Amsterdam Part 2

 We left the Travel Marvel Vega this morning around 10 AM and after a short drive in a Mercedes mini bus we arrived at our lodgings, The Eden Hotel in the centre of Amsterdam. We went in to check in and it was a kind of self-serve affair. When we got to the end of the check in it wanted us to pay for the accommodation, which had already been paid by the travel agent. We had  to get the concierge to find out what was going on and eventually we got the key cards for the room and made our way there to settle in. 

I can tell you nothing is cheap in Europe. our Room for 2 nights is 381 Euro or about $622 AUD. The room is about half the size of the room we had on the Vega and the entire bathroom is about the size of the shower cubicle we had. We did have a window with a great view of the building next door. I guess we are paying for the ambience as it is on the Amstel water front. It is also close to some good restaurants and the metro station.

We decided to go for a walk and try and get some souvenir shopping done. About 10 minutes in it started to rain, and the further we went, the heavier it rained. We sought solace in a shopping mall, hoping to find a cheap pair of shoes to replace the sponges I was wearing. Even the cheap knock offs were dearer than our normal shoes so we put that on hold.  Back out again and the rain started within minutes, so we found a nice Bistro to have lunch. The only downside was it was 1145 and the lunch menu didn't start until 12 PM. We had a coke to fill the gap and spot on 12 we ordered some lunch. We ordered 2 onion and rosemary soup with a brioche bun and cheese and a serve of fries with a truffle mayo. The soup was on top of the brioche bun and had melted cheese over the top, It was delicious and the chips and truffle mayo were great as well. The bistro was in the old stock exchange building and there were tiled pictures on the wall depicting past, present and future. It was a lovely meal in an idyllic location.

We decided to head back to the hotel via the red light district. Apparently one has to experience this part of Amsterdam and it certainly was an eye opener in more ways than one!They even have a museum of prostitution, which we haven't been to yet, as well as numerous sex shops and peep shows. Amsterdam is actually quite proud of this .......attraction. It sort of goes with the coffee shops and weed houses.

We had to return to the Hotel as it was too wet to do anything. Once we had got out of our wet clothes we decided to just lay on the bed and have a break. 2 short hours later I woke up and it appeared the rain was easing so we went downstairs to look around the hotel.  It has a self serve pizza and toastie station, a bar and we think a restaurant, but no one was around to ask. We ventured out the back door to a different part of Amsterdam and stumbled across some nice restaurants. once again the prices were fairly expensive when you do the conversion, but comparable when you take into consideration the wages. We wandered through the flower and bulb market and through a few more souvenir stores shopping for presents. There are also a lot of cheese merchants in the area and as much as we love cheese, I doubt we can bring it back because of the quarantine laws.

We had our dinner around 5.30  PM and made our way back to the hotel. The rain started again as we walked but we didn't have far to go, and made it back relatively dry. Feeling slightly stuffed and very contented we both retired for the night and watched a British Cop program with dutch sub-titles and very badly dubbed voices. It was rather amusing at times. 

Hopefully tomorrows weather will be much better than today as we head out towards Breukelen to meet up with my cousin and uncle.

Day 18 Familie Ties (Trip to Breukelen and Castle Hass)