1981 - Family Trip #1 - Amsterdam

Tuesday 31 March 1981 -  Amsterdam

We woke early this morning, despite the late night and were all ready when the taxi arrived at 07.50. We all piled in and drove to the station in Bonn, amazed to hear an apologetic announcement that the train would be two minutes late. We’d never heard of such a thing in South Africa – or Britain for that matter - if the train turned up somewhere about the expected time that would be a bonus. Sure enough the train pulled in spot on the new time and before long we were off on the next leg of our saga.

It was a misty, moisty morning, so we could not see much of the countryside. There was an old, non-English speaking German in our compartment, who had been sitting in one of our seats before Rab kicked him out. He tried, unsuccessfully to engage us in light conversation until he got out at Koln. It was quite a relief and fortunately the train was not crowded, so we had the compartment to ourselves. Matt and I popped along to the refreshment car next door at mid-morning and collected 3 sandwiches and a couple of drinks, which were a bit pricey at about Dm25, but they were tasty.

We were soon over the Dutch border and there was great excitement when we caught sight of our first windmill. It was still misty, but cleared a bit later and we were able to enjoy the Dutch countryside flashing past. The ride was very smooth and all the officials very pleasant.

Our hotel - tall and thin

We duly arrived at Amsterdam Centraal and hailed a taxi to take us to our hotel. The driver had never heard of the hotel, but we found the address in our papers and he located the hotel without too much difficulty. I don't think that any of us were quite expecting what we found because it was so unlike any establishment we had stayed in before. The hotel itself is just like a very tall, very narrow house. The reception is below ground level and in one corner is the practically spiral staircase, which goes up, practically vertically (sixty one steps) to the roof, below which is our room! The bathroom is unbelievable. In the area normally occupied by a bath alone, they have managed to fit in a basin, a toilet a radiator and a bath! A hip-bath, mind you, which I fill pretty amply.

Not a great deal of room for two

Anyway, we deposited our luggage and traipsed down the sixty one steps in search of Amsterdam. The first person we met tried to bum 80 cents off us; there was graffiti everywhere; dog-shit abounded; the air smelled foetid and the place looked dirty, especially after Bonn. We all felt let down. (Especially Rab, who had such happy memories of Amsterdam from a previous visit and who had been telling us how marvellous it was going to be when we got there) We wandered around the streets all afternoon and had a visit to Madame Tussaud's. We tried Haring Rolletjie at a corner stand and Veal Crokets with Frits and Mayonais at a Wimpy. We saw the Dam and we confirmed our flight on Thursday at the KLM offices in Leideplein. By which time we were tired, so we wended our way back to the hotel, bought some marvellous cheese and some biscuits from the shop on the corner, and slowly climbed the sixty one steps to our room.

Rab and Matt contemplate the view

After snacking on our snacks, I fell asleep (it was now 18.00) and slept for an hour. Felt much better and quite peckish when I woke up, so we all trooped down the sixty one steps and went up a couple of blocks to Rembrandtsplein, where I bought today's Telegraph and we had a bite to eat. Rab wanted pea soup, which was not available, so settled for Kippensop (ie Chicken Noodle) and Matt had Tomato. I had Uitsmeijeiring (ie ham and cheese and eggs on bread) and a beer - total cost about R8.00. We walked home and met a very friendly marmalade cat.