Crossing to the land below the sea

Booked a last minute trip to Netherlands on the Thursday in time for the Easter weekend break. Ended up taking the Stena Line ferry option from Harwich to Hoek van Holland. Total cost including rail from Liverpool St and rail on the other side of the North Sea comes up to £135 - not too bad considering all the air tickets I found starts from £180. In additional, I only have to take care of the other night of accommodation during my stay.

At Liverpool St, the group ended up taking a National Express coach rather than rail although the ticket does not specifically state that it was rail after a second look. On arrival and checkin, was pleasantly surprised to find a double cabin all to myself, nice and comfy, together with a toilet in many ways better than some of the hotels that I have stayed in. If only there was a satellite TV or wifi onboard!

Arriving at Hoek van Holland the next morning, I took a train to Rotterdam Central and changed to another to Amsterdam Central. Journey was relatively fuss-free and smacked in the Amsterdam by 10.30am. Orienting myself, I moved on from Amsterdam to another nearby town/city called Haarlem (reminds me of Harlem in NY) to get on to another tiny town call Hillegom. I had read from the travel section of Sunday Times that from 20 Mar for 3 months every year, the tulip bulbs are in full bloom and is sight not to be missed. Although I was at the very start of the season, I was confident to see the bloom after another extremely mild winter - at least in UK. Unfortunately I missed my station and had to drop on the next before taking another one back. As this was a slow train, the turnaround meant I had lost 45min. A local was very kind to ask me to turn back as the weather started to sleet and black clouds started to move in. He suggested I had to either walk 6km minimum to see any tulip fields OR "take" a bike from the hundreds parked at the station to help with my journey. After considering my options, I decided to get back to Amsterdam instead to focus on my other task - find an accommodation for the night.

My advice to anyone going to Amsterdam is make sure you don't get knocked down by the bikes, as I noticed that the drivers are actually more afraid of the riders, and the city is seriously overrun by bikes, in true dutch form. Try to imagine a typical carpark, but filled with bikes to the extend of overflow!!! This is maniac...I had to move fast as there seems to be ever more tourists dropping off the trains every other minute. Knocking on the doors of the hostels proved fruitless, although I was slightly surprised to hear that the youth hostels are charging EUR60 a bed/night. After walking 6 hours and knocking on over 20 hotels, I came to the conclusion that all the hotels under EUR100 a night have been fully booked. It was the first time I've seen every hotel putting up a sign saying "FULL". I had to resort to the chain hotels after hour 8 and it was seriously getting dark - EUR170 for IBIS and EUR250 for Marriott - I have decided, I will spend the night at Schiphol Airport as I am definitely not going to spend this kind of money just to sleep for the night. After resting my leg and having a hot dumpling noodle soup at chinatown, it started to snow, and I mean real snow, it was such an amazing sight (sorry, but I have a real weakness when it comes to snowing). I strolled along the Red Light district and everything was already covered in a thin layer of snow, it was so incredible. I wasn't even interested in looking at the ladies in the windows as I happily started to snap pictures of the snowy sight (although I read later that it is strongly discouraged not to take pictures along this stretch to prevent your camera going into the canals,so beware).

One of the other great benefit of this trip was that the ticket issued for Netherlands literally covers all your trips you make during that day. So if you are adventurous and crazy enough, you can be in Eindhoven in the morning, Utrecht in the afternoon and Amsterdam at night by rail - all for free!!!

So I ended up at Schiphol airport at 10pm, washed up, found myself a seat beside the departure gate as it was empty, and made myself comfortable; or as less uncomfortable as possible. I did manage to finish watching the movie Closer before trying to catch a wink. After 1am, I was constantly woken up by passengers streaming in to catch the early morning flight - so another lesson for potential airport sleepers, make sure you stay away as far as possible from the departure and arrival gates. I ended up moving downstairs to the departure hall instead as the interruptions were really annoying me while trying to catch some sleep. Downstairs, even though it was slight better, it still was pretty much an ordeal - I just wanted to get through the night!

Up at 6am, washed up, had my leftover bread from yesterday to get some energy going, I took the next train back into Amsterdam. As expected, the place was quiet but it was a really good time to walk around, and everything was still covered in snow, PRETTY! One thing I noticed about the Dutch people, they are ever so friendly. Everyone who walked past me said hi and smiled or wave at me, very nice! If you like taking pictures, this is the best time as you hardly see any locals at this time, let alone tourists. The 3 main roads circling the main city would be my recommendation if you want to experience the local feel. I stopped by a cafe beside Ann Frank's house called bagel and coffee for breakfast, and the free wifi was very handy as I pulled more maps from Multimap (but what else?) to check for directions. I found Gary's muffin (although the shop had a different name) and decided to go try it out. The special for the day was choco and nut, not spectacular, but wasn't expecting anything extraordinary from the Dutch. The pancake shop was sadly not opened until 12pm. Made my way to the Stedelijk Museum, mainly modern contemporary and excellent in one of the displays showing the highlights of Magnum Photos. Then it started to snow heavily again, although this time it was not cold enough for the snow to accumulate on the ground. After lunch, I made my way back to Hillegom and this time round, decided to walk. After checking that I was on the right direction with a local, I proceeded hastily as it started to sleet again!!! After about 5km, I was finding myself walking along huge fields of tulips on both sides of the road. Unfortunately, they have yet to bloom!!! But one can only imagine the spectacle come April. I did manage to find a small patch with some bulbs that have started to bloom earlier. ;)

After walking for an hour, I ended up at the Keukenhof garden, which I wasn't keen to go in as I wanted to see the tulips in the fields, not nicely cultivated and probably forced to bloom for the hundreds of tourists arriving by the bus loads. Was ripped off by having to pay EUR10 to take a bus back to the airport where I transferred on to another train to Rotterdam Central. By the time I reached Rotterdam, my lack of sleep was seriously kicking in and I wasn't up to anymore walking, I camped out at a local MacDonalds for coffee with a deco that easily puts many restaurants to shame. By 8pm, I was back at Hoek van Holland and checked into my cabin again for a nice hot shower, especially for my aching shoulders and blistered toes that was bleeding through my socks.

All in all, it was a nice trip, other than the part of the journey in Schiphol. But I finally managed to get up and close personal with the city more famous for its grass and sleaze than its arts or waterways. The snow was definitely a bonus but the other highlight was again my "off the beaten track" journey to find tulips - in an unusual way.