First Impressions of Amsterdam: Canals, Trains, and Charm

After my stay in England, I took a short plane ride from Stanstead Airport to Amsterdam in the morning. Very smooth and cheap flight through EasyJet. Short line going through customs in Amsterdam. Since I was traveling fairly light so I was able to walk through easily and get on a train to the city center.

Taking the train from the airport to Amsterdam Central, which is in the city center, was a quick ride and the train station is very kewl. Big building with lots of trains going through there. Lots of people walking around in different directions, so it can be confusing which way to exit the building.

I exited the train station on the water side. There was a huge walkway along the river. Lots of bike riders going in different directions. The rumors are true about Amsterdam! There was a ferry service to take people to the other side of the city that was full of people. This is area was quite bustling for a Wednesday afternoon.

My accommodations were at a place called SWEETS Hotel which was a half mile walk from the train station. Nice walk along the waterfront. There is a big pedestrian walkway and two bike lanes. I get to the location and I am not seeing the hotel – my first instinct is “oh crap I got scammed.” Then I realize after a few minutes that the place where I am staying is not a traditional hotel but an old bridge house.

This bridge house was built in the 1960’s. An operator would stay in this small dwelling and operate the mechanical bridges to let boats pass through. These bridges have since been updated to be controlled from a central location, so this bridge house was no longer in use. In 2017 they decided to convert a bunch of these bridge houses into rentable hotel rooms for tourists. Offering a truly unique experience while visiting Amsterdam. The morning views were incredible!

I thought it was great for me traveling alone. There were only two drawbacks. One drawback is that the bathroom was in the basement. Very simple bathroom with toilet and shower. The water pressure and temperature was nice and the towels provided were really nice as well. The second drawback would be the noise. This was in a very busy area with both car and boat traffic. I could even hear some train noises from Amsterdam Central in the room. They provide ear plugs so that wasn’t too bad of an issue.

This was such a great location. I could walk about 5 minutes and I’ll be on a street with plenty of food options and other places to shop. The canals are such a great place to walk around. I can’t enough just how beautiful this city is!

I had a Lebanese chicken wrap as my first meal in Amsterdam. It was amazing. I had a stroopwafel while walking around. The thing that is so striking about Amsterdam are the canals that weave through the city and the all the tall skinny buildings from the 1600’s that line the streets. It truly is a bikers and/or walkers paradise.

My second day I took a canal tour through the city and that was such a great experience. I learned a lot about the city and really got my bearings for where things are in the city. After the canal tour, I was roaming around and stumbled upon a cute shop called Property Of… and they have customs made bags with personalized tags. I bought a new sling. It’s exactly what I was looking for. The tag even has a QR code to contact me in case I lose my bag somewhere.

There was some rain but I really lucked out with the weather. Walking around these canals was such a dream. Lots of people also live in house boats along the canals, so that was interesting to see as well. Maybe I’ll stay in one of those in the future 🙂

I didn’t make it too far away from the city center as I was only in Amsterdam for 2 days but I was amazed at the all streets and buildings. It truly is a beautiful city. The Gouda cheese is amazing and I was able to try it at a few different places.

On my last day, I had some breakfast pastries at a nearby bakery and got some snacks for my train ride to Bruges. This would be my first time taking the Eurostar train, which is Europe’s inter-country train system. I got all my stuff together in my hotel room and walked to the station. The seat on the train was very spacious and the ride was a very smooth. My transfer in Brussels was a bit of a scramble but I’ll get to that in the next blog post. Thanks for reading and talk to you soon! 🙂