This post features day 2 of our travels. Do feel free to skip to the end for the crafting bits of the blog - or stay for a laugh at our hysterically bad trip to Amsterdam!
Day 2 –Ghent to Hell Amsterdam 21st March 2016
I have wanted to go to Amsterdam for the past 20 years.
Nigel used to go on business, staying on the North Sea coast at Noordwijk and would always been taken into Amsterdam for an evening. He had visited many times and I was keen to go. In my mind it was a beautiful romantic city, filled with canals, pretty houses with iconic roofs, cyclists lazily meandering down cobbled streets and views on every corner. Funny how you envisage something and then find it to be TOTALLY DIFFERENT. I now realise I could have spent my life without going to Amsterdam and my life would probably have been the richer for it. I would at least have had my dreams rather than the brutal reality. True some events conspired against us to colour our view of Amsterdam, but in fairness we just didn’t like it. It was busy, dirty, chaotic and not pretty! I think we had been spilt by places like Paris, Rome, Venice, Brugges, Ghent.
Anyway I digress. Amsterdam it was. We knew we wouldn’t have long in the city but we also knew it would be long enough for us. More than long enough as it transpired.
We left Ghent at 6.30 and started our drive to the longed for Amsterdam. It was a very easy drive as we travelled an unusual way (sat nav was in control) and went via Antwerp, Rotterdam, Delft and even negotiated, successfully, a toll booth and tunnels. On the way we saw endless wind turbines and, eventually as we moved steadily north, quite a lot of windmills. I even managed to take pictures of a few and in one or two managed to get the whole windmill not just a bit of it!!!


We arrived in Amsterdam in good time not long after 10. As we entered the outskirts of the city I thought it was quite cute to see so many bikes. Odd bikes too. They were all clearly working bikes designed as workhorses. They were not smart of shiny and they were very upright with high handlebars. And they were everywhere – and I mean everywhere! Word of advice – don’t ever take a car into Amsterdam (actually don’t visit Amsterdam but that’s another story) and especially don’t take a big American car into Amsterdam!
We negotiated the bikes and the trams and the roadworks (everywhere there were road works) and we eventually made it via back streets to the road the hotel was on. The road the hotel was on was being re-paved and so was closed. We lifted the barrier and drove to the front of the hotel to seek help for unloading and directions to their carpark. I knew the city would not be car friendly so one of the criteria had been a hotel with a car park. The hotel’s web site states: Boutique hotel Estheréa is housed in a row of 17th century buildings on the Singel, Amsterdam's oldest major canal and part of the ring of canals added to the official UNESCO World Heritage list in 2010. Dam square, the central railway station, the main shopping area, museums, theatres and night life are all within walking distance. The rich, colourful interior includes woollen carpets, crystal chandeliers, mahogany panelling, luxurious fabrics, extravagant wallpapers, flowers, plants and fish.
It really was a gorgeous 4 star hotel –
These photos are all of the public areas, the lobby, the library, the bar, the lounge - all so lovely and eclectic.










but more in a moment!
We were told that the carpark was not in this road and were going to be given directions for it when they asked what car we drove. When I told them they came outside and looked at it and went to check a book and then told us our car would not fit in the car park. They said it was clearly stated on the web site. Well it was stated but I would dispute clearly stated. Anyhow, the bottom line was our car was too big for the car park. Nigel did say he didn’t realise boutique meant the car park was compact and bijou too. However the hotel had two solutions. There was a valet service they used. They would ring, someone would come and collect the car and take it out of the city to park it and then bring it back the next day. It was a cost of 40 euros but that was less than the hotel’s car park. The other option was to find street parking or a nearby carpark. The nearby carparks looked a long way from the hotel and street parking wasn’t an option so we reluctantly agreed to the valet, though Nigel wasn’t keen on someone else driving his car. They called the valet and told us it would be about half an hour. They took our luggage and in fairness the staff could not have been more helpful. We used the free tea and coffee facilities and enjoyed the beauty of the hotel. The lights everywhere were amazing, it was all decorated beautifully and there was a library and beautiful furniture. It was everything it had promised to be.
We drank and we waited, itching to get out to explore the city which surely must be so much nicer than the bits we had seen. After about three quarters they came and said they had spoken to the valet service and they would be another half an hour but our room was ready and would be like to go up to our room. I hadn’t been able to book a canal view room for this one as they were quite pricey so we were thrilled when we were shown to a canal view room. It was tiny (not a surprise as our experience is that city hotels especially when they are in very old buildings often have very small rooms) but it was beautiful with heavily decorated blue and white wallpaper, two windows overlooking the canal, a beautiful light and an impeccable bathroom. Yes it was small – really small – but it was lovely.




