Berlin to Amsterdam

Thursday 10 April

Today is the day to move on from Berlin, so we caught a train from Friedrichstrasse to the main Berlin Station, which was only completed two years ago and is like a giant glasshouse. It was much easier to get to than last Sunday when we were in the car.

The ICE (Intercity Express) for Amsterdam moved out within 30 seconds of the departure time and like the Japanese Bullet trains was very clean and fitted with airline style seats, we had two facing each other with a table in between and the choice of seven music channels, which you don’t find on the Japanese trains. The train had a restaurant car but there wasn’t any need for us to go to it as the efficient staff would bring what ever we wanted to our seat. The train was very quiet and smooth and at times travelled at 250 km/hr. It was very pleasant to sit back and watch the wonderful green countryside slip past, we haven’t seen so much green pasture and water for years.

About three hours after departure the train was split in two with each half then going to a different destination, an hour later we had to change to another ICE to continue on to Amsterdam, we could have caught a later train which ran direct from Berlin to Amsterdam, but it didn’t arrive until after 7:00 pm. At the Dutch border they announced that “because of a technical problem we would have to change to the train on the other side of the platform”. Passengers and crew from both trains swapped over and we were on our way in five minutes, each train returning to their original departure point. Talking to a friend in Amsterdam he told us that the German rail won’t allow their trains to be operated by Dutch crew and that was the reason for the swap.

Shortly after entering Holland the police came through our carriage checking passports, it was interesting because they checked the Dutch and German nationals and all other people in the carriage but told us they didn’t want to see ours. Two seats behind us was a young Australian boy and I noticed the police checking his passport with an ultra-violet light and then a microscope and then called a colleague to look at the passport. In Berlin at the replica of Checkpoint Charlie, for five or ten Euros you could obtain a number of replica crossing stamps from the “wall” days, we saw several people having them stamped in their passport. This is what the Australian boy had done and “because the stamps are false, your passport is invalid and you must leave the train with us at the next stop”.

Arriving in Amsterdam we bought a seniors strip card, 15 strips for euro 4.60 and where we travelled was two strips each per journey, better than the 1.60 per trip if we paid cash. Even better value as the next day when getting on the tram we presented our strip card for cancelling and the conductor just waved us through, so now we will get the equivalent of 10 individual trips.

We arrived at the private hostel beside Vondel Park, on the other side of the park to the Youth Hostel we stayed at on our last trip, but this time it was booked out. We had to go down to the bar to check in, haven’t times changed, and the first thing we saw was a young lad sitting at the bar with a bong smoking “happy grass”. Our tiny room is in the attic 102 very narrow steep steps from ground level, a very basic room with a hand basin but not even a nail in the wall to hang a towel, every thing has to be “hung” on the floor or the window sill. The shower and toilet is on the other side of this floor and we have to lean towards the wall to pass under the roof pitch and supporting roof braces to get to it, but the room is clean and we are only here for three nights. Another addition to our experience book.

Friday 11 April.

We finished breakfast and were on the move by 9:00 to go to Keukenhof the world famous bulb gardens. Arriving at Amsterdam Centraal we bought our train ticket for Leiden and the girl told us we had just missed a train and the next would depart at 10:29. At the other side of the platform was a train and the board said Schiphol, Leiden etc. and indicated the train was running late, but not sure if should get on this train we waited for the 10:29. Boarding our train we sat for five minutes when an announcement advised the train would not be going (or stopping) at Schiphol and all passengers for the airport should leave the train, twenty minutes after the departure time the train finally left and surprise, surprise, the first stop was Schiphol. The trains are run by Connexxion, I wonder if they’re related to Connex. At Leiden we bought a combined bus and entry ticket and finally arrived at Keukenhof at 12:02.

Nothing we had read about these gardens had prepared us for what we saw, rows of 150 year old Beech trees, fountains and water features, bronze statues scattered throughout, about six large pavilions with various displays and over 7,000,000 tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and many other varieties of bulbs in mass plantings. If you have ever been to Tesselaars at tulip time, that is like a window box compared to these displays. Beds of 100 x 3 metres of one variety of daffodils, 500 hyacinths of one variety, beds of many different types of bulbs interwoven in complementing colours, huge beds of one type of tulip and the size of the blooms of the plants exceeded that of any we had seen of similar varieties. We couldn’t estimate the number of different colours, shapes and sizes of the various species of bulbs on display. We overheard someone comment “they were like bulbs on steroids”.

The displays in the pavilions were outstanding; in one we think may have been new varieties, beds of 100+ tulips, daffodils and other bulbs, together with azaleas, cyclamen and miniature lilacs, being indoors the perfume from these plants was overpowering. Another pavilion contained displays of many varieties of orchids, another of tuberous begonias and one with displays of floral arrangements and a demonstration of arranging.

As magnificent as these gardens are, in a few weeks they will be even better when the trees come into leaf and the azaleas and rhododendrons bloom, there are also dozens of beds of bulbs still to flower and as the gardens are open till May the plantings are staggered to ensure that all visitors see them at there best.

We walked around the gardens for over five hours and just when we thought we had seen it all we would turn a corner to be confronted with another dazzling display At the edge of the gardens were several viewing platforms that looked over a patchwork of several hundred hectares of commercial bulb farms, an amazing sight. . Eventually we decided it was time to return to Amsterdam and in the evening when reviewing our photos we had taken 70 during the day, but nothing we took could match the visual beauty of the gardens.

Saturday 12 April

A quiet day today, we had arranged to visit to a friend about a 3 km walk from the hostel and although the sun was shining the wind was chilly, though nothing like the Arctic blasts in Berlin. We realise how lucky we were yesterday, the sun shone all day and there wasn’t any wind and apart from one day at Oberstaufen, the best day since we left home.