Day 6 : Amsterdam

Sebelum bergerak ke Amsterdam, kami sempat menikmati sarapan di restoran hotel. Actually masa booking online, I was informed that the room price offered would not include breakfast, which I didn't really mind because the price offered was the cheapest I could get online for a decent hotel like this. But not only did we get breakfast for two adult, the kids got the breakfast for free too! I really like this hotel....the staffs were friendly, the room was lovely and clean and free Wifi was provided too. For the price I've paid, I think it was really worth it.

Bilik hotel yg sgt memuaskan hati

Breakfast time...not much though - typical European breakfast - breads, jam, cheeses tp kopi super sedap!

From Lisse to Amsterdam, it was supposed to take half an hour by driving but unfortunately, our route as suggested by Garmin was interrupted when one of the road was closed by police and we were directed to use another route. Tapi si Garmin ni asik suggest suh buat U-turn utk ikut the original route. So kami terpaksa buat our own decision, just follow the heavy traffic (with assumption semua org nak pegi Amsterdam!) sampai la at last Garmin recalculated the route plan. Akhirnya sampai ke destinasi yg dituju 1 jam kemudian.

Dari awal lagi, sy dah buat plan mmg x nak drive masuk Amsterdam City tapi sebaliknya park kereta kat satu P&R (Park & Ride) yg terletak di pinggir kota Amsterdam. Sebabnya sy baca dr Internet, pelancong amat la tidak digalakkan drive di dlm city due to many reasons. Besides, when you park at P&R, you'll be provided with a travelling ticket to the city which valid for 5 people at 6 Euro. I thought at first the tickets and the parking cost was two different things, but later found out that the 6 Euro includes a 24-hour parking time and the travelling tickets as well! Isn't it so cheap?

From this P&R we travelled to Amsterdam Centraal Station by train. It only took us 10 minutes. I was so glad that the train station provides free tourist information booklet. Kat Paris satu info booklet pon x nampak. Sampai Centraal Station, kami simply wandered around. It says, Amsterdam tourist attractions all located within walking distance from the Centraal so kami pon belasah je la jln ikut suka.

Looking at the traffic conditions, lega sgt rasanya kami buat decision utk tidak drive masuk city. Jalan2 Amsterdam adalah kecil dan kebanyakan jalan adalah jenis sehala. Parking pon sgt limited. Yg ada pon, sgt mencabar nak parking. Betul2 tepi canal! Kalau I yg parking, harus la selamat masuk canal kot!

Kereta kecik camni mmg sgt praktikal di Amsterdam!

Tgk la...mencabar ke x parking disini?

Amsterdam mmg terkenal dgn canal boat ride nya. Dr mula kami keluar dr Centraal, mana2 pon boleh nampak signboard Canal Boat Ride. Ada pelbagai pakej dan harga disediakan. At first, we thought we should get the boat ride later, but then when we saw some more cheaper price offered, we couldn´t wait anymore, hence we bought the ticket. The price of ticket for one-hour ride was 8€/adult.

The canal boat ride was quite interesting. We travelled along the canal where we could see Amsterdam´s famous landmarks and the boat captain gave English narration about the landmarks throughout the journey. The twins got excited at first but then became bored and fell asleep...which was good! I didn´t have to answer a lot of questions. Then we completed the 1-hour boat ride, the moment we stepped out from the boat, we saw all the passengers´postcard-like-photos pasted on a board . The photos looked so nice, that most passengers bought it including us. It was a bit pricey (3€/piece) but heck, the memory is priceless, isn´t it?

Us...on the boat

Some of the views from the boat

After the boat ride, we walked along the streets and got excited with the city´s panorama and the souvenirs shops. I found Amsterdam is really a tourist-friendly city. The souvenirs are much cheaper here than anywhere places in Europe than I´ve been to. Then all the local people I´ve met not only able to speak English but were so friendly. There was this one time, I was taking photo of my family when suddenly this one old lady greeted me and offered to take our family photo. I would want to say ´no, thank you´but seeing her so friendly, smiling all the way and because she was so sweet to offer, I accepted her offer. She even asked her friend to hold her handbag and stick (ye, ini makcik jalan pakai tongkat ye...how could u want to say NO?) while she´s taking our photo. And after she was done, she even insisted to see the photo, whether it looked nice or not. Oh yes, it was lovely.

Gambar yg makcik tu snapped!

We saw Madame Tussaud too. It is located the Dam Square. At first we thought of going in, but we were not sure whether we had enough time to venture Amsterdam later on. I insisted Kak Ti and Abg Lan to go in, because I was thinking, maybe I could go to Madame Tussaud in London or in Berlin (mungkin je la...berangan2 saja la dulu ye!) But then they also decided not to go in because venturing around Amsterdam was more tempting.

Dam Square....depan Madame Tussaud

Amsterdam shopping walkway

Few things about Amsterdam: selain dr canal merata2, basikal juga terlalu byk. U can see bikes everywhere u go. Diorg angkut brg2 pon pakai basikal. I was so amazed when I saw this one lady, dia bawa baby dlm umur below 6 months (i guess), letak kat depan dia, then belakang dia ada toddler dlm umur 2 thn gitu, dah tu pulak pompuan ni kayuh basikal laju2 di celah2 org ramai. Fuh...confident sungguh! Then byk coffee shops, only thing is these coffee shops are not selling coffee the drink, but they sell drugs - which is legal in Holland! Nasib baik I knew about this long ago, so xde la kes tersilap masuk kedai nak order kopi....hehehehe.

Kedai Kopi? NOT............

Kami actually berangan2 nak makan nasi padang kat Amsterdam. So berpandukan Garmin, kami cari satu restoran Indonesia ni but then bila sampai, restoran tu dah tutup for good. Aiseh! Sbb dah lapar sgt, kami makan kat satu restoran kebab yg halal yg sebaris dgn restoran yg ditutup tu. Tapi kebab dia x sedap mcm kat Jerman punya.

Makan kebab....

Lepas makan, kami pegi Flower Markt. Oh, lagi best tgk souvenirs kat sini. Tapi sy x beli byk pon, again setakat 2-3 benda utk kenangan di masa depan. Lepas tu ronda2 lagi. Dalam dok jalan2 tu kami nampak satu lagi restoran Indonesia. Kebetulan pulak ada menu diletak kat luar restoran. So sy saja2 la pi tgk. Bukan nak makan pon. Semua menu dlm bahasa Indonesia so syok la tgk. Dlm dok browsing menu tu sekali nampak "BABI KETJCAP". There you go...walau indonesia, x semestinya halal ye! Kak Ti kata even kat Indonesia itself pon kena berhati2. She went to Indonesia couple of times, so give it Bali ka, Bandung ka, Jakarta ka, better la check for the halal confirmation.

At Flower Market

At 5pm, kami pon dah penat dan it was time to end our Amsterdam day trip sbb nak balik hotel nak kejar waktu solat. But then since it was time org2 balik keje, train sgt penuh and jalan jam sama je mcm kat KL, maka kami sampai hotel pon dah kul 7pm.

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