Yes there are lots of photos of the hotel - it was the NICE part of Amsterdam!
We waited for half an hour and then went down to meet the valet and finally set off. He hadn’t arrived and when they called him again he said it would be half an hour at least. We were furious and so were the hotel staff. We had them show us the ‘not too far away’ carparks again and admitted defeat and set off in the car to find one. We had a map and a sat nav and it still took us three or four circuits and about 40 minutes to find a car park – any car park – and get into it! Finally we were parked.
It wasn’t actually that far from the hotel. It was a long way by road but about a 10 minute walk. We walked back to the hotel – to make sure we could or we wouldn’t have the confidence of ever finding our car again – and then finally set off to explore.
It turns out that actually we didn’t need as much time in Amsterdam as we thought. We did not like it. We started at Dam Square. Large, cluttered, dirty and with few redeeming features actually.



We grabbed a snack and even that had a story. We stopped at a little bakery and spied a gorgeous looking waffle, chocolate, cream and strawberry concoction. It was huge so we opted to share one. There was a small seating area at the back so we sat to enjoy. We had asked for a knife (to cut it in half) and two forks. Plastic of course. I went to slice the waffle in half and at first touch the knife shattered. We just burst out laughing. The fork shattered too! I love the photo of Nigel being undeterred with the blade of the little knife and trying to cut! It was even fitting that, for some bizarre reason, we were sat under a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Not half an hour earlier Nigel had said ‘Is this the worst place you have been?’ and I said ‘Yes, even worse than san Francisco!’


The best bit is we laughed our way through it all. That is our saving grace.
We explored round Ould Kerk, saw the edge of the Red Light District – more than enough for us – and then went to look at some of the canals and take some beautiful picturesque shots. There weren’t any! The bikes and trams meant we feared for our lives – the bike is king and bikes seemingly stop for no-one. We searched in vain for the beauty we were sure existed and just got more and more tired and more and more disenchanted.
These are some of the more picturesque of the pictures and I think you will agree - not great. Amsterdam on a cold grey busy day in March.






The weather didn’t help in fairness. It was dull and grey and as it was March no leaves on trees to soften hard vistas. The queue for the Ann Frank House was 2 ½ hours and we didn’t want to see it that badly so we headed for where we KNEW we would be happy.
YEY – after yet more walking e arrived at the Hard Rock Café. Of yes – another on our step to visit every Hard Rock in the world.
We had a lovely table right by a canal, a fabulous meal, a good rest and could pretend, for a moment, we were not in Amsterdam.




And it was whilst there we investigated the tram system and realised we could have made life a whole lot easier for ourselves by using the trams. Cheap, efficient. Way to go. Tickets in hand we hopped off and on a few and then Nigel said ‘Let’s go to central Station. It will be nice there, there will be lots to see’.
Only we could be on the tram which then had some sort of severe problem. It ground to a halt, blocking every other tram, Most people got off. Police got on. We waited and wondered and then eventually the police got off and the tram started moving. No idea what that was all about – but fairly typical I feel. We eventually got to central station and it turned out it wasn’t nice. It was just very busy.
Just some random pictures of Amsterdam and the tram and a very bizarre hamburger vending machine!










We had had enough and so went back to the hotel for a bit of a re-group.
We were thrilled when we went to our lovely room to find a box of chocolates from the staff to say sorry for all of the waiting and confusion that morning. What a thoughtful gesture. We were debating going out to see if Amsterdam was any prettier at night when I went to the bathroom for a wash. As I let the water out of the sink I heard the most outrageous gurgling and thick black sludge came up out of the bath plughole! I stared in fascination nd called Nigel. He had the presence of mind to take a photo as it started to ebb away a little. We went to call front desk and the phone didn’t work either! Amsterdam was proving to be a challenge in every sense. Nigel went down to reception and returned with a very helpful member of staff who had never seen anything like it. We tried to demonstrate how it happened so filled the sink full of water and pulled the plug but all that happened was a little more black slime went into the bath and the sink would no longer empty!
The hotel were brilliant. They moved us to another room – this time a much larger deluxe room with one of the biggest bathrooms I have seen in a while with underfloor heating and everything. And they offered us complimentary breakfast too. This seemed to be the holiday for upgrades and free stuff.


We were both shattered and had had enough so shared a bottle of wine and an early night, pleased to be leaving Amsterdam the next day.
Next installment tomorrow.
It's better - promise!
I have had a crafting day today as Nigel has been at Speedway so I have already made a start on the holiday album and have completed the first two pages.
This first page is of our first real view of the holiday. We had loved Ghent when we visited just for a few hours in 2014 and wanted to go back. THE view is of the Graseli and Korenlei and so when I realised we could stay overlooking it at the Marriott it was too good to miss.
The photo was my first - taken at the front door of the hotel and showing we really were right int he heart of the beauty.
I fulfilled the criterea of the weekly challenge on UKS too.
Love it when things work out like that.

Apart from the small letters and the photo - everything I have used is really really really old - has to be about 12 years old.

Today I am thankful for
- a lovely day scrapping and humming away to myself
- my stitches gone and my nose responding well to a bit of TLC. Still very red but I am hopeful!
