Today we woke up bright and early to depart for the Netherlands. We got all of our things packed up and headed out of Hamburg. One thing that I had forgotten was that when we were coming into Hamburg on the A10 motorway, the opposite lanes had a lot of construction. Therefore, when we were headed back down A10, we were in that construction. Slowing down from 150kmh to 80kmh repeatedly didn’t help the travel time or the fuel economy.
After entering the Netherlands, I stopped off at a station to get something to drink. What I found was this ultimately syrupy concoction of banana, pineapple, orange, and peach juice. It was pretty tasty, but really sweet and a bit more like a smoothie than a juice beverage.
And then we saw it… the city of Amsterdam; this metropolis dissected every which way with canals and buildings spiraling outward from Centraal Station. We found our hotel, and then set out to see what we could see for the last remaining bits of daylight. We hopped on Tram 2 and took it down to Centraal Station. The ticket down there was €2.60 per person, and a 72-hour public transport pass (which covers the tram, bus, and metro with unlimited stops) was only €15.50 per person. Awesome deal!
So, after getting the public transport passes, we headed back toward the hotel. We got off at Spuistraat and decided to walk around for a bit to see some of the shops. Many of them close rather early, so much of the area was a little on the dead side. We decided to go to a traditional Dutch restaurant for dinner, and went to one called Haesje. It was excellent! I had this piece of beef with pepper sauce, boiled and charred potatoes, and some zucchini. For dessert, I had a Dutch macaroon pudding which was similar to flan and had homemade whipped cream.
Lastly, before heading back to the hotel, we found one of the smart shops. Smart shops are Amsterdam’s places for legally purchasing drugs. Though I didn’t buy anything as that is not really my thing, it was interesting to see all of the different substances. There were mushrooms that allegedly give a subtle hallucinogenic and soothing effect for about 4-6 hours all the way to this ground up leaf that yields intense auditory and visual hallucinations for 5-20 minutes.
