[pcpranav]

Hi all,

Recently during one of our official conference, I had a chance to visit Amsterdam - the land of museums, canals, and more...

I did my bit of homework about the place, and made a draft plan for the places of interest.

The brief schedule:
18-Aug'14: Mumbai - Abu Dhabi (early morning flight)
18-Aug'14: Abu Dhabi - Amsterdam (reached late afternoon)
19-Aug'14: conference
20-Aug'14: conference
21-Aug'14: sight seeing
22-Aug'14: sight seeing, return flight at night
23-Aug'14: reached Mumbai by evening

During this trip took several photos and would like to share over here (low res!); the text maybe less !

Some opening pics:




Enjoy the rest of show

PS: I happen to travel quite a lot (work / personal), but due to whatever reason / excuses, couldn't make a travelogue. This time I was determined, and I did it in 3 days (edited this line at the end!) :-)

I have done hyperlink to essential keywords, like places etc.

Regards,
Pranav

[pcpranav]

For my Amsterdam trip, arrangements like the Visa, Flight and Hotel booking was already taken care by office colleague. My flight was on 17th late night (technically 18th early morning @ 4.50!)

The 'long' weekend of 15-Aug was approaching, and actually I didnt have any plans to venture out. But it was kinda instant & surprise visit with family, for one night at Khandala, along with few close friends. I was aware that my dear friends were anyways going, but as a surprise they booked the room for me too, and called me at 10AM to immediately start for travel. Infact they wanted to celebrate my Birthday (15-Aug) with a bang ! We hurriedly packed and by 11.30 hit the road. I had done such instant (small) trips earlier too.

We stayed at Velvett Country Resort , the property and weather were both lovely. Few months back during our office picnic, we had stayed at this resort. While starting from Mumbai on 15th morning to Khandala, I had planned to do my packing (for Amsterdam) on 17th! The whole of 15th was just relaxing - the guys in a group lazying, ladies with their chats, and all kids playing. On 16th morning, we started to return Mumbai, while rest of friends stayed back for another night stay. En-route we visited another friend in Airoli, and by evening reached Viviana Mall @ Thane; we didnt see it before. Did some shopping, dinner and reached home late!

Now I had the day of 17th to finish my packing, so quickly started to work. The whole day relaxed, as I knew the night sleep is would be at toss at airport. At 12 mid-night started in cab, and reached airport within sometime. After finishing the formalities, I was now without any work, had to hand-around for 3 hours. Kept roaming from one corner to another, changing seats. On top of this, my flight was delayed by 1+ hours, and it was already dawn when we took-off.

A random pic at Mumbai T2:


Once in the flight, I slept for a while. Some pic from one of the window :




Monday 18-Aug'14:

I reached Abu Dhabi by early morning (their local time) and since I was already late, rushed to my connecting flight. Luckily I was within time. I reach Amsterdam (Schiphol Airport) at around 3PM (their local time). Some of my colleague had come to receive me, and we all waited for some more time for few more colleagues to arrive in the same time slots. Together we all started for hotel in a luxurious van.

Our hotel accommodation was in Park Hotel , just in center of town. In the room I rested for a while, freshen-up. Before leaving from India, I had already put a lovely app on my phone, later proved to be very useful as well. Amsterdam Offline City Map (AMS).

Wifi was provided in room, so did Skype and WhatsApp to family & friends. By evening I ventured out for a bit of stroll around. I switched-on the GPS on phone when came out of hotel. The weather was bit cold (~around 14'C) and was likely to rain. I knew being very close to Vondel Park, and thought of taking a walk there.

My room had a lovely front view on road side, with the canal cruise boat see clearly. I walked across the road, towards the Holland Casino building, adjacent to the Blue boat.













Found this Chess 'board' game enjoyed by few people. There were many cafes and souvenir shops.















By now the time was ~6PM, and now I again cross the road towards the entrance of Vondel Park. Standing at the window of my room, in front was this cruise, and left side would be Vondel Park, and my hotel is located at these road's intersection.

