One minor detail - one huge mistake!

Hallo (the dutch hello) from Amsterdam!  We made it!

It was a quick trip, honestly - which who doesn't love a quick trip over the Atlantic?  Our flight out of St. Louis was delayed which was not a good mix for our already short lay over in Newark.  After a sprint to the gate (I was in Erik's dust, which, ironically felt like the Komen STL Race for the Cure circa 2009) we literally hopped from one plane to the next.

The plane was roomy and you could personally choose what movie or TV show you would watch - nice touch.  So the 6.5 hour flight mirrored a lazy Sunday for me - MOVIE after MOVIE  after MOVIE.  Three movies (Blue Valentine, Crazy Heart, He's Just Not That Into You), two meals, three bathroom trips, two walk abouts and one cat nap later - we arrived in Schipol Airport at 7:30AM local.

The plan was to grab some train tickets, hop the first train to Amsterdam Central and then walk to our apartment.  All three things were accomplished... just not as easily as we had planned.  It seems that Holland has recently implemented a pincode to all credit cards.  In the States we just swipe and smile but every swipe comes with the question "PIN CODE PLEASE"here in Holland - well, our darling Mastercard did not come with a pincode and we did not come with the knowledge that it required one.  So after standing in three lines with fellow daunted Americans, we were told "go to the banc, get cash and get a train ticket" - I would not say it was a smug response from the Schipol Airport Information guy, but it was not the answer I wanted to hear.  But, we had to do it, we did it, we hopped the train and three stops later found ourselves in crazy Amsterdam Central!

Erik was armed with this GoogleMaps print out of how to walk from the train station to our apartment.  The street signs, however, are randomly placed and not always where your eyes would usually look to see them.  With the help of two wonderful Dutch people (one of them had different colored eyes - blue and green - beautiful!) we made it to our apartment.  This is where that minor mistake comes in.  We rang the bell for Gietersstraat #27, just as the directions told us.  No answer.  We rang again.  No answer.  I asked Erik to hold it down and count a few seconds, perhaps Elizabeth (our contact) did not hear.  A man's voice answered "hallo?"  Erik responded "Hi, it's Erik and Kate here for the apartment"  the man responded "oh.... pause ... um .... I will buzz you in"  We walked through the gate and around the cobblestone corridor surrounded by apartments and found #27.  Just as we turned the corner, five people piled out of the apartment - all smiles but there was definitely signs of confusion.  She (we later learned her name is Florence) said "We thought you were coming this evening! 7:45 this evening!"  I said "oh, no, there must be a mistake, it was 7:45 this morning!"  She said "well, we have been staying here with friends and we have not cleaned.  My sister owns the place....  come in, come in!" We walked in to the apartment (beautiful, cozy, lived-in feel) and they asked us to have a seat, relax and kick back.  We chatted with the four of them (Elizabeth, our contact, went off to University) over a beer - yes, a beer at 8am. Florence and her husband are from Northern Holland and the other couple is from Denmark.  They were on a short holiday and their stay came to an abrupt end.  The minor mistake, you see, is that I listed our arrival as PM and not AM.  One little letter - big issue.  But they were courteous, cordial - just lovely.  They asked if we would mind if they cleaned, did the laundry, got the place ready to go while we walked around a bit and gave them some time to do so.  As much as I wanted to crawl into bed (my mind and body thought it was 2am) we agreed.

Florence showed us a few landmarks to always know where we are and how to find our apartment - and then pointed us to the closest grocery and convenience stores.  We were off.  For an hour or so we just walked - it was very nice.  A bit chilly but really a good chance to see the day to day of our neighborhood - The Jordaan.  The Jordaan has recently become home to the very artsy Dutch - and the neighborhood itself proves that - we are surrounded by chic cafes and swanky clothing stores but it also embodies a small-town feel to it.  The streets are shared by cars, bikes and pedestrians - equally.  After an hour of getting lost (on purpose) and finding our way to a cafe in our neighborhood - where we enjoyed fresh and tasty sandwiches, we returned to our apartment - clean and empty!  All ours!

We took a nap - a 5 hour nap and woke up at 5:30pm local.  After a shower and a walk around the neighborhood we decided to make dinner in our kitchen.  We went to the grocery store, The Jumbo, and came back to make a nice pasta, pasta sauce and salad.  It was nice .. it is only 9:30 but we are exhausted from our trip.... bed time!

Tomorrow our plan is to really get lost, perhaps join some kind of walking or bike tour and just really get into it!

Here are a couple pictures of the apartment - bare with us, we were to exhausted to haul the camera around today....

Tulips!  A common Dutch hospitality.

Beer from Brussels - Jupiler Pilsner

and one for the lady ....

kitchen

bidet? anyone?

our jumbo JUMBO grocery bag

winner winner pasta dinner

Cheers,
Kate & Erik

4/14/11