N121 Bus. J's got one over Rick Steves (RS). Our flight from Paris to Amsterdam was scheduled to depart CDG at 8:00 AM. At first, we thought we'd just take the Metro (subway) and transfer to the RER (train) which goes directly to CDG. However, J found a night bus (not mentioned by RS) which runs from Gare Montparnasse (5-minute walk from our apartment) directly to CDG! The N121 operates between midnight at 5 AM, so we hopped on the 4:57 AM bus. For some reason, the driver didn't want to collect bus fare from us so we ended up with a free ride to the airport!
Paris to Amsterdam. The flight time was less than 1 hour long! It's like flying from Boston to NYC. Given the distance, I'm surprised that I had such a hard time finding a cost-effective and time-efficient way of getting to Amsterdam. Someone should consider starting a Boston-NYC Chinatown bus equivalent for Paris-Amsterdam.
Schipol Airport. Probably the most beautiful, cheery and comfortable airport I've ever flown in/out of. There was so much shopping that it felt like an upscale mall. Lounge sofas and cafe furniture were available everywhere for travelers to enjoy.
The city. City center is very picturesque. Christmas lights were everywhere. I'll let the pictures do the talking.
Bikes, bikes EVERYWHERE! I didn't ride one because it was wet and cold, but that didn't stop everyone else. From an idealistic point of view, I think it's awesome that everyone bikes, but from a practical point of view, I thought the bikes were really annoying. Bicyclists ride wherever they please - in the bike lanes, on the streets with cars or on the sidewalks with pedestrians. Parked bikes sometimes took over the entire width of an already narrow sidewalk and blocked the pedestrian's path. I likened the bikers to snowboarders. They think they own the streets and go where ever they please with no consideration for others.
Coffeeshop. Whenever I walked past a coffeeshop the smell reminded me of the bus stop in front of my high school. Although the cake itself was disappointing, we later found out that the establishment we chose at random from the hundreds of shops in the city (The Other Side Coffeeshop) just happened to be the only gay/lesbian bar recommended on Lonely Planet! What luck! At least we have an interesting story to tell now. =)
Attractions. On our first day, we visited Anne Frank's House. I didn't know the Secret Annex was such a prominent part of the house. It makes me wonder how it wasn't discovered sooner. The weather cleared up on the second day so we hopped on a boat for a 75-minute canal cruise in the morning. It was a good way to see the city, but I felt the city was prettier on foot. We spent the afternoon at The Heineken Experience. Do you know that Heineken is still a family-owned business and they strive to lower their environmental impact? They even prototyped a bottle that can be stacked like Legos to be used to build houses! On our last day, we finally hit the Van Gogh (pronounced Gock) Museum. It's hard for me to appreciate art by itself, but I've found that I enjoy hearing about the artist's life while viewing their work.
Food. We sampled random bits of foods here and there. There was the Dutch meal, which I will talk about later, the Cantonese meal, the street-side potato frites (fries) with mayo, the Dutch sweet and savory pancake, the vending machine fast food, which I will also talk about later, the roasted nuts and trail mix from the open-air market and the Big Mac. All was good, but my favorite food was the Spinach Soup from a bakery (Bakken Met Passie) we stumbled across in the De Pijp area. As you will see from the picture below, the soup was not visually appealing at all, but it was the best Spinach Soup I've ever had.
The Shower. Yes, I am writing a whole paragraph on the shower. Never have we appreciated a shower as much as we did in Amsterdam. In Barcelona, our shower stall was so small that if we put our hands on our hips our elbows would touch the wall. We toughed it out and found comfort in the belief that it couldn't get any worse. We were wrong. Our shower in Paris is located in the kitchen. The side is so high that I have to climb onto the side and jump in. Elbow room is an improvement on Barcelona, but now, I can't stand up straight while showering because the ceiling is sloped (we live in the top most floor of the building so the ceiling is the roof). When we first arrived, the drain was so clogged that we had to shower using trickling water. In Amsterdam, we loved the hotel shower so much that we managed to each take 3 showers in a 24 hour period!
1. Charles de Gaulle International Airport
2. Schipol International Airport
3. On our way to Amsterdam city center by train
4. A canal by daylight
5. A canal by moonlight
6. A canal by red light (Red Light District)
7. A canal from canal-level
8. Magere Brug - Amsterdam's most famous bridge
9. A typical row of houses in the city center
10. A row of parked bikes
11. Christmas decorations on the streets
12. The front door of Anne Frank's House
13. The boat we took for the canal cruise
14. Me and J at The Heineken Experience
15. Our first of two Heineken tastings that came with the admission ticket
