2014 EUROPE by Rail 27 - Last Stop Amsterdam

Here's all the walking we had done in Berlin. We were happy to be on a train for most of today to give our feet a rest. But we were sad to leave Berlin without a visit with our niece who lives here. She was back home in Kalamazoo while were we here. Go figure.

Today was to be an easy travel day or so we thought. We had a direct high-speed train from Berlin at 8:36 with arrival in Amsterdam at 15:00. But when we got to the Berlin train station, we did not see our train number listed on the big screen. We went to the info counter. Our train was cancelled due to a strike.

OK, what next? They directed us to another counter at the opposite end of the building. They directed us to a counter on the second floor. There they asked if we were First Class. Yes, we were. They directed us to a much shorter cue. Yahoo! Time was a wasting.

At the counter the agent rebooked us. We would now leave at 10:47, arriving Dusseldorf at 14:47, change trains leaving there at 15:29, and arriving in Amsterdam at 17:27. Both segments were First Class. Yay! That still gave us some daylight time to get to our hotel and do some sightseeing.

And we had a little time for a bite before leaving this station. We got bagels and cafe au laits, not as good as we were used to. We could see the Reichstag glass dome from the station. Sorry we missed that.

Berlin was the only station in Europe where we encountered smoking sections in the train track wait area. There was a little sign near a roped off "zone" for smokers and they were packed in. Only issue was there was no roped off zone in the air to keep smoke from wafting everywhere. I had forgotten what a turn-off this is--visually, stinkily, and health-wise.

Once we got going, the ride was smooth sailing. We back-tracked our previous route passing through the towns of Spandau, Hanover, Bielefield, Hamburg, and Cologne. Then a short jog northwest to Dusseldorf. This time we sat on the opposite side of the train, so the scenery between Berlin and Dusseldorf was again lovely, but much the same. 

Once in Dusseldorf, we encountered more uncertainty with our travels. While waiting for our connection, we overheard folks saying the train here might be cancelled due to the strike. Then the track schedule sign changed to Cancelled. Uh, oh!

We had worked in the airline industry for 30 (me) and 35 (Mike) years. We knew the meaning of patience and calm in these situations. We waited a few minutes for a loudspeaker announcement for our next step. But shortly the sign changed again. This time to Late. Late being 20 minutes. Another phew!

Still saw no "welcome to ..." signs as we are used to in the U.S. when we enter a new state. But we figured we were in The Netherlands when we started seeing more canals and waterways. We saw buildings with the name Schindler Group and we wondered if this was the Schindler from the movie Schindler's List.

Land mostly green, but a little more red than we had seen so far. Weather was mostly sunshine. Many backyard and community gardens and little greenhouses. Yards neat and orderly. Far less graffiti along the track. Small town after small town, close together.

Animals were donkeys, newly shorn sheep, cows, horses, and lots of geese. A few old fashioned windmills and a few new turbines with red and white stripes on their blades. Thatched roof houses. No tacky billboards along the way. This segment was the most interesting part of all our train rides.

But we were happy to finally arrive in Amsterdam. A few hours late, but we got there none the less. The station was crowded. We caught a chatty cab driver to our hotel. He offered a little Amsterdam introduction and said our hotel was in a good area for sightseeing.