I had
dreamed and planned to have a holiday in Europe for a very, very long time. It
became a reality this year. In January 2013, my elder sister, Eliza, was
looking for people to join her tour group and she asked me whether I was
interested. I made a quick decision and said “yes”. I paid her the deposit and
the tour agency would advise when to pay the rest of the full payment and the
itinerary.
The trip
would be a 10 days, 7 nights trip to cover Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and
London. I discussed with my boss of my intended holiday and informed him that I
planned to take two weeks leave. He agreed but advised me to remind him again
two weeks before my planned leave and to also ensure that I briefed and
handover my duties to my deputy.
The day of
departure came and I was really excited. I followed the weather reports and
noted the temperatures would be quite cold this early spring.
The tour
group assembled at KLIA by 8.30PM at the International Check-in floor. However,
a few of the members arrived a little late but still in time for the group
check-in. The group consisted of 19 people(18 participants and the tour
leader). Our flight to Amsterdam was 23.55 (11.55PM) and scheduled to arrive at
Schiphol Airport 5.15AM (Amsterdam time). I could not sleep very well during
the 12 hours flight because of the stiff back rest and was not very
comfortable. However, as we exited Schiphol Airport to board the coach, the
blast of cold air really awakened me. We were greeted by our guide for the day,
Adi and the coach driver, Martin. Martin is from Amsterdam while Adi is from
Jakarta but has worked in Amsterdam for 8 years.
First stop
of the day was to Zaanse Schans. It is a Show Village where the old Dutch
traditional houses and windmills are relocated from various parts of
Netherlands and restored. Other attractions at Zaanse Schans for visitors to
see were the demonstrations on how cheese and the traditional clogs are made.
There are two or three shops selling souvenirs and two or three cafes. After
the allotted two and half hours, we
boarded the coach and headed to Volendam, a traditional fishing village.
When we arrived at Volendam, it does not resemble like a fishing village at all. The houses there were neat and the view was beautiful. Along the narrow street, many eateries and souvenir shops aligned on the both sides. There were also shops that takes pictures of customers who would dressed-up in traditional Dutch clothes for a fee. We had lunch of fish and potatoes in Volendam at one of the restaurants picked by Adi, our guide. After lunch, we re-boarded the coach and was taken around Amsterdam for a city-tour. As part of the city-tour, we stopped at a diamond polishing factory and also a canal cruise. I enjoyed the canal cruise because it allowed me to view Amsterdam from a different perspective.
As the
city-tour ended, Adi bade farewell and Martin(the coach driver) drove us to our
hotel which was located not far from Schiphol Airport. We finally checked-in to
our rooms by 6.30PM. After that long day, I welcomed a shower. My roommate was
my nephew, Emil (sister Eliza’s youngest son). We had dinner in our room with
some packed foodstuff that we had brought with us from KL.
Amsterdam Day
2 – after breakfast, we were taken to visit the Flower Market where tourists
could see the flowers were traded by the thousands, similar to share market. In
the large warehouse, hundreds of large trolleys filled with all kind of flowers
could be seen. This visit took us an hour to complete.
Our next visit
for the day was the famous Keukenhof Tulip Gardens. The time allotted for us was
4 hours. This tulip garden is so large that even in that allotted time, we
could only cover about 70 percent of the whole place. Visitors are only allowed
to walk (wheel-chair for the handicapped) and I needed to rest several times to
complete the visit within 4 hours. Lunch was the packed food we brought along
with us but we purchased hot coffee and mini-pancakes from one of the food
outlets there.
When the time
was up, we boarded the coach and off into Amsterdam for our own free and easy
walk-about around the city. Most would shop for souvenirs, to take pictures and
also to look for food to take-away for dinner later. My sister and I bought
some food from an Arab snack shop located at a side-street.
(Next - Day 3- by coach to Brussels and
Paris).
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