Today Monday, we are up in our tiny Motel One preparing for our third train journey. This time upon the IC 148 from Berlin HBF to Amsterdam. This was 160 euros for two. This would have been 130 on Saturday night, but I did not complete the booking and by Sunday morn it was 160. There were other options on this day up to around 300 Euros. Interestingly, I plugged in a few random dates in March to see if it was any cheaper and it was all similar. I tried booking on the Czeck website and with a few variations on Bahne.de, but nothing spectacularly cheaper that I could see, although one did pop up with about six connections over 14 hours for a few euro less…. This time our ticket did have which platform our departure was, so it was a bit more straightforward than Poland. Plus we are now old hands at this train travel,!
A pleasant trip through Germany, still so beautiful and green A few dairy barns on the way and the VW factory at Wolfsburg. We bought some pastries at the station to eat on board this time as well as the fruit purchased the night before from the mini mart. No wifi on the train again which was good. No distractions and time to keep typing as well as continue reading “Coming Clean ” by Leonard Ottone.
Beautiful countryside, seeming to get a bit more populated as we headed west. Another peaceful six hours past and we arrived at AMS Centraal. Plugged in B&B Westviolettstraat. Booked through booking.com for $460/two nights. It gets dearer the further west we go. We walked out of that station to one of the most captivating, magnetising places I have ever been. Immediately I was addicted. Following the downloaded google maps to Franks B&B. A ring of the bell and Frank was promptly opening the door. A better set up would be hard to imagine. Up a steep set of stairs to our room complete with adjacent kitchen stocked with all sorts of goodies for breakfast as well as delicious snacks and fruit at any time. Frank was delightful and friendly without being in our face. Anyone going to AMS and in need of accommodation, please look up B&B on WestVioletstraat. That night we just wandered around, a great night was had. More eating, drinking etc…
Now I thought Berlin had a lot of pushbikes: That was just an entrée to AMS. Pushies everywhere. Stacked on top of each other at the station. There must be two for each person I think. They seem to have right of way which suited me just fine when I was to get on one.
GF had looked up Pushies and discussing this with Frank over breaky, he said that of course he had some for us. This place really is good value. Fridge stocked with goodies for breakfast and snacks plus included Pushie hire! Today we rode all over the city terrorising pedestrians. Visiting the Van Gogh museum and taking a scenic canal tour. Van Gogh was a troubled individual. I am now getting an art education.
A quiet evening was spent at a particularly yummy Korean restaurant near Franks in preparation for another long flight to HKG tomorrow. Melbourne/Perth prices.