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It's been a while since our last entry but we need to finish writing about the trip!! My memory has faded a bit so hopefully I can recall what we did in The Netherlands.
We took a train from Bruges (Belgium) to Amsterdam via Antwerp. While we didn't stop in Antwerp itself, we had a few minutes to take in the magnificent Central Train Station. Gold, marble, glass, iron, it was a sight to see. Train travel must have been extremely glamorous back in the early 1900's.
Amsterdam
We arrived in Amsterdam on a bit of a dreary, rainy day which made getting to our hotel that much more draining. The hotel was in a pretty decent location and was within a fair walking distance to Rembrandt Square. Our room was tiny, it was only a couple inches wider than the queen size futon bed so space was definitely an issue but we made due.
Over the course of the next few nights we had some interesting neighbours. First we had two loud snoring guys who would roll out of bed around 11am and soak the floor of the bathroom when they showered. Then there were a couple of teenage girls who would laugh, scream and jump on the beds while gossiping in Dutch into the wee hours of the night. They sounded like chipmunks on drugs. My repeated pounding on the thin wall between the rooms silenced them the first night, we called security on them the second night at 1 am! Even though our accommodation left a little to be desired, the hotel manager was super nice and really made our stay memorable.
Enough about our hotel, Amsterdam is an amazing city. I had been to Amsterdam before in 2008 and was really excited to come back and share the experience with Yasi. The old 17th and 18th century buildings mixed with all the canals, bikes and boat houses give it such a different feel than so many other cities in Europe. Couple the great cityscape with excellent food and people and you've got a fantastic destination.
We walked all over the city and found little markets, shops and hidden restaurants serving seriously great food. Once such place we found by chance using the Trip Advisor mobile app!
Since we finally were in a major city center over the weekend we were able to check out a club, Studio 80, for some great music and dancing.
Eindhoven
After 6 nights in Amsterdam we took a train to Eindhoven for a couple days. Eindhoven is where RyanAir flies out of, and the reason why we ended up there. We figured we would spend a couple nights here to see the area before leaving for London on September 1st.
Eindhoven had been virtually obliterated during WWII so we were quite surprised by the modern architecture that greeted us when we arrived. This was actually a nice change of pace from all the old buildings we had been seeing since we got to Europe. We went on lots of walks, enjoying tea and coffee in little shops and did a little window shopping. Eindhoven is a big shopping destination because of a large design school in the city.
Both Yasi and I were in full out job search mode by this time. I was doing interviews with one company and Yasi was getting calls from recruiters. We both spent a lot of time registering on job websites and doing research on LinkedIn. This was a little difficult at times because we could only get a good wifi signal if we put our netbook right up against the window and stood there!
Eindhoven was a nice little city to wind up our travels from and to prepare for our arrival in London. There were a bunch of times where we thought to ourselves "I can't believe our travels are over" or "god I can't wait to sleep in the same bed for more than a week at a time!". We had been on the road for 6 months with the exception of our 3 week stop in Toronto in June so we were both looking forward to a sense of normality and a daily routine.
More to come from London!
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