Euskirchen to Amsterdam

We had an enjoyable breakfast at the hotel then checked out and walked along to our friends’ house. While there I managed to book a hotel in The Hague for the first two nights of our eight-day cycling trip. We were soon at the station saying our goodbyes, which was very sad. The train took us to Cologne Hbf where we changed to a train to Duisburg. That’s where things fell apart, as the next train was cancelled and we could have taken a bus but the very helpful chap at the DB Information kiosk suggested we have a rest in Duisburg then take a later train to Mönchengladbach from where we could change to a fast train to Amsterdam. We’d arrive later but have a less stressful journey. Mönchengladbach has form with us. We were once on a coach from Munich to Bonn with our Brompton fold ups, thought the coach was going into the centre of Bonn as well as stopping on the outskirts, so didn’t get off and ended up 80kms away in Mönchengladbach, where a wonderful “fat controller” helped us get a train back to Bonn and insisted we buy a group ticket for 5 as that was the cheapest. We’ve never forgotten him. 

Well, what a journey!  We got as far as s-Hertogdenbosch and the train would go no further. Apparently there was something on the line further towards  Amsterdam. So a whole trainload of people disembarked and then piled onto a train going to Utrecht and further to Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA and Amsterdam Zuid. We could have changed at Utrecht but chose to travel on to Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA and take the Metro to Amsterdam Centraal. Of course, that wasn’t the end of it.  We arrived at Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA and the chap who’d been sitting with us on the train pointed out the Metro.  Unfortunately, it would have been better if we’d headed for the InterCity, but we didn’t realise that until later … after we’d bought Metro tickets.  However, eventually we arrived in Amsterdam Centraal, four hours late.

We found our hotel quite easily, dropped our luggage and went out to find somewhere to eat.  We walked around for a very short time and chose a café that looked well patronised, which turned out to be a tapas bar.  We sat outside and people watched, as well as watching all the bicycles whizzing by … so good to see.

Now it’s time to blip and then get to bed ready to start our next adventure in the morning, when we’ll cycle to The Hague.

The main blip shows all the stations we’ve been through today - Euskirchen, Cologne (padlocks on the bridge), Duisburg, Mönchengladbach, Eindhoven, s-Hertogenbosch, Utrecht Centraal, Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA.  The extra shows the tiled entrance to our hotel in Euskirchen, the view as we left Amsterdam Centraal Station, and buildings near our hotel and the tapas bar where we had supper.