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Day 15 - Amsterdam
Amsterdam Trams: 14km
We start the day with a long tram ride, the circular service 20, from
Centraal Station back to Centraal Station. It is a very interesting and
enjoyable ride, passing many of the city's most famous sights. Make
the most of it while you can, because word is that it is likely to cease
operating in a year or two's time. The reason given officially is shortage
of rolling stock, but I suspect that the real reason is simply that it is
not making enough money. At just 3 guilders (less than £1) for nearly
an hour's trip, it is quite a bargain: especially when compared with the
price of a canal boat trip of similar duration, at around 15 guilders.
Arriving back at Centraal Station, we take another tram, taking a slightly different route from the service 20 to reach the Rijksmuseum. We do not actually plan to stay very long, but as it turns out we spend nearly the whole of the rest of the day here: lots to see, and probably a good choice when the city is so crowded and the weather indifferent.
Once again, we decide to walk back to the hotel, calling on the way at a small café for a drink. In a small side street near the hotel, we spot what looks like quite a nice restaurant; being on a side street, it is somewhat quieter than many. We mark it down to return to later. We do, and, indeed, it proves to be another very useful "find", solving our eating problems for another evening. Afterwards we visit the souvenir shop opposite the hotel (like most of the shops, open very late, even on a Sunday) and spend most of our remaining guilders. We have been able to quite a good job of spending all our currency this trip. It is rarely worthwhile changing surplus currency back into sterling; often in the past we have simply kept it to use on our next holiday but, by the time we go away again, most of the countries we have visited will no longer be using their own currency: instead, it will be all euros.
