I’ve made it to Amsterdam and have found it to be a colourful and diverse city so far. Tomorrow is the day I see Nightwish but first about my journey here.
Yesterday I made my way up to the Travelodge in Luton where I checked in and chilled for a bit while waiting for my friends who were joining me from another direction. After they arrived we chatted for a bit about the arrangements for the weekend before finding a local pub for dinner. It was quite a nice pub and I had a great steak and chicken combo. After dinner we made it back to the hotel for an early night ready for our early flight to Amsterdam this morning.
Today we made our way to the airport car park before making our transfer to the airport. There isn’t much to do at Luton Airport other than wait for your flight so there’s not much to report except we were glad when it was time for our flight. We flew with Easyjet so there was the usual panic for seats but we left on time and we were soon on our way to Amsterdam.
After arriving we made our way to the airport station and travelled into the city by train. The journey was quick so we arrived in the city too early to be able to check into the hotel and decided to have lunch instead. We found a fast food outlet just around the corner from the hotel that had free wi-fi so we chilled there for a while. The food was nice but a piece of advice for anybody who, like me, really dislikes mayonnaise – they put it on everything whether you want it or not so stay away from fast food outlets and stick with supermarkets or nicer restaurants.
We checked in and made our way straight into the city centre to look around. One of the first places we stopped was Dam Square which is the main meeting point in Amsterdam and seems to be the hub of activity like the South Bank in London. Like the South Bank they also had people dressed up in costumes like Ghostface and Darth Vader who, for a small fee, would pose for photos with you. I decided to take on Ghostface but became his next victim.
My friends were feeling sleepy so chilled back in the hotel for a bit with food from the local supermarket while I wandered around the city checking out some more sights including the Anne Frank House, The Homomonument, several churches and many, many canals. The Homomonument was an especially moving sight as it’s a memorial made up of three pink triangles within a larger triangle which commemorates the LGBT victims of the Second World War.
After getting back to the hotel I saw my friend was making a skype call to the orphanage in Uganda where she volunteered for a few months (I visited during my last trip abroad) so I joined in the conversation to say hi. It was great to see how the kids were getting on a catch up about Uganda related things. However an early night is needed tonight, however, ready for a long day of queuing outside the Heineken Music Hall to see Nightwish so I’ll be signing off for now.