László Varga

It has been a while since I have written my last post. It was a busy week, so I really did not find any time to finish my entry-series for the Netherlands. Yes, there is one more post, but this time it is not Amsterdam, it is the Dutch capital: Den Haag.

As I have already mentioned in one one of my older posts, the train ticket to Den Haag Centraal from Amsterdam Sloterdijk station was only €11.20, having bought a Dagretour(“Day-return”) ticket, meaning that we returned to the source station on the same day.

After a short travel by train (45 minutes), we arrived on a quite cloudy day to Den Haag. From there we headed to the nearest information point, which was actually almost in the city center. Actually there are very few information points, compared to Amsterdam: the first sign showing us, that this city is quite different. On the day we arrived there was a great parade for veterans, so the city was really in motion (and we could easily get information&directions from the coordinators of the parade).

Our first target in Den Haag was Madurodam, a miniature city, with most of Hollands’ famous buildings. It is a quite nice place to visit, especially if you’re with children. Nevertheless it is interesting to see as an adult also. The entry ticket is €14.50 (reduced ticket bought from the information point, one € saved 🙂 ). The mini-city is packed with tourists and children and can be very hard to follow the tour of visiting each building in order (there is a total of 198 buildings) and actually until the end of the visit I got quite bored of: got there, see, take picture, move on…

After Madurodam we went out to the sea-side, on tram No. 1 to De Pier. The beach is very nice, it was a great feeling to be on a long, sandy beach after the rocks of Liguria 🙂 … too bad it was cloudy and as we got out, it started to get even foggy. We sat down to a beach-club (open-space) enjoyed a pint of beer and happily concluded that people did not get scared of the not-so-good weather, they rather stayed and enjoyed the beach as much as they could.

Next stop, back to Den Haag city center. We visited the Dutch Parliament buildings Het Binnenhof, a lovely building from the outside, too bad we couldn’t get in… 🙁 . Anyway it was a nice place to just take a walk at. The lake near it was really beautiful.

So much for Den Haag, and our trip to the Netherlands. I can only advise everyone to visit at least once in their life these lovely places from the “lot-to-do-and-see” city, Amsterdam, to the tranquil and calm Den Haag. There are pictures of Den Haag on my Picasa account.

Our 3rd day in Amsterdam was filled with plans to visit some of the more exciting places in the city. We woke up quite late (compared to how much we wanted to see), and headed out to the city center, The Dam Square. Here our first stop was Madame Tussauds, the Amsterdam version of the famous wax-museum. At the entrance we found out, that we could purchase a common ticket with The Amsterdam Dungeon for €37.50. Well, we said well’ give it a try.

At the entrance to Madame Tussauds, we met our first celebrity, with whom we could make a photo (no personal photographing was allowed in that area): the U.S. president, Barack Obama. Nice guy, taller than I thought 😛 . We then moved into an elevator, which took us up into a dark room. Here a giant figure descended, representing Holland. He presented himself as our guide and we could hear his voice (of course recorded) as we were guided through the first dark rooms of the museum, presenting the history of the Netherlands. Light turning on/off guided us through the route right to the point where we could make a choice: move on to experience the terror of pirates and some of the more scary stuff of history or just skip it (it is NOT for the timid at the heart). Well, we were brave guys… so we tried it… we came out laughing, but shaking 😀 . It is realistic: sounds, lights, smell and the addition, which is very cool. No photos were allowed in that area either, so sorry…
After the little ride in history we got up to a nice, quiet place, with an abundance of very famous persons’ wax figures. From here on it is all the excitement we had. Some of the figures were quite realistic, some… well some a bit not too good. At the exit we could buy our Obama photos I think for €8.00, but I am not sure of that.

From Madame Tussauds, it was a short walk on the Rokin street, to get to The Amsterdam Dungeon. At the entrance some strange figures awaited us, very friendly I must say. A guy was standing there for example welcoming people, asking where they were from, and even learning some words of their language.
As soon as enough people gathered (8-10), we were granted the entrance into the dungeon (No photos allowed). The whole ride is made up of a series of visits from one room to the other, each one having a theme. Along the way different actors guide you through, making the experience as realistic as possible. It was great, but for some reason, I think the Madame Tussauds adventure, we were not really scared this time 🙂 . There were two photo opportunities, (we could buy the photos at the exit): one at the entrance, and one in the mini-roller-coaster (that is quite interesting, too 🙂 ) (We payed for the 4 photos, a reduce price of €25.00).

