2014 EUROPE by Rail 28 - Hotel Comfy

In Amsterdam, we loved our accommodations at the The Times Hotel (built in 1650). It was restored in 2006 with original features carefully preserved. I think it was my favorite of the trip (although Mike would probably choose Hotel Patritius in Brugge as his fave).

This one wasn't the most spacious (although plenty of room to store our luggage) or the most luxurious (although bathroom quite modern with a flush button for "light" or "heavy"), but it was homey and had some nice features.

It had the simplest remote of all our hotels--on, off, volume up and down, channel up and down. That's it. And a good channel selector. Not that we used the TV much. Mostly for weather reports.

However, we were on the third floor (elevator included) and the highlight was a lovely window view overlooking the quaint canal just steps away. We could even open it to let fresh air into our room. Across the canal were typical tall narrow Dutch buildings, mostly homes, I think. It was a quiet, serene location and brought our blood pressure down.

Another feature we liked was the Van Gogh wall mural. Across from the bed it filled the entire wall (maybe 15 feet wide). The TV mounted in the middle didn't really bother us. The title of the painting is Wheatfield with Crows. It made the smaller room seem much bigger. We found later that each room has a different "mural" by an old Dutch master, including Rembrandt's The Night Watch.

As we had been sitting on the train all day, we were anxious to stretch our legs  and see the sights. Our driver had pointed out where city center was, so we headed that direction. It was only a few blocks away.

It was unbelievably crowded. More crowded than we had seen anywhere else on our trip so far. I wondered it if was like this all the time.

Like my first night in Berlin, I was a bit uncomfortable, almost claustrophobic. But the next morning, in the sunlight, that passed as I got my true bearings. Later we learned this was the week when most students in Europe were off on holiday. So it was a bit more crowded than usual.

We didn't linger too long, but saw the Oude Kerk (Old Church, founded in 1213 and Amsterdam's oldest building) across the canal.

Then we passed a fruit stand, the Torture Museum, the Sex Museum, a ganga market, cheese boutiques, souvenir shops with wooden shoes, lots of cafes and bars. All full to the brim or with a line of waiting customers. An every cuisine of the world was available.

We didn't make it that far down the street, but we saw a carnival-like set-up with a huge ferris wheel and other amusement rides. It was colorful and looked beautiful at night.

We found the street (well-lit alley) back to our hotel. We weren't starved as we had a light dinner on our connection train, but needed a bite.

Nothing grabbed us until we saw a little Mexican cubby hole in the wall cafe. I ordered a veggie quesadilla and Mike ordered a burrito. Eyes now bigger than stomach.

It was taking a while for our order to come up, so the cook brought us some nachos to tide us over. By the time we got our "main course" we could hardly fit in a single bite. It was tasty, but hated to leave with so much food on our plate. No fridge or micro in our hotel room, so ....

There was definitely some tossing and turning in our sleep that night with too full tummies.