Canals, diamonds and red lights – an Amsterdam getaway COMPLETED - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself. I remember our trip to Amsterdam when I was a child, I even remember the bus ride through the Red Light District and my mother ordering me not to look out the bus windows....
Oh I am really excited for this TR and I'm glad I caught you in the begining. My husband is Dutch, his father is from the Hague (sp?) We wanted to go to Holland for our honeymoon but decided on a med cruise instead. Arnaud has been to Amsterdam, but I still haven't had the chance. One day I hope. Man it looks cold. My FIL told me about the canals this year, but it was cool to see that pic.
Excited to hear all the juicy details
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Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself. I remember our trip to Amsterdam when I was a child, I even remember the bus ride through the Red Light District and my mother ordering me not to look out the bus windows....
Can't wait to read all about your trip.
Too funny! In those days I think you saw a lot more - let's just say we noticed a difference to when we were last there 11 years ago, the Red Light District seems to be a bit more "family friendly" these days - there's nowhere near as much on show.
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Oh I am really excited for this TR and I'm glad I caught you in the begining. My husband is Dutch, his father is from the Hague (sp?) We wanted to go to Holland for our honeymoon but decided on a med cruise instead. Arnaud has been to Amsterdam, but I still haven't had the chance. One day I hope. Man it looks cold. My FIL told me about the canals this year, but it was cool to see that pic.
Excited to hear all the juicy details
How neat - the Hague is a bit further down the Dutch coast and quite close to Belgium. I went there with my parents on a road trip in 1983, but as I was very young at the time, I don't remember much about it. And it certainly was cold!
Wednesday 8 February – part one: my goodness, I need to be better prepared!
Today started with online check-in 24 hours before our flight. It’s at this point that British Airways allows you to get your assigned seat. You can do this before the 24 hour mark, but you pay £10 each for the privilege and I couldn’t be bothered. I’m glad I didn’t, as my goodness, it wasn’t exactly busy. When I logged in, with 23 hours to go, there were only eight other seats taken on the plane! Oh wow, this may not be a very busy flight...
I think I mentioned in the trip report that this wasn’t perhaps the most organised trip, with not much planning done before we left. Well, that was very evident the day before we left.
Mark went to work as usual, while I had the day off. It gave me an opportunity to start putting everything together, ready for the trip, but my goodness, what a nightmare that was!
Here’s how it worked out:
Lost the lens cap to my new camera (found it underneath the radio after much searching..)
Lost the spare memory card for my new camera (found it in the camera area (obviously ) after a bit of searching
Lost the travel kettle (never found it, but I realised where it was once we were in Amsterdam! )
Lost the Amsterdam guidebook (found it in my case, already packed, after tearing the house apart!)
As you can tell, it wasn’t the best of days, and my head was all over the place. I even managed to go to the dentist for a check-up and, for the first time in my nearly 40 years of life, I forgot to brush my teeth before going there. I couldn’t believe I did that and so embarrassed but the dentist was so good about it, bless her, and even told me I had good teeth! It’s been about 20 years since I was told that, thanks to all the various problems I’ve had with them in the intervening years.
When Mark finally got home, he got packed up, with nowhere near as much drama as I’d had earlier although I did realise that I’d forgotten the first aid kit by the time we got to Gatwick. I tell you, it was just one of those days!
We set off for the airport just after 7:00 pm and we had a very smooth run up to the airport, calling the meet and greet service a few minutes before we arrived at the south terminal. They do say to give 20 minutes notice and we soon found out why. We probably had a 10 minute wait when we got there before the guy arrived, but he had to be the most thorough we’ve ever had, going through literally every inch of the car with a light, checking for any damage. I was very impressed.
With our car safely in his hands, we headed to the Hilton. My goodness, it was a bit painful getting there. We took the elevator up to the terminal, then walked across to the parking garage, then had to go down a floor in the elevator, then walk back a little way we’d come. Earlier, I’d gone to see if we could walk there from where we’d dropped the car. I decided it wasn’t do-able, but you know what? I think in hindsight that was the wrong decision.
There was a huge line to check-in when we arrived, so as I’m a Hilton Honors member, we got in that line instead, which only had one guy in front of us. Ok, so this booking technically wasn’t through Hilton Honors, but I’m still a member, and the staff member who checked us in didn’t say a word.
We were given our room, this time in the main building, on the second floor, so we headed off that way and found it easily enough...
The view from our room
We were starving and headed straight down to the Garden Restaurant for their buffet dinner. It hadn’t been that great, the last time we were here in April, so we were hoping for better. It didn’t start well, when we were told that it could be up to a 20 minute wait. Mark went to get me a glass of wine and a beer for himself, while I headed back to the room to get my tablets that I’d cleverly left there. I got back just as Mark was being served.
We headed for a table right by the entrance to the restaurant and literally, just as we sat down, we were told that our table was ready, so we headed off and immediately it was straight up to the buffet. First, we hit the salad area...
Then it was main courses. I was a bit disappointed with the selection for me, as the only fish they had was spicy mackerel, which did nothing for me, but I tried the vegetable korma and spinach and ricotta cannelloni instead and they were both pretty good.
The only problem was getting some water. I asked twice, then got a manager and she brought over a jug for us. Apparently it got lost in communication and, in fairness, the server did profusely apologise for that.
Next up was dessert and I got a chef’s help to work out what I could eat and what I couldn’t eat with my fruit allergy. The guy was very good and I was pleased with what I could have, with the exception of the passion fruit dessert that had various fruits in the bottom, so to be on the safe side, I avoided that. They weren’t bad, although the lemon looking one you can see in this was beyond description. It just tasted of nothing, so after one bite, I gave up. I have no idea what it was supposed to be.
We paid up, with the check coming to £57, which is pricey, but then again, we do know that.
The Garden Restaurant:
Appetiser 8½ 8½
Entree 8 9
Dessert 8 9
Atmosphere 8 9
Value for money 7½ 8
Average score: 8.35
We headed back to the room via the lobby, getting lots of photos on the way.
Once we were back in the room, we watched a bit of TV, before heading to bed. We had a very early start in the morning, 4:30 am to be exact!
The weather today was cold with some snow flurries and a high of the low 30s during the day. The best thing today was heading off to Amsterdam! The worst thing today was how cold it was! Today we tried going back to the Garden Restaurant And the result was it was much better than our last meal there.
Whew! What a day. It does seem that if a day starts out with a problem, it just keeps going that way. Good thing you had the day off, though. Imagine if you had to deal with all those missing items packing in a hurry after work! The room looks very comfy, and the dinner not bad at all. Hope the next day and flight go well!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Back!!! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!!
!
Thankfully Amsterdam was nowhere near as exciting as that...
In those days I think you saw a lot more - let's just say we noticed a difference to when we were last there 11 years ago, the Red Light District seems to be a bit more "family friendly" these days - there's nowhere near as much on show. 
it certainly was cold!
Oh wow, this may not be a very busy flight... 
) after a bit of searching 
but the dentist was so good about it, bless her, and even told me I had good teeth! 
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