Next stop was our visit to the Heineken Experience, which is not far away from the city center, really close actually to Museumplein. For this we have bought the tickets online for €15.00, so we could skip the line (it was actually not a long one). We were taken through the history of Heineken Breweries, and had the chance to experience first hand some of the tasks of beer brewing. We even got the chance to taste an initial juice made from squashing the grain (quite sweet). Then we went up a level, where there was a special room, to experience what it feels like to be a beer being brewed (quite funny). At the labeling section we had the chance to make our own customized label on one of the Heineken beers for €5.00 using credit cards (we could pick them up at the exit). A few rooms showing the later success story of Heineken followed including a larger room with the “Heineken Sport Experience” (I liked this). All in all it was great it was worth the money: especially because it had 3 beers included 😀 . Photos are allowed everywhere, with virtually no restrictions.

During our very busy morning and afternoon, we didn’t realize how much time has passed, and how hungry we got. We headed out for some great (not too healthy) meal… but where? Well, let’s try Hard Rock Cafe. It is a quite nice place located on the banks of one of the canals a little to the north from the Rijksmuseum. The experience was quite good, we ate a lot, we got filled up. Oh yes: our waitress was a very friendly polish girl, with whom we did chat along a bit, and found out some details about the city’s life 🙂 .

After our lunch (or already dinner I think) we went for a canal-trip on one of the long-boats of the city (€15.00) it is quite nice, although it was by far not the fun of partying people on their own boats…

So, I think this post concludes our visit to Amsterdam. A lot has been done, it was a very nice experience, and I’d recommend it to everyone, it is one of the best cities I have visited! Thanks again for our host, who let us stay in her apartment in this period 😀 . Photos here.

P.S. Red Light District? Well, don’t be so curious 😛 .

My two full days in Amsterdam I think deserve special post, for each day. So here I go 🙂 . For our second day after our arrival we have proposed to visit a list of museums, using several guides that we have collected the previous day at info-points (I suggest to gather these tourist-guide booklets/fliers, they contain a lot of info).

Our first target was Museumplein, Amsterdam’s square of museums. Out of the four museums of Museumplein, we have first visited the Rijksmuseum (the Dutch National museum – ticket price: €11.00, no cellphones or photos allowed). Most of the exhibits in this museum are works of great dutch artists, the most famous of them being Rembrandt, having also one of his greatest masterpieces, the The Night Watch exposed.

The next museum we have visited, was the Van Gogh Museum, a museum dedicated to the famous dutch painter (ticket price €12.50, no photos). Although I am not a big fan of his works, I could find out a lot about his life and about the people he was surrounded with in his lifetime. It is worth a visit, though I feel the price/value ratio of the Rijksmuseum is higher (I just liked it more… 😛 ).

The third museum to visit was the Diamond Museum, (ticket price: €7.50, photos without flash are allowed). Although photos were allowed, I was not very impressed with this museum. If one really does not know much about diamonds, then it provides a lot of info, but… On the other hand the crown-collection of the museum was quite interesting.
Next to the Diamond Museum lies Coster Diamonds, one of the oldest diamond polishing workshops which is still operational. Here we have received a tour-guide for free. We were actually quite surprised when we were greeted by her, in Romanian (because before entering we have completed a questionnaire of who we are/where we’re from). We were guided through the factory as well as through the diamond exhibitions. I do not know why, but I constantly had the feeling that our guide was trying to be quick enough to just get through with the business and escape from us (especially after it got obvious, as if it wasn’t before, that we will not spend thousands of euros buying their precious diamonds… 🙂 ). Anyway we learned stuff about polishing diamonds, so it is worth a visit 😉 .

The next thing we have visited, which was quite cool was the House of Bols a great experience of taste, smell and of course history: the history of the Bols liqueur. The entrance fee here was €11.50, but this included a cocktail of our choice and we were also allowed to taste different flavors of Bols. It is a quite cool place, don’t miss it: it is right across the street from the Van Gogh Museum’s main entrance.