[pcpranav]

Vondel Park:

Many times I kept using the AMS app with GPS on my phone, and it was guiding me perfectly. The park is very large, with many roads within. Lets say path-1 would take you to a particular attraction, and path-2 would lead you to another attraction, and may further lead to either path-1 or path-3 ! Yes, initially the vastness was bit confusing, but it was all beautiful and magnificent.

All my photos of this trip are either taken by Canon 500D (with 18-55) or with my Samsung S3 mobile. Before starting this thread, I resized the pics to small size (Free Image Converter software) and herein I would be posting them from either of the devices based on the topic written.






















You can see the hundreds of fitness enthusiasts doing their bit - running, jogging, stretching, playing etc. Within the park, you can see people with bicycles traveling, either roaming in the park or just crossing the park. The park was surrounded by some lovely buildings and colonies.

tried a selfie, your's truly












pictures keep rolling, and my eyes were transfixed at the beautiful landscape and various artifacts deployed. the white big bird (maybe duck) is an artificial one, mounted on a wooden plan; it keeps swaying in the water!

[pcpranav]

Some more pictures:



























































It was around 7.30PM and it started to rain quite a bit. I packed my camera and took shade. The park was too big to be covered, and I thought of retreat. During the return, I somewhat lost my way and kept going circles around the same places, even after briefly looking at my phone GPS (AMS map). Then I asked a gentleman and walked my way out, it was almost now 8PM. It wasnt dark yet!

[pcpranav]

Tuesday 19-Aug'14:

I woke-up early at 6.00AM, bit early than my 6.30AM routine in Mumbai. From the window I could see the roads already occupied with bicycles and cars, with the beautiful canal always to look serene. After getting ready, went downstairs for my breakfast which was arranged at the Momo cafe. This cafe & adjoining bar in our hotel is quite famous over there. The breakfast was quite dull overall, and think of a vegetarian like me ! I had some bread toast with butter, juices, fruits, scrambled eggs (I take eggs sometimes). I could see some of my office colleagues too having their breakfast. Soon we were ready to start our conference at 9.00AM, sharp.

The whole day was spend listening to presentations, discussing with peers etc. All the 20+ participants, from various countries of our company, were given a big pouch. I slightly opened the chain and saw a notebook and t-shirt, didnt bother much. One of my colleague said "the hard disk is nice", and then I realized. I opened the pouch again and now saw - WD Passport 2 TB Ultra HDD. I have a old Seagate 320GB HDD, which was always getting full and I kept managing by deleting the 'relatively' obsolete contents. Even many times I thought of buying a 1TB HDD. And here I was gifted a 2 TB HDD, wow!

Lunch was again quite bland for me, and I settled for some fruits & juices. Infact, this was noticed by our coordinator lady, and later asked me about my food preference. Generally in most such seminars I give my preference - if asked in advance, but in this one it wasnt asked, nor I was proactive! But definitely I was sure of my survival, and wont harm myself starving :-)

After lunch came out of hotel, most of you know the reason :-)
Saw this tourist bus:


By 5.30 the session was over and we were to go out for dinner. Went to room to put my bag and freshen-up. All gathered in the lobby and later hopped in a bus specially arranged for us.

After about 25 min travel in bus, we reached our destination. The dinner was organized at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant.









Every year a special team comes and monitors the progression of cracks. The sticker is updated with historic data !















They has asked for vegetarian food to me - salads, breads, pasta and drinks for all of us. We returned to our hotel by 10.30PM, some of them again went out for night touring, and I returned room - had some mails to reply and bit tired too.

[pcpranav]

Wed 20-Aug'14:

Similar like earlier day, we started the conference at 9AM, with some breaks in between. We got late for lunch and organizers decided to have lunch somewhere out.

Just across the road, behind the Blue boat, there are many restaurants, pubs & cafe. One famous is Cafe Hard Rock, quite a landmark. Next to it is the Aran Irish Pub and all went upstairs. Based on my special arrangement, I was served some salad, coke, and a big veggie burger with lots of fries.







