Amsterdam - our trip - the mostly excellent - and recommended

JW77

Firstly.. I can recommend it. Despite health issues. We (me with health/CKD, and breathing (thank you anemia & a bad heart) and the girl in her chair, really enjoyed the trip

Fitting in with our ethics we chose not to fly and to travel by train.. Down to London, a stopover and then the Eurostar from St Pancras International to Amsterdam Central


To help with the booking we used Byways Travel https://www.byway.travel and to be honest the cost was about the same as if we'd booked a package with any other agent and flown.

We used assistance with the Eurostar and booked one up, from basic..So Eurostar Plus is the thing to go for. We always book assistance on the UK bit of the journey as well.

This gives you a cabin type area for the chair (we had another Dutchman in another chair to give us some 'local info' on the way to the Netherlands (never call it Holland).

On the train you get a very helpful assistant, and served snacks and food on the journey, including the wine or beer options! The food also tastes good cos your not at 6000 feet, and you've got better loos, and much more space to move around!

The ONLY glitch was the 'travel assistance' only seemed to occur for alighting the train, not getting off. We're not sure why and informed Byway… Its SUPPOSED to happen at both ends according to the Eurostar site. This was really bad for me, as I was lugging all the luggage while finding it hard to breath properly!

https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/travel-planning/accessibility/how-and-where-we-can-help

Booking and doing stuff in Amsterdam.. IT IS REALY ACCESSABLE.. if you have a mobility scooter, that's reasonably speedy you can use the bike lanes.. Which are excellent..

The trams/trains etc are all really good too. We used them to get about, and only used a taxi to and from the station and on one occasion when we got soaked.

I Amsterdam - the I Amsterdam card gives you fairly easy booking to most (not all) of the attractions… We used it to go on a accessible boat trip, a visit to the science museum (great for kids and geeks).. I also visited one of the botanical gardens which isn't on the iAmsterdam card, but it free entry anyway!

We also visited 2 of the many parks.. Both reach by train bus or tram.

https://www.iamsterdam.com/en

Its also useable on most, of the trams & buses, but not all.. One bad thing if you get the app doesn't integrate with the physical card. We got 2 physical card but there's no way to add the card to a digital wallet..

Using buses/trains etc.. Like London you need to tap on and off.. Although for buses that was new to me.

Language.. Dutch people on the whole speak brilliant English, however there's no harm in learning language, and we were using DuoLingo. Just try not to break into German if you've done it at school! There's always google translate and lots of free stuff online..


Don't bother with too much cash.. In fact the only person who preferred cash was our first taxi from the station. Many shops and cafes are card only.
We went for CurrencyClub after looking on the MoneySavingExpert site and ended up returning most of our £300 worth of Euros that we'd purchased.
Do check/look for good deals on banks etc for zero withdrawals, and currency charges on your own bank.

The bad - its a city, Amsterdam is expensive.. We only paid for inclusive breakfast in our hotel (which was great) but eating out was costly.. The local supermarket chain was Abert Hein (which reminded us of Waitrose) https://www.amsterdamtips.com/supermarkets-in-amsterdam

Better options are getting a takeaway sandwich from a coffee shop, or doing more research on reasonable places to eat.. Its also worth checking accessibility of course.

It 'CAN RAIN' consider it like UK weather, be prepared.. We got totally soaked on one occasion. You CAN/Will do a lot of walking/wheeling.. Its worth checking out wheelchair hire etc 'just in case' .
And you can hire over there, and of course you can hire bikes/trikes, eBikes etc.
You can also hire 'wheelchair bikes' where the chair mounts at the front and an able can pedal the power assisted bike (some good vids on Youtube)

Random stuff.. The canals were originally used for transport and defence.

Many of the old houses have active 'cranes' on the roofs to lift stuff in as they are narrow and tall. But often spacious at the back (it was a tax avoidance thing a bit like Englands (window tax of history) Boat Houses are premium real estate! And are very much lived in.

The Netherlands Cycling and the transport network came about in 60's and 70's due to the Stop de Kindermoord (lit stop the child murders) after parents pressure and protest against the number of car related deaths.. The Netherlands could have easily gone down the car route just like the UK, USA and many other countries. We have some catching up to do!

Uber operates in Amsterdam, as do various navigation apps such as CityMapper etc. And I used uber a few times, which was mostly, reliable.. The only issue I had was when my battery was low.

You will need a recent passport, check Gov UK travelling to Netherlands. We both had to renew our passports.
Also an up to date GHIC , we booked separate travel/medical cover as well.

Phones roaming works fine but make sure your phone is set up right. For some reason one of our phones wasn't set up (under the giffgaff account settings) so calls/texts couldn't be made as we were outside the UK..
This made communication difficult while we away from each other.
It took me till almost the last day to sort out the issue and it was somewhat hidden in account 'settings'

I brought a power pack as well, and did need to use this once or twice to boost my phone.. (uber doesn't seem to work well if your phone charge is getting low and trying to save the battery!)

https://www.dutchreach.org/car-child-murder-protests-safer-nl-roads/

Do we want to go back… 'I could live here' was what the girl said.. And being half Dutch myself I wonder what the logistics of moving 2 disabled people and care to another country! So health permitting, we'll taking another trip/

St Pancras Station

Eurostar Departures

We got there to St Pancras far too early! Before the staff turned up. London Euston is a short walk/wheel away and we stayed in a hotel there

Sun rising on the way out

They have Double Decker Trains

Passing through Brussels

The kettle had to be put in a really weird place.. They drink a lot more coffee I think..

The coffee machine and the safe, the plugs, which should have had the kettle are behind the safe.. Which is of course attached the wall.

The pretty good wet room

Map of Amsterdam transport

Its the olympic hotel, so of course this was the olympic torch from… The 1928 games.. Its a little run down around the stadium now

'The girl' (girlfriend) heading off over one of the cycle route cut through

The torch.. its lit at nigh

A godlike athlete

The hotel

Weird 'Dutch Living Room fountain artwork' it spouts water from various places.

'The Jaeger' visited the hotel.. (A massive Jaegermeister area manger conference at the hotel while we we staying!

The Dutch equivalent of the London Underground, although The Tube, has better station decoration.

Really, you'll see SOO much brilliant transit and mobility .. This was just a random chair parked up..

In the NEMO science museum.. Really good with kids, lots of hands on stuff, but if you like science etc you'll love it.

There's big Green Roof

And a bug hotel

And a
Amsterdam Central again, its near many of the museums & ferry terminals

This was a community garden near the hotel

One of the parks.. It was impressive

You see a lot of these around..

On the canal trip - Our Pilot.. The canals are made up of 3 mud, bikes and water! he was great

I hope you enjoyed this somewhat rambling post. And the pictures:)
. Have you, or do you travel by train/or abroad.. Would you choose train rather than flight?

Rosie_Scope

Sounds like a brilliant trip @JW77, thanks for sharing your experience and your pictures. Amsterdam is a lovely city. I've visited a couple of times and it's one of my favourite places I've travelled to. Really nice people too!

I'm hoping to go on a sleeper train trip to somewhere in Europe in the new year but the group I'm going with haven't decided where yet. At the moment we're having a look at Prague but plans might change!