On To Amsterdam, AgainAug 26, 2011
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Amsterdam From Our Room In The Mint Hotel
| August 26, 2011 It was a real treat sleeping in a spacious hotel room with a full-size bathroom. Brenda had enjoyed a relaxing bath the night before in contrast to the tight squeeze of the ship’s stateroom shower. Viking asked us to have our luggage outside the room at 7:30 a.m. for collection and transport on to Amsterdam. We were happy about that as it meant our train trip would be unencumbered with awkward and heavy luggage. The other passengers were milling in the lobby to board the buses to Amsterdam via Kinderdijk and we said goodbye to our friends Ken and Kay who were decidedly not looking forward to their day of travel. We arrived at the Cologne Rail Station in good time where Cheryl and Brenda picked up some sandwiches and wine for our en route lunch. Our trip to Amsterdam was four hours long with a change of trains at Utrecht. Along the way we passed through a very intense storm system and felt sorry for the farm animals we passed as they tried to move in knee-deep muck. Our hotel in Amsterdam was the brand new Mint Hotel a short two blocks from Amsterdam Centraal Station. Our luggage was somewhat delayed as we checked in two hours ahead of the buses. The rooms weren’t quite as sumptuous as the previous night’s Marriot but very comfortable nonetheless. Each room was equipped with a state of the art iMac which doubled as the TV and, best of all, we were provided free and very fast internet. The room we were assigned had a great view of the Harbour and a good perspective of Amsterdam overall. The four of us went for a walk and enjoyed a beer at a bar across the Harbour. By the time we returned to the Hotel the rest of the group had arrived and were once again in full milling mode as they checked in. We caught up with Helen again while Ken and Kay were routed to another hotel for their trip extension. We had hoped to go outside the hotel for dinner but ended up eating the Viking-supplied dinner in the Hotel’s Dining Room. That was fortuitous on three counts…the food was excellent, the wine was free and we missed a huge downpour that had drenched Amsterdam. |
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