We arrived in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. I’ve been tossing and turning in my bed at the B&B. At 4 AM the alarm goes off. I feel bad. The rest of the group will be so excited to continue our trip to the Netherlands. To Amsterdam. Everyone else probably had a wonderful night of sleep, because the beds were so comfortable. It was still dark and windy outside.
It turned out, no one really did sleep. Phew! I will not be the only one today, who is going to walk around like a zombie.
We met each other in the lobby to catch the bus to the Keflavik airport. The storm hadn’t settled yet and I was not happy, thinking about the plane taking off in this storm. I don’t like turbulence so much, do you?
Icelandic Monsters
At the airport, we had an easy check-in and we ate a good Icelandic breakfast. Mine was a fried egg on a bun with cheese, cottage cheese and smoked salmon. I didn’t make a picture, because it didn’t look that great, but it tasted good. We looked at some shops with typical, but pricey Icelandic gifts. Lots of different kinds of salt, including black salt, but also smoked salmon, wool sweaters and mud from “the Blue Lagoon”. Oh, how I wished we could’ve stayed longer to check more out of Iceland!
And…it was still dark, when a bus arrived to drop us off at our plane. We had to wait for other passengers, who came from other flights. This time I didn’t sit with the rest of the group. Next to me was a free seat, so it was nice to stretch my legs. I closed my eyes for a few minutes, just to get through the tough take-off part. I was expecting the worst turbulence ever, but there was almost none! How did they do that? Iceland Air are MONSTERS! I read a little, did not sleep…again!
Welcome to Amsterdam!
As the plane descended, it went through 3 layers of clouds. I’ve never seen that before. That was pretty cool and there was no rain either. Then things started to get a little hectic:
It took more than 20 minutes to get out of the plane, because the attachment to the gate was not working. Then, part of our group got stuck behind a glass door, going from the plane to the terminal. It locked all by itself.
One of our group members got lost, after we got our luggage, coming back from the rest rooms. It is a big and confusing airport. The isles with stores all look alike. We found a little bus outside the airport. No Uber or Lyft stand. The drive to our AirBnB was crazy. Our bus driver drove fast, bicycles zipping back and forth, very narrow streets in the center of Amsterdam! Crazy, I forgot all about that.
Where to stay in Amsterdam
It all depends on what you’re looking for. What do you want to see, what is your budget, are you traveling with your family or alone? Here you can find places to stay, something for everyone.
Our apartment was beautiful! It was located in the middle of Amsterdam, a few minutes from “Amsterdam Centraal station” and close to fun restaurants and other shopping areas. Outside the apartment , we immediately stepped onto a narrow street. Always look carefully both ways, because you can get yelled at or hit by people on a bike.
Right next to the street was one of Amsterdam’s famous canals, where we witnessed a traffic jam of boats every single evening. A representative from the AirBnB showed us around. Even though the internet was not working, we were able to use the connection from the owner who lived upstairs. After we picked our rooms and settledin, we went to the other half of the group who had also a beautiful apartment with some very steep stairs.
In the 17th century, these houses were packing houses for shipments from overseas. The boats came through all the canals to the packing houses. Over the years, the houses got beautifully renovated. You can still see the architecture from those days. A lot of these houses have hooks on top of the facade. These hooks were used to rope in all the goods into the packing houses.
We were getting hungry, even though it was only 3 pm. Oh, that jet lag! In one of those tiny streets, we found a cute French restaurant, called “Blue”. It was cozy and the staff was friendly. We ordered cheese and meat platters and a nice tasting “Chicken Bon Femme”. It was a fun time trying to taste all these different things, from “stinky” cheese to snails and mussels, hearing all the comments from my American friends.
Time to get back and go to sleep. I was looking forward to get a good night rest! See you tomorrow….. part 3 of our trip in Amsterdam!
Hello everyone,
Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.