Next we went to eat something, as we were already starving, and our liqueur tasting experience was endangering our visit to Heineken Experience. We sat down at one of the many cafe’s and ordered something to eat. The food, as it proved to be very common in Amsterdam, was plentiful and delicious. We could barely move after it.

Actually the huge lunch got to be the real danger which made us postpone our visit to the Heineken Experience to the other day: we decided to visit the Anne Frank House that evening. This house is a museum dedicated to a Jewish girl, who wrote his very famous diary here while hiding from the Nazis. Usually there is quite a long line in front of it, so we could consider ourselves lucky to wait only about 10 minutes before getting in. (I would advise anyone to go in the evening, there is much more chance of actually getting in). The entry ticket price is €8.50 for adults and it is again, worth the money. The rooms are unfurnished, but a lot of pictures, miniature models and videos present the arrangement of the house in those days. Also there are a lot of videos with interviews and stories about Anne’s life.
Before exiting the museum, do not miss the Free 2 Choose hall, where you can sit down, watch interesting and important decisions of our recent history, and the vote: what’s your opinion? It is actually quite interesting to see what other people vote and have voted over time 🙂 .

We had a little more time after the Anne Frank House, and as we were headed back towards the city center, we stopped at the Torture Museum (€7.50) completely worthless, and in the Hash Marihuana Hemp Museum and Gallery (€7.50): this was a bit better and we were allowed to take photos 🙂 .

So… nine place in one day and a LOT of walking… I think it was quite a performance 🙂 . The next day, however, I think was a bit better….

The fastest and easiest method of transportation in the Netherlands is probably by train. Actually there are several companies running their trains on the railway tracks of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways), but most of them actually belong to the main company. It is fairly easy to use the train network, because there are trains from everywhere to everywhere in almost every half an hour (in some cases every ten minutes). It is also interesting to note, that on the NS trains the ticket prices are the same, no matter of the class of the train (only the distance traveled is taken into consideration). One can imagine, that I was very curious to experience this seemingly high quality system.

After arriving to Eindhoven Central station, we ate a sandwich, and headed to find a ticket issuing machine to buy our tickets… surprise, surprise there were lots of machines, just like in Italy. They also accepted cash, credit cards or so called “Chipknips” (no idea what they are). Just like in Italy, all of the machines were unable to accept cash anymore… 😕 … No problem, we said.. we have all sorts of credit cards, exactly for these kinds of situations… and here comes the even bigger surprise: they only accept Maestro cards. Guess which one we did not have… I actually do not understand: Maestro is operated by MasterCard … we tried MasterCard, and no response… Strange 😕 …

Well, luckily nothing is impossible in the Netherlands: there is also a ticket office, with people in it 😀 (imagine the joy…). We bought our ticket (€18.40) and asked: “When does it leave?”… “In four minutes.”…. (now imagine the surprise and the speed we rushed out of the office…). We did not actually hope that the train would be late… and it wasn’t… we barely made it in time…

Our first train of the Netherlands was a nice yellow double decker Intercity. They are actually quite nice, and new… well not as nice as the brand new Italian versions, but nice… During the train ride, a nice gentleman said something gibberish on the speaker from time to time (Dutch is actually much easier to read than to understand… ), announcing stations and other stuff. After a 1 hour and 20 minutes trip we finally arrived to Amsterdam Centraal (imagine the joy again… 🙂 ). This time the speaker announced it in English also (oh, yes, that city really gets a lot from tourists… 😛 ).

About Amsterdam, in another post… but first I’d like to give some more info about NS: return-journey tickets. Return-journey tickets (Dagretour), are tickets which can be used only on the same day on the return-route from your destination. We have tried that when we visited Den Haag: the ticket was €11.20 and it said it was with 40% off. It is definitely worth a try 😉 .

Apart from these “normal trains”, Thalys and the German ICE operate their trains under the control of NS Hispeed, a subdivision of NS. Their prices and tickets have to be acquired separately and cost more (http://www.nshispeed.nl).

So much about train traveling 🙂 . All in all it is a nice experience, and the fact that it almost always works is a great thing. In Italy things seldom work well, but when they do, they might be a bit better than the dutch version (buying tickets is easier, new trains more comfortable, high-speed trains also present).