Amsterdam

April 15, 2008

Today was quite eventful. We decided that we didn't want to waste any vacation time sitting around so we headed to Amsterdam for a day. None of us had been there before so it was an adventure for us all! We got up early and left to the train station. We had to go to Schinnen instead of Geilenkirchen, since we needed to be on the Netherlands train line. The ride there wasn't too bad, only about two hours. We got into town about 11am. Then we decided we were hungry and of course we decided we had to eat at the Hard Rock. So we went out searching without having a map or any idea where we were heading. We stopped in a bunch of souvenir stores so that Blake and Katie could pick up some gifts. We headed in the direction of the Hard Rock, we only got lost a few times on the way.
The Hard Rock was fun. Blake frustrated the waiter and had the manager called, they were all screwing with him because he asked for a napkin. All the people working there were like Australian and Americans. The manager was from San Francisco, he said if anyone goes to the San Francisco Hard Rock tell the manager there, Austin, that Bobby T. says hey. The food was actually really good there, probably the best Hard Rock food we had on our trips.
After we ate we took a canal boat tour, which was pretty interesting, except that it went pretty slow and I almost fell asleep. After the tour we went to the infamous Red Light District. Even in the daylight it is gross, but interesting. I can't imagine being there at night, there were plenty of creepy people there during the day. It was easy to spot the people who were trying to sell drugs.
Then the train ride back,,,which was a nightmare. We got on the train back to Schinnen and we were going along just fine until we hit Herstogenbosch, where the train stops. I guess something had jumped the tracks we needed to be on to get to Eindhoven. So nothing was able to get to where we needed to go. So we sat at the train station for 2 hours until the tracks were cleared. Finally we got on the train and made it to Sittard. Unfortunately, someone...ok me....got us on the wrong train and we ended up in Maastricht. From Maastricht we had to go to Heerlen and than from Heerlen to Schinnen. So when we left we were planning on being home by 7pm but instead we got home at 1130pm!
Luckily we were able to get a hold of Marita so she was able to check on the dogs and let them outside. I thought that it was a pretty fun day, even the trains, but I know everyone else didn't agree with me. Especially Luke since he was supposed to be doing homework!