After lunch the plan was to visit Volendam by a specially arranged bus. This is a small town in north side, about 20 KM from Amsterdam. The en-route landscapes were breath-taking, magnificent. I'll let the story move forward, with the pictures in chronological order as shot. I will later cover some of these places shown.

[pcpranav]

On the way to Volendam, it was bit raining outside and I kept shooting pics from the bus window, though some pics had the glare. in reality the scenery was just beautiful. The guide lady in bus kept explaining about the places we use to cross. Ahead of Volendam is the Edam town, the place of the world famous cheese.

Amsterdam, and towns around are are mostly below the sea-level. The main rivers had been controlled using dams (hence the suffix 'dam' after most of the towns). The river is further channelized into multiple canals. There are many canals (big n small), many of those interconnected, each having a specific purpose. The fresh water should come in town area, and excess water has go out (avoid flooding) - all this done ages ago with some detailed calculations of physics. The water level keep changing even at places just meters apart. It was good to learn a bit of this area.

















In this picture you can see the water level difference:


















We reached the bus parking area, and guide lady announced for a 1.5 hours walking tour of the place. We all were supposed to anyhow reach the bus by 4.20PM. After that we were to go for another place of interest.

From the parking area surrounded by houses, we just climbed few steps towards a road, and voila the whole scene changed. Now we were on a lane, with houses on one side and sea on another side. What a view ! Those houses were really beautiful, and each had a distinct design. Overall it was quite a calm place.













Somehow tried to frame myself in this pic:










We kept admiring this beautiful colony.

[pcpranav]

the lane leads towards a market place, the main tourist attraction. We can see many boats, yachts and ferry. There were many souvenir shops and fast food joints.







these wooden shoes are know as "Clogs". Long back when workers either couldn't afford leather shoes or were uncomfortable while working in farms, these shoes were make. there are variety of clogs, some decorative for even occasion like festival or marriage.


























The Marken Express ferry is a cruise between Volendam and nearby Marken town:



















Attachment 1280793








Later it started to rain and so I walked back to the bus, waited for other colleagues to join.

[pcpranav]

The bus started to take us to another nearby interesting place, a cheese and clog farm - Simonehoeve . Along with a tour of the farm, they had organized to show how to make "Smoked Eel fish". One gentleman explained the entire process and demonstrated how to make smoked eel. To watch all this for me (veggie) was also interesting, though I didnt try it myself !

While outside the eel was getting made, volunteered by many of my colleagues, inside we had a explanation of how cheese and clogs were made, and the display of various artifacts. It took a constant watch on the temperature to be maintained, and finally the fish was offered for eating. Some even got it packed for later consumption at hotel.



























Attachment 1280811

































Overall it was again a lovely experience, a one in lifetime opportunity for me to see that eel thing!

[pcpranav]

Now it was time to leave the farm and go to another place for our group dinner. This was another lovely restaurant - Smit Bokkum. Ofcourse veggie food was arranged for me, thanks to my organizing colleagues. Lots of fish, including the Dutch Herring was served.

A few pics:















after the dinner, the bus took us back to our hotel in Amsterdam; the whole day well enjoyed in Volendam.

[pcpranav]

Thurs 21-Aug'14:

Some of my colleagues today were traveling back to their home country, and some stayed back. After having my breakfast, I was ready for the city tour. Our organizers had already complimented us with a entrance ticket to the Rijksmuseum . This museum was closed since 10 years, and recently reopened after renovation, hence there is a lot of craze amongst tourist to see it. For art lovers, there are many places of interest. Though I like art, I'm not that really passionate-type art lover. And for me it was an opportunity to see a new place, with a free ticket (worth Euro 15) :-)

You would have already seen some pics in my earlier posts, this place was hardly 5 min walking distance from my hotel. Before getting inside the actual museum, I saw the building and its surroundings. The backside is also flooded with many tourists, and the main attraction being a photo with the large artifact "Iam-sterdam". Even I got a pic done here.




music on streets:




this guy used to give a pose for everybody:





















Now I entered the museum area, which had a large reception & info desk. Put my bag-back in the locker facility, and camera was allowed inside. There was also a chargeable facility for a audio-video tour, wherein a headset & handheld device was provided for a self paced tour.

