Spoonful of Sugar: Amsterdam Trip Chapter 1

Salam and good day!

This Easter Break, my friends and I decided to go for a trip to the Netherlands and Belgium. The planning took a month in advance, it was supposed to be more than 4, but in the end, only 4 people managed to go. Me and my bestie...of course and another friend of mine from my old studio (Griffon) and her friend.

We took the Eurostar from St. Pancras to Brussels. We actually didn't make it on time to check in which was supposed to be half-hour before departure. Luckily, we get to change the ticket to a later time. Word of caution for others that want to travel via train after this, because this is an international train, the rules apply the same as if you were going by flight because you need to go through custom, hence the longer check-in time.

On board the train, we met this friendly Korean uncle named Donggel Li (I think it's spelled like this. =P). He was super friendly and kept wanting to chat with us because he said 2 hours train ride is boring. Which is actually true. But we were so tired for waking up early and my bestie still has jet lag, we slept half way through.

say kimchi...=D

We rented a car to drive from Brussels to Amsterdam. It's actually cheaper to drive if you are in a large group.

Bear in mind that the roads and cars in Europe is the opposite as in Malaysia and UK. The driver's seat is on the left hand side and you drive on the right hand side of the road.

It was challenging, but in time you will manage to adapt and familiarise with it.

There was an incident where I almost got hit by the upcoming car as I was pulling out of a junction because it skipped my mind that the roads are different. Luckily nothing bad happenned..Alhamdulillah.

Funny story, the car that we rented comes with navigation system. When we set our destination, we didn't think that it leads us away from the motorway (highway or freeway) due to the previous settings. The three hour drive turns out to be 6 hours instead.

We passed by remote areas with farms...with sheeps

Horses..

Deers...

even donkeys..

We saw such beautiful houses..

Lakes...

Churches..

Train tracks with cyclist..

On coming trains...Oh NO!!!

Did we got lost until Penang bridge???

These trees kind of look like Womping Willow from HP right? LOL

The roads were so remote, there are hardly any cars on it.

Along the way, we decided to stop to have a bite to eat. We found this place which I think was actually apartments, maybe.

It looked like a quaint place to have a picnic. But as we got out of the car, the wind blew like crazy.

It was even too cold to hold a good pose. =P

So we decided to just eat in the car.

We continued driving...

Passing through housing areas...I mean...what???

The top of the cream is...facing a dead road with water ahead. hahahaha

When we reached this place, we were so worried. Where was the GPS taking us??!! We had to double check online using the mobile internet.

It's a good thing this ferry ride is cheap. Only costs €2.35. Probably because of the short distance.

It was too cold outside and the wind was too strong. There wasn't any good picture without the wind blowing and messing up my shirts and scarfs around. Plus the drizzle, it's like the ice bucket challenge.

We met our first windmill...huhu...so excited. By the time we realised what actually happenned to the navi system, we already lost 3 hours on the road. We used the mobile gps before we managed to change the setting of the navi system and got on the right path.

We reached our accommodation at a little around 6.30pm. A preview of our accommodation.

Nice right?? huhu...I'll show you more in a later post. A review of the place.

After prayer and some rest, we decided to go to the city for a while. To go to the city, we had to park our car at the Park & Ride which was only 6 minutes away from our cottage. This way is more convenient to travel, and the P&R as they call it, is used to avoid a lot of tourists cars coming into the city. Great idea right?

It's only 4 stations to go to the central station from the P&R. About 10 minutes ride.

The locals just smiled seeing these excited tourists. hehe...

This is Amsterdam central station. Centre for metro, interrail and international trains. I have a better picture for this place which I will put in a later post. =D

This is the inside of the station. My bestie and I wanted to change our money to Euro and went to the Travelex agent to do so. The staff was playful and friendly. When I went to him at the counter, he closed his face with a paper, gesturing as if he didn't want to talk to me, but peeping through the hole on the paper. hahaha...

But he did gave a helpful advice. He suggested that we took out our money from the ATM machine instead which was nearby because if we change our money from the counter, there will be a €5 and 3% charge. After that, when my friend ask for a direction, he lied to her that we are actually in Rotterdam. Lol..nakal tau!

After that, we took a tram to go to the 'i amsterdam' sign which is a go to place for tourist to take a picture. A proof to say that they are in Amsterdam perhaps. huhu..

A night stroll is always fun.

Beautiful night sceneries.

We walked past the Van Gogh museum, but it was closed at this hour, obviously. If you appreciate art like me, you will love this museum.

Tadaa...this is where the sign is located.

Our first view of tulip. I'll tell you about Keukenhof (the home of tulips) in later posts.

Even at night, there are still quite a few tourists here. There were very little lighting, so the picture is not so good at night, unless you have a great and expensive camera.

When we went here, we didn't know the stop for the tram station. We asked someone on the tram and they told us to stop at Museumplein which was actually incorrect because we had to walk for 5 minutes to come here.