Farrah is Flirty: Amsterdam
Friday, February 1st, 2008Friday 25th January – Weather: 8C sunny and windy!
07:10: Ben, Louise, Martin, Ollie and Kris to depart in taxi with Farrah and Adam from The Tambles to Gatwick Airport South.
08:10: Bex, Fattie and Shaz arrive Amsterdam Schipol.
09:10: Anna arrives Amsterdam Schipol.
11:55: Farrah, Ben, Adam, Lou, Martin, Ollie & Kris arrive Amsterdam Schipol. All to make own way to: Flying Pig Downtown Hostel, Nieuwendijk 100, 1012 MR Amsterdam. Phone: +31 (20) 420 68 22 http://www.flyingpig.nl/
To get to the Flying Pig/City Centre:The easiest way into Amsterdam Centraal Station from Schiphol Airport is by train.
Trains between Schiphol and Centraal depart about every 10 minutes.
A one way ticket will cost you €3.70 from a vending machine.
Trains to Amsterdam Central Station generally depart from platform 1 or 2.
From the main entrance of Central Station, walk towards the Damrak. Pass the Victoria Hotel. Take the first alley on your right until you reach the end which is Nieuwendijk.
A travelcard is available for stays of up to 3 days which may be useful if you reckon you’ll be jumping on and off public transport, otherwise you’ll be buying carnet-style tickets at around €1.60 a pop? More info can be found at : http://www.gvb.nl/english/travellers/tickets-and-fares/Pages/GVB-24-48-72-96-hour-tickets.aspx
14:00: Meet for lunch at Vlaamse Friteshuis, Voetboogstraat 33. Farrah to text Ruben and Niels to arrange evening meeting point. We actually had lunch at the Replay Cafe as Vlaamse Fritehuis is literally a hole in the wall with no sit-down facilities. We returned there on Saturday afternoon for crispy chips with fresh mayonnaise!
15:00: Briefly visit the Bloemenmarkt en route to The Heineken Experience, Stadhouderskade 78. The Heineken Experience is shut until June 2008!! So we went to the very nice pub across the road and Heineken there instead!
17:25 (tbc): Jasmin arrives Amsterdam Schipol.
17:30: Return to Flying Pig to get ready for the evening and to welcome Jasmin. After visiting the Blues Brothers coffeeshop, we headed out for dinner on Vijzelstraat before heading to Cafe de Kroeg in the De Pijp area for drinks with my dear old friend, Ruben. This pub is right next door to the really gorgeous De Taart van m’n Tante http://www.detaart.nl/ a very kitsch cake shop! Trams from this area only run until midnight. A taxi charged us 10euros to get back to our hostel.
Saturday 26th January – Weather: 9C sunny and windy!
09:30: Depart Flying Pig to visit Anne Frank’s House Uh… no, we were in bed til about 11am!!! And we missed the Flying Pig’s free breakfast which included cereals, pastries and bread and is meant to be very good! We breakfasted instead at one of the very many McDonalds, hahahha!
11:30: Canal trip, location tbc We took the 2pm ’Lovers’ cruise http://www.lovers.nl/ which was about 9euros each and the boat was ever so toasty warm
12:30: Lunch Our late breakfast meant no lunch!
13:30: Bike ride around Amsterdam, taking in Vondelpark. NB: Anyone who is not a bike rider but wants to join in the fun can take advantage of a Bakfiet or a Fietscafe! No… we got up too late so we did this on Sunday! Instead, the girls went to visit the Ajax Stadium and we went to a few coffeeshops and visited Anne Frank’s House http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?PID=19&LID=2 which I found very moving.
18:00: Get ready for the evening and take in some of the bars and clubs mentioned here? http://www.momondo.com/blogs/momondo/archive/2007/10/08/go-night-amsterdam.aspx We had dinner, all 12 of us at De Keuken Van 1870 http://www.keukenvan1870.nl/ and walked past pretty ladies in shop windows and spent our evening wandering the Red Light District, taking in some overpriced bars and finishing in Rembrantsplein at Escape.
Sunday 27th January – Weather: 8C sunny and windy!
am: Check out of Flying Pig We missed breakfast again and ate an early lunch at the Blarney Stone Irish pub on Nieuwendlijk.
pm: Take in more city sights… perhaps the Van Gogh Museum… We never made it to any museums! Instead, we went to Dam Square where I met my daytripping friend, Shenaz, and then we rented out some bikes for 9euros or so (bikes that you backpedal to brake are cheaper) from Daamstraat http://www.bikes.nl/” and rode all the way to Vondelpark and stopped at the cafe for mint tea!
20:00: Everyone to check in at Amsterdam Schipol.
PixieDoux