We caught the 8.55am train to London and had a nice two hour trip in First Class complete with free newspaper and breakfast. Changed over from Kings Cross to Saint Pancras and onto the Eurostar without any problems. The Eurostar ticket office told us they could not validate our Eurail Pass and could not book us on any European trains. All that had to be done on European soil even though we had already used our Eurail Pass to book our seats on the Eurostar and the Rail Europe agent in London told us we would be able to validate the pass at St Pancras. So when we arrived in Brussels, we needed to get our pass validated before we could board any other train. It was a huge, crowded station and it took us a while to find the ticket office. After a short time on the queue there we were told that validation could only be done at the international ticket office. We found that and waited 15 minutes in a queue ther to get a date stamp on the pass. We were too late by then to catch the Thalys fast train to Amsterdam so we got on the slow train after having a snack in the cafe. That train was supposed to get to Amsterdam at 8.10pm. However, when we got to Amsterdam Airport Station most people got off. We were in First Class, but people were standing all the way, so we guessed that the class system was largely ignored. An official then came along and informed us that this train had terminated (for undisclosed reasons) and we needed to go to platform 3. We followed the mob and waited on a very crowded platform with continuous echoing incomprehensible announcements. Shades of M. Hulot's Holiday we said, just as the mob responded to another announcement and headed up the escalator to Platform 2. As we came down the escalator I glanced at the indicator board which did not seem to say Amsterdam Centraal so I asked the driver as we hurried past and he nodded. All the doors were packed with people so we ran to the back of the train to the First Class carriage and could see empty seats through the windows. But we had to push our way onto the train because everyone just crowded in the entry and did not move inside. The doors started closing as we climbed on and a man behind us got caught and gad to be pushed in by a guard. We then travelled with our backpacks on squashed against the door for 20 minutes. They told us European trains were better than UK but our first day on them was really bad, in comparison. BUT we did get to Amsterdam although half an hour late. We tried to use 3 different maps to find our Boathotel, but had little success, so we asked a policeman, then a young man in a bar, then a taxidriver and none of them knew the hotel but pointed us in the direction of Oosterdok. We did get to Oosterdok but saw no sign of a hotel in the water, so we decided to walk up to the main road and hail a taxi. We walked about 10 meters along the waterfront thinking there must be over a thousand boats in central Amsterdam when Lyn pointed out Steiger 4 and we were after Steiger 5. A few more steps and we saw the name Allure on a list at Steiger 5. So we arrived at 9.30pm, only an hour late. We told the manager that we needed to find the ship "Holland" for our tour, and he said "That's it." and pointed to the one moored on the other side only three metres away. Relief at the end of a confusing day.
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| OUR BIKE TOUR BOAT TAKEN FROM OUR HOTEL BOAT DECK |
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| HOLLAND ON LEFT ALLURE ON RIGHT |
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