I let the picture do the rest of talking.











there is a guy behind this cabinet with fogged (cold) glass, and he keeps displaying the current time, amazing:

[pcpranav]

Some more pictures from the museum:

[pcpranav]

Hope I'm allowed to post more of the museum photos :-) enjoy













3D marvel:



Now you can see, its actually a painting marvel giving 3d effect !:







































The garden outside the museum is also good, sat there on the bench for a while, and then tried a timer-based pic of self :

[pcpranav]

after spending about 2+ hours at the museum, I return to hotel and met few colleagues who were leaving for airport. I had extended the stay for one night, and so had to change the room. Settled myself in the new room I had some snacks and then rested for sometime. By 4.30PM I again started from hotel and the plan was to first buy the Holland Pass tourist card. I had already did some research on this matter and so was pretty clear of my requirement. A 10 min walk and I was at the Travelex office, where I exchanged some currency and purchased the "5 ticket" card for Euro 52.

I was already late for the day and knew that some of the attractions I may not be able to cover. Within the Holland Pass, it contains a 24h public transport pass, which needs to be converted into a ticket - which I got it done at the Travelex office itself. The trams over there are a beauty, clean and punctual. A bit of reading the booklet gave an idea of the tram number I need to take for my onward journey. Hopped into the tram, tagged the card on the reader and started enjoying the ride!

In just 5 min, I reached my first place - Dam Square. This was quite a lively place, surrounded by magnificent buildings and monuments.





Magna Plaza shopping arcade:


















after spending about 20-25 min in this area, I again hopped into a tram, another 5 min ride for my next spot - Centraal station. Apart from seeing this major transport junction, there was also another purpose to reach this place, keep watching... The time was about 5.30PM.















I walked inside the station and somehow entered one of the platform, to see this high speed train. Actually had seen many people swiping their travel cards on the barricades to enter the station areas, and I didnt have any such card - luckily I crossed the station from one side to another.

[pcpranav]

After coming on the other side (back) of Centraal station, there lies another set of amazing rides to enjoy - totally FREE, yes!

The GVB operates some Ferry across the river IJ (pronounced 'eye') towards the north (called as 'Noord') of Amsterdam, connecting few islands. Depending on the area you need to visit, you can take either of the 3 ferry. The ferry is quite a large boat, which transports people, bicycles and scooters - totally free. Some of these run 24x7, and its surely an amazing experience.

http://www.amsterdamtips.com/tips/am...y-services.php
http://www.ilovenoord.com/ferry/

First I took the ferry which goes to the Buiksloterweg to visit Eye Film Institute (also visit THIS ). The ride was hardly 5 minutes.









The Eye has several exhibitions and movie shows, along with a lovely big cafeteria overlooking the waters. At its basement, they have free shows but it closes by 5.30PM, and I was already late for it. Nevertheless, I entered the premise for a small walk.




















After my small visit at Eye, I return back via the ferry. Now I choose another ferry going towards NDSM Wharf. Upon reaching the other side, this time I didnt even come out of the boat, but instead just continued with the return journey with new set of passengers :-) The time was 6.45PM (see one of the pic at NSDM having clock)





A floating hotel - Botel :






On the deck, it was windy and quite cold, and I was with just a windcheater jacket!







After the ferry rides, walked across the road and entered the Centraal station to come out the other side, again lucky! Took few pictures from outside the Centraal station and then got a tram going to my hotel area.



The guys cook behind and it was nice watching hands placing the food packets in the empty trays:













The 24 hour public transport ticket. Tickets are sold also within the tram : 1hour, 24hour and many other kinds of.