4 hours in Amsterdam - how to fillit !

onomatopoeia99

If your daughter likes art, then the Rijksmuseum. That will take up a good part of your time looking at all the paintings. Actually, you could probably just stare at "The Night Watch" for that long on its own, as it is mesmerizing (17 years since I visited Amsterdam and I still remember it vivdly).

Murphy_The_Cat

the Rijksmuseum sounds like a good call, but art isn't something that she would really enjoy.

Toni'sfriend

The Rijksmuseum is indeed wonderful but a bit far from the station if you have a limited amount of time. I don't know how old your daughter is but there are a lot of shops within walking distance from the station.

zagubov

The next time, if you have longer, you might want to show her some of Escher's art, but the museum is probably hours away from Amsterdam.

I went to see some his work when the collection came to London and it doesn't take long to see but it's very intriguing.

Murphy_The_Cat

Yesterday was our day out to Amsterdam.
Up at 02.00 to get to the station for the train to the airport.

Train went to plan.
Flight went to plan.
The 4 hours in Amsterdam was 3.5 hours by the time we left Central Station.
We had time for canal trip, wander to the flower market and bought some bits and pieces, a light lunch and beer and back to the station for the Eurostar trip to Brussels.
Amsterdam for 3.5 hours was lovely !!


Brussels by comparison was a let down. The area around the station was quite "grim" and not really a place we felt particularly comfortable wandering around. Back to the station for the Eurostar to London.
Tea in London.
Last train to the NW from Euston
Home at 00.30. Knackered but memories that'll last for a long time.


If only we could have come back direct from Amsterdam to London, without the Brussels bit ! Another couple of hours in Amsterdam would have been very welcome. But we did manage to eat in 3 capital cities in a single day :beer:

Duckyduck

Glad you had a good day out, it’s a shame about Brussels being a let down for you.

If there’s a next time, take a local Belgian train one stop to Brussels Central station. It’s by the main square and cathedral, tourist central but a nice atmosphere and you’d of had a good amount of time for it.

I’d have mentioned it before by my first Eurostar trip to Brussels was also yesterday!

Murphy_The_Cat

Duckyduck wrote: »

Glad you had a good day out, it’s a shame about Brussels being a let down for you.

If there’s a next time, take a local Belgian train one stop to Brussels Central station. It’s by the main square and cathedral, tourist central but a nice atmosphere and you’d of had a good amount of time for it.

I’d have mentioned it before by my first Eurostar trip to Brussels was also yesterday!

Thank you for the suggestion - I'll give that a go next time.
After the loveley time we'd had from Amsterdam Central Station, I suppose that we'd (illogically) imagined that the area around Brussels-Midi would be nice as well. Which it isn't !

Kentish_Dave

I wish I’d read this previously, I live in Amsterdam for work nowadays, but you seem to have hit the main points. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

jackieblack

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Yesterday was our day out to Amsterdam.
Up at 02.00 to get to the station for the train to the airport.

Train went to plan.
Flight went to plan.
The 4 hours in Amsterdam was 3.5 hours by the time we left Central Station.
We had time for canal trip, wander to the flower market and bought some bits and pieces, a light lunch and beer and back to the station for the Eurostar trip to Brussels.
Amsterdam for 3.5 hours was lovely !!


Brussels by comparison was a let down. The area around the station was quite "grim" and not really a place we felt particularly comfortable wandering around. Back to the station for the Eurostar to London.
Tea in London.
Last train to the NW from Euston
Home at 00.30. Knackered but memories that'll last for a long time.


If only we could have come back direct from Amsterdam to London, without the Brussels bit ! Another couple of hours in Amsterdam would have been very welcome. But we did manage to eat in 3 capital cities in a single day :beer:

Glad you had a good time

I did wonder if your plans would be scuppered by the chaos at Manchester Airport, but you must have got away before the IT systems failed! :T

Murphy_The_Cat

Kentish_Dave wrote: »

I wish I’d read this previously, I live in Amsterdam for work nowadays, but you seem to have hit the main points. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

thank you Dave. For a brief stopover, long day out, it hit the spot completely.

jackieblack wrote: »

Glad you had a good time

I did wonder if your plans would be scuppered by the chaos at Manchester Airport, but you must have got away before the IT systems failed! :T

It all went to plan, plus we got the bonus of seeing a Rude Ignorant Person trying to take a Steamer Trunk onto the Flybe plane as hand luggage and refusing to pay for it to be put into the hold. Not a problem madam, if you don't want to pay for it to go into the hold, you can either leave it here and arrange for it to be removed, or don't take this flight today.
& then after (very) begrudgingly coughing up, she wasn't happy with her assigned seat and wanted to take someone else's seat instead and was most gruntled when she was turfed out !