Day Sixtyfive - Jul 25, 2012
Amsterdam, Netherlands to Night Train
Daily Didactic
Today was mostly a touristic day, with a hint of travel at the end as we started our longest night train of the summer. We got up mid morning and got our bags mostly packed before having to head off to return our bicycles. Around 10:30 we biked back over to the modest Bike City and reluctantly turned in our transport before our 11:00am cutoff. We walked back to our apartment, finished packing, and (having lucked into a late checkout) headed on foot to our only museum of this stop, the Van Gogh Museum. We (Brian in particular) like these little(r) focused museums. Like the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, it's just a lot easier to get you head around a single artist. The museum was fun, informative, and "manageable". Around 3:30, we headed back up those stairs one last time for our bags with an eye towards renting a "canal bike" (paddle boat) for a canal's eye view of the city. Being able to pick up our boat near our place and drop it off closer to the train station let us kill two birds with one stone. A lot of fun, although a lot of work and at times nearly impossible to steer in the slight afternoon breeze. We dropped the "bike" off at the Anne Frank Haus (didn't make it this trip) dock and made it to Amsterdam Central in time for a bite to eat and to find our sleeping car and couchettes. Tonight is a long one. The trip from Amsterdam to Copenhagen is 17 hours. Couchette rooms have four bunks and our roomies were French, so there wasn't a lot of conversation. The air conditioning only worked when the train was moving (because it wasn't AC, it was a vent) and the train was stop and go at stations most of the evening. This round we had the upper bunks, which were sweltering. Unable to get the window in our room open, we spent an hour or two standing out in the hallway looking out the lowered window on the other side of the car. The countryside was nice to look at and the breeze was fantastic. Eventually, however, we gave up and headed back to our car to find out that the more clever French couple had figured out that all the window required was excessive force. The new hole in our wall was a little loud and windy on a fast train, but an incredible improvement that allowed us to fall asleep somewhere in northern Germany.
Today's Photos
