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Slumming for Easter

Amsterdam April 2001

Nickjenkins
2003-11-20 15:30:38

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Wanderlust strikes again and the Easter weekend finds me in Amsterdam for no apparent reason other than I’ve never been there before. I left for Amsterdam in the company of my long-time friend Harv who had been on contract in London but was now “between jobs” as the polite vernacular would have it.

So what’s to see in Amsterdam ? To tell the truth I was a bit concerned when resorting to my usual favourite guide book failed to turn up the usual stunning list of must see attractions. Okay, so there were a few galleries to see, the odd canal or two and about a hundred odd churches of varying vintages but nothing really stood out. The main reason for visiting Amsterdam seemed to come down to smut and drugs. Fair enough, I thought, slumming for a week in Amsterdam sound like a good way to spend Easter.

An hour out of Gatwick we coasted into Schipol barely giving the hosties time to whip away the potted airline meal that they had placed in front of us scant moments before. The airport was efficient and customs a breeze and we were out onto the train into Amsterdam Centraal in the space of 20 minutes. From the train station a quick tram ride (3 guilders - about 85p) took us to our first port of call, the Budget Hotel Euphemia, our home for the first two nights. Due to the popularity of Amsterdam over the Easter break we were being forced to relocate to the charmingly named “Flying Pig” hostel for the last three days of our stay, but more about that later.

After various administrative procedures and settling into our room we rolled out into Amsterdam to have a preliminary look around. The first nice thing we discovered is that, despite the alarming scale of the map, Amsterdam is very much built on a pedestrian scale. The prominent use of bikes within the city has obvious advantages and the centre of the city (and most of its attractions) can be covered in a brisk twenty minute walk.

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