Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam at 5:30 am...a half hour early thanks to some brisk tail winds which apparently were also responsible for a pretty choppy flight. All in all it was a good flight ...the decision to pre-book our seats in row 13 I think was a good one because it is the only row on the A310 Airbus that gives any legroom at all, however Una had mixed feelings as she being in the middle section had to contend with passengers crossing to the washroom. She eventually tired of the aggravation and gave some guy a pretty decent kick! There were a few anxious moments at the baggage carousel as our luggage took an eternity to show up. They apparently "mislaid" a whole cartload. However to our relief (as well as the relief of the Canadian Tug of War Team who were on the same flight heading to the world championships in Holland somewhere), an hour and a half after we landed we got our luggage and headed for the train. A short train ride downtown...chatted with a guy from Minneapolis who was travelling on business for Polaris...and we got to the Central Station in downtown Amsterdam. We were able to quite quickly find our hotel...actually a boatel...it's a boat moored in the canal...but no surprise we were not able to check in at 8:00am. However we were able to drop off our luggage and headed out to explore the area in the midst of rush hour...dodging bicycles along the way. There are absolutely millions of them and they are pretty aggressive riders too. We found a breakfast spot and wolfed down a full English breakfast following which we bought tickets for a Canal tour of the city and spent an hour and a half enjoying the gorgeous sunshine...did I mention it was at least 30 degrees and sunny today?... and the lovely sights.
I was frustrated that I couldn't get my new cell phone to work notwithstanding that I got a message shortly after arriving from Rogers welcoming me to Amsterdam and giving me a 514 (Canada #) to call for customer service. Trouble was I couldn't call the # ..the message says I wasn't authorised. It was doubly frustrating because I was trying to hook up with brother in law Iain who had a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam on the way home to Glasgow from Tallin in Estonia. I was finally able to get through to Rogers customer service via a VOIP call using Skype on the laptop and the guy was excellent...he quickly activated my phone for overseas use and within minutes it worked perfectly..to the point I was able to reach Iain who had just landed at Schippol and arranged to meet up with him. An hour later we are sitting on a patio drinking pints of Heineken before Iain headed back to the airport. Una and I continued our walking tour ending up in the Red Light district. It was interesting but a bit on the seedy side ..and yes you could buy seeds as well although we didn't bother! We picked up a bottle of wine and a couple of sandwiches on the way back to the hotel and enjoyed them as we looked out our canal view window watching the boats cruise by.
All in all a great start to the holiday. The hotel is basic but clean...nice towels sheets etc...and you can't beat the location..minutes from the train station and all the main attractions. Tomorrow we plan another canal cruise in the morning before heading south to Cologne (Or Koln as it is properly called). Meantime Una is sleeping ..It's 10:30 as I write this...so I'm heading off to the bar for a nightcap before hitting the sack!