4 hours in Amsterdam - how to fillit !

jonesMUFCforever

IMO 4 hours in Amsterdam then moving on to Brussels for a couple of hours - complete waste of time - you will be exhausted - just view the videos on YouTube.

Murphy_The_Cat

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

IMO 4 hours in Amsterdam then moving on to Brussels for a couple of hours - complete waste of time - you will be exhausted - just view the videos on YouTube.

Thank you for not helping with my query.

In your life, do you ever do something purely for the pleasure of going it ? If not, I suggest that you give it a go - my memory banks (& that of my children) are filled with "wastes of time", where (according to your opinion) we would have been better off viewing the video.

814man

Definitely the canal trip if you can. Just be aware however that on occasion they can get busy and run late. I went a few weeks back and having set off we were stuck in a queue at a bridge due to the number of boats trying to get through (to be fair this was a Saturday evening so may have been more busy than usual). No problem for us as we were just relaxing on the boat but there were a couple who had reservations at a top restaurant and who had to ask the boat to pull over so they could get off the trip early.
And I may be the only person on here who was pretty underwhelmed by the floating flower market.
A wander around the Jordaan area and a few cafe stops sound great to me.

eDicky

There are several boat rondvaart (roundtrip) outfits near the central station, so that would be a good use of your time without having to spend it traveling around the city.

An alternative I would consider in your situation would be to take the 397 bus from the airport to Leidseplein, a lively square in the city centre, and walk from there to Centraal Station. Dam Square is on the way, as is the flower market, but that's probably not worth wasting time on. Cafe Luxembourg at Spui (pron. 'spow') is popular with locals.

Or a bit more adventurous and less touristy would be to take the no.10 tram from Leidseplein to Marnixbad then wander eastward though the Jordaan district and onward to Dam, CS.

I would avoid the regular tourist attractions such as Anne Frank House and diamond museum etc, spending your precious time in queues and tourist congestion - but then I always avoid that sort of thing myself anyway.

CardinalWolsey

Just make sure you don't sit in the wrong type of coffee shop...

Murphy_The_Cat

CardinalWolsey wrote: »

Just make sure you don't sit in the wrong type of coffee shop...

naive country bumpkin that I am, I probably wouldn't notice !

Voyager2002

CardinalWolsey wrote: »

Just make sure you don't sit in the wrong type of coffee shop...

Most of them serve ordinary coffee as well as the other stuff, and have comfortable chairs. However, you might not want to buy your daughter any 'space cake'.

Toni'sfriend

Four hours isn't very long so taking a boat trip from outside the Central Station is a good idea - it will let you get a feel for the place. I agree the flower market isn't really that interesting if your time is limited and the attractions do tend to have long queues. I'd just wander about if I were you. There is a really nice bar/cafe in the station called 1st Klass. It's on Platform 1 or 2 and you have to go upstairs to get to it.
Wonderful city. I hope you enjoy it.

zagubov

Amsterdam's a lovely place but do keep a firm hand on your bags and valuables. We nearly got a bag lifted by some "tourists" pretending to need directions.

Don't be alarmed- it's no worse than Oxford Street.

Toni'sfriend

Amsterdam's a lovely place but do keep a firm hand on your bags and valuables. We nearly got a bag lifted by some "tourists" pretending to need directions.

Don't be alarmed- it's no worse than Oxford Street.

I would agree with that . No worse than any major city but be careful especially at the station.