Day 261: Cruising DAM

12/04/2022

This morning we were up bright and early and Lachnado was on the hunt for some Belgian chocolate. Packing was going smoothly until Eloise and Foxie changed the code to their suitcase and locked all their clothes away. Uh oh, luckily it did not take too long to brute force our way through the combinations. Lachnado performed his ceremonial didgeridoo departure song, and we were out of there.

We crossed the road and picked up some breakfast. The girls went for “only their third Belgian waffle”. At our platform, there were a lot of people arriving from Ukraine, which certainly made these terrible events feel more real. We managed to get the Batmobile on the train and an hour and a half later we arrived at Amsterdam Schipol Airport where we will be staying for the next three nights.

We stepped out of the train station which was under the airport and timed a bus perfectly. Eloise has this travelling down pat.

It was a short suitcase ride to our Hotel ibis budget Amsterdam Airport.

The plan was the usual, drop the bags and explore. However, as soon as we all squeezed into our room, Eloise wanted to try out her new bed, “wow, look Dad, bed on roof, special bed Dad”. We were in two minds when we booked this accommodation, we guess we’ll let you know tomorrow how the sleeping arrangements worked out. We finally convinced Eloise that her bed was not going anywhere, she tucked Foxie in and we caught a bus into the city to see what it had to offer.

We caught the bus into Amsterdam past the Olympic Stadium.

When we arrived in the city there were beautiful tulips. We gave Grandma Nicholls and Becca a call, but Eloise was too determined to jump into the water.

We walked through the incredible Rijksmuseum towards the city centre.

From the moment we arrived the city was stunning. It was beautiful walking through the streets admiring the buildings and canals. We were on high alert, the city is densely packed and there are electric trams, electric cars and bicycles, lots and lots of bicycles all silently jumping out at speed from the wrong directions. We had been warned.

Amsterdam is laid out in a wheel and spoke arrangement that even Sophie was confident navigating. A bit of a step up from the Adelaide grid, but none of this Glasgow up, down, left, right, loop de loop streets.

We had left the land of Belgian chocolate but arrived in the city of cookies and clogs.

We managed to avoid the vehicles and bikes long enough to see Anne Frank’s house.

We passed Westerkerk and arrived in the city centre, Dam Square.

There were plenty of inviting cheese shops too.

It was a beautiful day and Eloise had been excited all afternoon pointing out boats in the canals. We had to do a canal cruise. It was nice cruising the canals. It was an hour long, which was a bit too long for Eloise, who let everyone know by the end that she had had enough and was hungry. We were packed in like sardines and we think we were the only ones wearings masks in the whole city.

We were on a mission to find dinner for Eloise, although we had a bit of time as she fell asleep in the Batmobile.

We picked up some rice, noodles and veg’ to eat picnic-style, in front of the Moco Museum (which currently has a Banksy exhibition) and the Van Gogh Museum. We have a couple of days up our sleeves and are deciding where we can cause trouble.

When we got back to the hotel, it was musical beds to sort out where we were all sleeping. It was tricky as we no longer had a cot for Lachlan and Eloise really wanted to sleep x3 Eloise heights above us. After watching her flap about up there, we decided it was not going to end well. Nobody make a noise, they are currently both asleep on the ground on either side of us. Super Mum is convinced one of them will end up under our bed.

In other random news “Victoria [Australia] confirmed as 2026 Commonwealth Games host with regional centres to host most events”.