Amsterdam 2012 (20120723)
I had not been to Amsterdam in a few years, and KLM had the best schedule and service from Calgary.
The KLM 330 landed at AMS within a few seconds of when it was scheduled to, and once again, AMS
easily confirmed it is the BEST arrival airport in the world. The jet had a close gate, I went to
immigration, where I was probably the first person from our flight, there was only one before me
person at the agent, and when I handed him my passport, he said it was invalid and I would have to
go back to Calgary, but he was just joking, as I hadn't signed it yet. {:-) We chatted a bit about
the bad weather, and I was gone and out effortlessly through customs within about 8 minutes from the
flight arrival at the gate. Canada has no clue.
So, I went to the tourist booth, where I checked the weather, and I was going to ditch Amsterdam and
go straight to Paris, but she said Paris was even worse, so I changed my mind again and booked a
room in Amsterdam. I got some discounted euro cash at a machine, bought a local train ticket at
another machine, and went to a ticket counter and bought a train ticket to Paris for the morning.
I then went downstairs and just made a waiting train, and took a comfortable first class car into
Centraal Station. I then bought a two day tram and bus pass, and took the tram down the street
where I had a 30 second walk in the light rain to the hotel. Everybody was friendly and it was way
too easy.
Some things I like about Amsterdam (besides the transportation, canals and buildings) are:
- public pot smoking
- public pot sales
- public drinking
- public porn shows
- public prostitution
- no bicycle helmets
Isn't it incredible that all those activities can take place routinely, openly and right before the
police, yet there is not total mayhem?
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