Amsterdam! (J & B)

We took a long overnight train ride from Switzerland to Amsterdam. It started out sleepless and uneventfully enough, but that changed on our second train from northern Germany to Amsterdam. About an hour into the ride, our car of the train started to get stuffy and warm, and the staff apologetically told us that the air conditioning was broken and offered free drinks. Great. But then, 30 minutes after that, the train stopped abruptly between stations. We sat for a while, with the car getting hotter and hotter, and then finally there was an announcement (in German, Dutch, and finally broken English) that said “The train does not work. We cannot go forward or backward. We try reset.” We waited a few minutes more while the lights turned off and on, the engine turned off and on, and nothing was fixed. A new announcement told us that the train was truly broken, and that another train was coming to tow us back to the station. So, about a hot half hour after that they finally towed us backward a station, where we had to catch a bus to another station, then a train to Amsterdam.

Finally, we arrived and set up our campsite in the very crowded Zeeburg Camping area in the Amsterdam suburbs. Tents were set up as close to on top of one another as possible. We found a place for our tent with just a little breathing room and set up, thankful the forecasted rain was holding off. We took the tram back to the city then in search of Mexican food (we had wanted it for weeks and saw there was a Mexican restaurant on wikitravel). Once we got to the city, though, we started out by walking through the Chinatown area and changed our mind, getting delicious Thai food instead. We then wandered the city, got some drinks from the supermarket, and sat alongside the canal to drink them (As we sat there, two guys came up to the boat next to us, loaded it up with alcohol and audio equipment, and motored away blaring Michael Jackson songs).

So a note on the famed Amsterdam Red Light District, “coffee shop” atmosphere, etc: It’s pretty much what you hear. Our campground was mostly filled with an interesting mix of stoners (our direct neighbors appeared not to leave their campsite and started smoking when they got up and only stopped as they went to bed.) and frat boys. There are coffee shops scattered throughout the downtown area which serve actual coffee as well as marijuana. They are strictly regulated and don’t serve alcohol or tobacco though. The red light district is full of shops and theatres and has many ladies in their red-lit windows. It’s an experience. The crowd is pretty diverse with some jocky kids flirting with the ladies, lots of people standing by the canals and just watching to see what happens, and most just sort of walking the streets trying to “experience Amsterdam” without any desire to partake of the “wares”.