PariTells: Iamsterdam !

Time to travel again. Most recently,last Monday to Amsterdam.

Traveling to Amsterdam for me is not new. Some pictures of snapshots in Amsterdam are very familiar to me though, I’m always excited whenever I am about to be there again.

I had been travelling very often to Amsterdam during 2007 to 2011,due to my social work in educational field. After that ,travelling to Amsterdam has been more for pleasure,some times alone ,some times with a friend or two,to visit some events or to meet and to catch up with other friends in the area or so. Very rare for some business or work.

Last Summer,I was in Amsterdam with a new and challenging role, a local tourguide to show the city and beyond to my Thai folks, who came from Thailand to join the conference there. It was such a lovely and merrily job. As time always flies when you are having much fun,the work was done and ended real fast and without doubt with satisfaction from both sides.That was the last impression I had with myself and my guests in the city.

Heerlen Railway Station,platform 5

Heading to Amsterdam,Monday Morning

I was traveling to Amsterdam again last Monday.Unfortunately,not to explore those tourist sightseeings or attractions as you might have expected. No really, I was not visiting those museums,historical buildings or any other city tours as it might seem to be.I was there fortunately just to see and to spend a lovely time with an old friend,who has been travelling to see me very often already in my town Heerlen. As our gradually-grow-friendship comes from both side of us,it’s now my turn to come to visit him. He lives in the outskirt but the appointment took place in town. We had such a lovely agreements.Two determined plans that both of us loved 1) to eat Peking duck for lunch and 2) to enjoy Asian hightea later afternoon. The plans as well as the catch up went very well. And eventhough it was not such an exploring trip, I couldn’t help behaving like a tourist, taking pictures again and again, perhaps on the same spots which I probably have already taken more than once. But do not worry you would like to see them all again and again too, I am sure.

Another drizzle day

I made the trip to the Dutch capical again this time by train. Thanks to the Dutch Raiways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS for short) which always offers seasonal “cheap” tickets to irregular passengers. The tickets were issued and available at some period of time in the store,not at the ticket counter or automatic machine of NS and they must be used not only in a certain period of time but also at the certain points of time as well.

I must say that normally traveling expenses by train in the Netherlands are quite high. For example, a return ticket Heerlen-Amsterdam-Heerlen, second class will cost you about 51,40 euro. But with this occasional rail cards you will spend only 14,95 euro for the whole day trip, no matter where you are going to and how many time you are going to get on and off. That’s why the tickets have become very attractive,popular and were sold out fairly quickly after a few days released.

So according to the condition of the ticket,it had to be used in the off-hours which were between 9.00 to 16.00 and after 18.30 o’clock. I chose to travel at 9.14 and it took me 2 and a half hour approximately to there. The train left on time and arrived also on estimated time.I thought that was great.At 11.37 I was already in Amsterdam Centraal and met my friend at 12.

st.Nicolas Church,View from front Amsterdam Centraal

As mentioned earlier, I was quite familiar in Amsterdam, especially with the route from the station to Zeedijk where rows of coffee-shops and diverse restaurants lacated,including our meeting point ; Chinese “Eethuis” named “WingKee”. So I just took a walk and was there in just a few minutes.

Traffic on the main road on Monday morning didn’t look much different from the other days, nor the other points of time. But on a small street like Zeedijk at the time of that day, it looked quite sparsely, which I liked a lot. And I was so glad that we met on that day and at that time, not on the weekend or in the evening,that would be certainly much more crowded than this day.

Quiet Zeedijk last Monday !

There are small roads on left & right on Zeedijk

Kailaan Broccoli with Garlic

It was really good to see and to spend time with an old friend again. I loved that momentum. Before I knew it,our lunch passed by so soon. We enjoyed definitely our chat and catch up as well as our favorite roasted Peking duck and red pork,accompanied with Kailaan broccoli with garlic. Well, in fact we always ordered the same menu whenever we came here.The meal was awesome as wished, the meeting was superp.That was exactly what we were looking forwards to .We both were absolutely satisfied. We smiled and life went on !

Roasted Peking Duck & Red Pork

The next program after lunch was to go for Asian high tea. We reserved it for two on Spuistreet. We strolled

from the restaurant, made some stops in some shops and chitchatted along the way We came in the tea house right on time.We were greeted with friendly smile and such a warm welcome.Then tea was served with collection of various bites. I didn’t like this part that much,to be honest. I expected to have some tea with some sweets actually. But what I had experienced in that afternoon was what I thought I would never recommend any of my friends to try it ,even myself ,I would never come back again for the second time though, the better part came later, after a very long while and almost at the same time when we were looking in our eyes making an accord to leave for some sweets somewhere else.

Tea from Jasili Blooming served

Bites for Two,first round

Some Indonesian fresh springrolls

Sweettreats,second round

There came a tray of all sweettreats.In my opinion,nothing was really special. There were “spekkoek”, mixed fresh fruits, some icecream ,a piece of apple with dipsauce for each, little glasses of wipped cream with (again) little pieces of “spekkoek”, and “dadar gulung”. We both tasted a bit of each kind,and that’s enough. It was good to have tried this.We both have experiened Asian High Tea as we were quite curious about it before. It was such a wonderful time together and then it was time to say good bye.

I left Amsterdam at 18.38 and was home at 22.04. Please do not count hours I spent on the way back home. I didn’t want to think-,to talk-, to complain about or to blame the Dutch railways for any inconvenience and all delays for whatever reasons. The journey was long enough and the night seemed be too short at this time of the year. I just needed my warm bed and a very good-night-sleep. So once I was home...Good night! was mine.