traveling 12

Prague to Amsterdam, 6.30pm - 10am = 151/2 hour train journey is the longest train journey I've ever done and beats my previous longest train journey of 13 hours which was in Indonesia, Jakarta - Jogjakarta,  many years ago.

We had a sleeper compartment again but this time it was 4 berth, not 6 berth and 2 less people in the same space as the 6 berth is certainly much better. This time we shared with a young Australian guy from Melbourne who is on a trip around Europe and an American lady who is an art curator and spends 6 months in Europe and 6 months in the States. She told us that we have a lovely 

accent. I did sleep on this trip YAY OH YAY and so did Barry YAY OH YAY OH YAY

We had daylight for the first couple of hours of the trip and it was dark just after we crossed 'the border' into Germany. My cheap little Nokia phone sends me 'welcome to ....' messages and the 'Bienvenido a Alemania' (welcome to Germany) arrived on my phone at 8.30pm. I got a few photos from this part of the trip and thought that I'd get some more the next morning, but no I didn't get any more of Germany the next morning because I slept too late. Any way here's some photos

 I saw lots of smoking chimneys 

  the airbwas quite hazy or it was pollution

 Still in Czech

I think this is Germany

in Germany - the last photo because it was very foggy and too dark after this

 in the Netherlands

Amsterdam

I was so happy that we'd decided to do the long train journey - I just loved seeing the countryside going by and the people we got to talk to, not only the ones we shared the compartment with but others we talked to as well and I really like being on a train however I've yet to come across good train food, maybe on the next trip - Amsterdam to Paris

So - made it to Amsterdam on time and the sun was shining, Emma and Sam would be arriving later  around 9.45pm, however the road was about to get rocky.

One of the interesting, sometimes frustrating things about traveling by train is finding the way out of the station once we're off the train. We went in a few circles and found our way to the ticket office to book for the Amsterdam to Paris train and then found our way out of the station. The next thing was to find the apartment. 

Always, when I've booked apartments through 'Housetrip' I've always dealt with the owner and so I thought that I was dealing with the owner of the Amsterdam apartment until I received an email from a lady asking about our arrival time when we were still in Prague. I didn't know who she was or why  I should  tell her and then discovered that I had in fact been dealing with an agency which  lists on 'Housetrip' so first we found our way to the agency, fortunately not far from the station, to pick up the keys. What horrible people - no care, just pay the money. I was really annoyed, first that we had to deal with an agency and they weren't up front about this at all, and then because they were not nice to deal with. 

With the keys and a map in our hands we got on a tram  and off at the right station and finally found the apartment. Barry went up the steps, opened the door and then turned around and said, "The key worked but I think someones still here." but no - the people had gone but the place was an absolute tip - clothes, rubbish, food, bottles everywhere and it stunk of cigarette smoke.

The next few hours were spent sorting out getting it cleaned. No, not so simple as calling the agency, Barry called the number we'd been given to find that he was talking to a call center!!!! we were really angry by this time. The long and the short of it is that cleaners did come and we went out while they did their job, which they did very well, and came back after they were finished, got our bags unpacked and then off to have something to eat and find our way to the airport. Yes it had taken all that time to get the place sorted.

The plane was on time and Emma and Sam duly arrived. It was so wonderful to see them again and to spend 5 days together. Back to the apartment we went to find .... of the 6 lights in the ceiling of the sitting room only 1 worked and the kettle not only didn't work but blew a fuse everywhere we plugged it in. Bloody hell what a rigmarole. So Barry rang the next day and they said they'd fix things up and then rang me to ask if we would go there and pick up the kettle - I was really ticked off and said that no way was that going to happen blah blah blah and off we went to explore Amsterdam.When we got back to the apartment later that night all the lights worked and a new kettle was on the bench minus the stand and cord to make it go. We gave up on getting a working kettle and used a pot on the stove to heat water. 

here's some photos of our first day in Amsterdam