While my nine-year-old daughter, Ana, is spending a week at Scouting Camp, my five-year-old son, Max, gets the luxury of getting to do fun things with me for the week.
Yesterday we traveled to Amsterdam to see Cars 2 in 3D at the Pathé Tuschinski cinema and then to visit Amstelpark. With the convenience of the internet, I purchased the tickets for the film online. Using the public transportation planner 9292ov, I routed out of entire itinerary for the day so I knew which tram, train, bus and metro to take. The day was planned out.
We needed to leave precisely at 9:49 am in order to catch the bus to get to the train station. However, one thing I didn't factor into our plan was Kid Slowness. There should be an option when planning trips. Are you travelling with adults? Normal arrival times. With kids? Oh, in that case, add an extra 15 minute delay per kid per stop. And don't forget to take a pair of extra underwear in case they poop their pants (a bit of foreshadowing here for what is to occur later on).
As we opened the house door, the bus drove by. So we jumped in the car and quickly crossed our neighborhood to the 3rd stop after our house. I parked the car, got out and and as Max was packing up the Nintendo DS that he brought and unlocking his seatbelt, the bus drove off. OK, back in the car. I contemplated driving to the train station, but I wasn't sure where I could park for free, so I decided we would once again try to beat the bus to the third stop. Driving quickly through the neighborhood, we got to the Fatimastraat bus stop. We parked the car along the street and quickly walked to the bus stop. Just as we arrived, the bus was coming down the street. The man already waiting on the bus told me, "You managed to time that rather well." Uh, yeah. ;-)
Keeping with our plan, we arrived at the train station with enough time to grab some goodies from the Albert Heijn To Go. Considering I had to drag Max out of bed after 9 am, breakfast this morning would be in the train. It's vacation, so I splurged a bit and let Max pick out some sugar coated donuts. We grabbed some snacks and drinks for the film as I know how expensive those things can be at the cinema. Considering everything is already bought and paid for, I withdrawal €20 for some mad money along the way. But the time we make it up to the platform, our train has just left. This time I can't blame Kid Slowness, but rather Mama Hold Up. You know, when Mama has to make sure we have everything on hand before going anywhere and holds everyone up!
The 20 minute wait for our train gave us some time to eat our breakfast. I have to admit, I felt a bit of guilt as my son ate his sugary coated confectioneries on a bench. But I kept telling myself, "It's vacation and we don't do this everyday!"
We boarded the Fyra HiSpeed train to Amsterdam, which meant within 1 hour and 12 minutes we would arrive at the Centraal Station whereas the normal train takes nearly two hours. A round trip ticket for an adult and child on the Fyra HiSpeed train costs €48.20, but I bought a special fare from the Hema for one adult + child for an all-day train ticket for €14.50. Score!
We boarded the train and found a nice spot with a small table on the side to put all our stuff. Max and I played a few games of Tic Tac Toe, or "Kruisje Nulletje" as it is called in Dutch until he decided playing a few games on the Nintendo DS would be more interesting. Two ladies to our left were talking incessantly and within seconds I detected an American accent from the woman sitting closest to us. She has a very nasal sound, which led me to believe she was from the northeast part of the US. While I have to commend her on her fluency of the Dutch language, her horrible accent compounded my already existent headache. She was extremely loud and I wasn't interested in hearing every word of her conversation. She ranks up there with the other annoying people who choose to loudly display their dialogue exchange via their cell phones in public. These people make me wish they were in line behind me at the public rest rooms right after I've eaten an enormous amount of beans.
Thirty minutes off schedule, but still adequate time to find our location, we arrived at Centraal Station. Having absolutely no experience travelling within the tram system of Amsterdam, I located the tram stop and waited for the appropriate tram line. I told Max we were going to be getting on
(And this is where I left off and never continued. Perhaps one day I will remember what happened on that day and finish the story. Sorry, folks.)
The 20 minute wait for our train gave us some time to eat our breakfast. I have to admit, I felt a bit of guilt as my son ate his sugary coated confectioneries on a bench. But I kept telling myself, "It's vacation and we don't do this everyday!"
We boarded the Fyra HiSpeed train to Amsterdam, which meant within 1 hour and 12 minutes we would arrive at the Centraal Station whereas the normal train takes nearly two hours. A round trip ticket for an adult and child on the Fyra HiSpeed train costs €48.20, but I bought a special fare from the Hema for one adult + child for an all-day train ticket for €14.50. Score!
We boarded the train and found a nice spot with a small table on the side to put all our stuff. Max and I played a few games of Tic Tac Toe, or "Kruisje Nulletje" as it is called in Dutch until he decided playing a few games on the Nintendo DS would be more interesting. Two ladies to our left were talking incessantly and within seconds I detected an American accent from the woman sitting closest to us. She has a very nasal sound, which led me to believe she was from the northeast part of the US. While I have to commend her on her fluency of the Dutch language, her horrible accent compounded my already existent headache. She was extremely loud and I wasn't interested in hearing every word of her conversation. She ranks up there with the other annoying people who choose to loudly display their dialogue exchange via their cell phones in public. These people make me wish they were in line behind me at the public rest rooms right after I've eaten an enormous amount of beans.
Thirty minutes off schedule, but still adequate time to find our location, we arrived at Centraal Station. Having absolutely no experience travelling within the tram system of Amsterdam, I located the tram stop and waited for the appropriate tram line. I told Max we were going to be getting on
(And this is where I left off and never continued. Perhaps one day I will remember what happened on that day and finish the story. Sorry, folks.)
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