Our
introduction to Amsterdam
From
Schiphol airport, we took a train to Amsterdam Central Station [ACS]. From there, we
followed the map provided by our travel agent (who shall remain
nameless) to Pier 16 [P16],
northwest of
the station. The directions said the boats would be
between Piers 10 & 16. We kept walking, looking for the boats
as
described in our travel package. None were seen. Hmmm. Perhaps they
went elsewhere to refuel, get supplies, get cleaned, whatever.
We were joined by a gentleman from North Carolina who was also looking
for his boat, for another tour, booked by the same travel
agent. We were all in good spirits for a while, then it started to
drizzle, followed by light rain. We dug out our rain jackets and
continued to wait.
After more than an hour passed, our concern was growing. We dug out the
travel info package which had a local emergency phone number for the tour
operator. I set off to a nearby ferry terminal thinking there would be
a pay phone there. Wrong. All the locals seemed to have at least one cell
phone on them, so who needs payphones?
I then set off for the train station, all the while
thinking, what if the boat shows up while I'm wandering the city in
search of a phone? Anyway, to cut a long story short, I found a bank of
payphones in a dark corner of the station. Failing to figure out the
instructions which seemed to suggest 1 Euro was plenty for a local
call (but spitting out 1 Euro coins), I offered up a credit card to the telco gods with considerable
trepidation (total charge for 2 local calls ~$11).
Aha, that worked, but only got me to the answering
service. They provided a cell phone number of a woman who carefully and
patiently directed me on a (mile long) circuitous route through the
area to the waiting Lena Maria. "do you have much luggage? can
you walk for a distance?" (I explained there are 5 of us, and we
got this far without keeling over.) ... go back to the station
...
out
the south entrance ... turn left ... cross trolley tracks ... through
bus station ...
look for "Botel" sign ... down a walkway next to a Chinese
restaurant ("you can't miss it"), ... this way ... that way ... that
way ..., all sounding very complicated and easily screwed up by a
jet-lagged non-Dutch speaker.
All 5 of us set off, dragging our wheeled luggage behind while I kept
referring to the directions scribbled down, against a wall, in the dark. Much to my
surprise, we made it to the dock with no trouble, just a touch of
skepticism. Then once we found the right dock, we didn't see the boat!
The Lena Maria [LM]
was rafted up alongside another, not visible from the dockside.
Whew. Drinks all around, on the travel agent (get real). We actually
got to the boat on time although our earlier concern of "how do we kill
2 hours since we'll be early" was now moot.
