is about 8 kilometers from the airport but because of the way Amsterdam is laid out it is not a straight 8 kms. Plus, according to our taxi driver, they have added all these one way roads making it very difficult to get where you want to go. He said it works out to be about 3 euros per kilometer plus there is a charge by the minute. He said the government had added lots of charges to the taxis and the cost was more than what we have paid in NYC for a much shorter ride. Hopefully I will remember that if/when we return.

Check-in was 3pm but luckily they had a room ready and we were able to get in our room at noon. The weather was rainy and cold when we landed and the sun was not supposed to come out but it ended up being a nice day. We took a quick nap and then decided the best thing to do was go out and about and try to stay up as long as possible.

We walked a pedestrian road that had lots of food places, grocery stores and some shops. Marijuana is legal in Amsterdam and you smelled it everywhere.

Still cloudy but the sun came out some and brightened up the many canals around Amsterdam.

These buildings were built in the 1600s and definelty look like they are leaning both left and right. Reminds me of one of those Ripley museum buildings. Is it really leaning or an illusion. Since built in the 1600s voting for really leaning.

Sunsets around 4:30 here. Our taxi driver did say that if we had a chance we needed to take a night time canal cruise to see all the holiday lights. We only have 2 nights here but maybe Monday night.

Around 5:30 we stopped to get one of the most popular foods in Amsterdam, french fries. They have shops that sell nothing but fries with all different toppings.

This shop was quite popular and they always have a line but moves quite fast. We chose fries with parmesan cheese shredded on top and 2 toppings, one peanut sauce and the other truffle mayonnaise. We split one order.

There is no place to sit in these shops so everything is to go and all in cardboard with small wooden forks to eat with.

After our snack it was back to the hotel to shower and then we tried to watch a movie but we both kept falling asleep. We made it to 7pm and then we called it a night.

We have Monday and then we join the river cruise on Tuesday.