Dutch New Year

waiting for 2011

We land at Brussels Charleroi at 12:00 on the 31st (Ryanair 25 euros each) and naturally to get to Holland it's a bit tough since Charleroi airport is an hour from Brussels and Brussels is more than an hour from Alphen aan den Rijn (a city of 80,000 inhabitants located halfway between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Sandton Hotel, a luxurious 4-star and I paid 220 for 5 nights for two which considering the period and the hotel is really very very little.), so one should take a bus to Brussels and then a train; but as we come out of the terminal I see a 50 m queue to buy bus tickets, we get in line and see the first bus leave immediately so I leave Barbara in line and take a walk to find a faster solution (since I wanted to be at the hotel before 5 p.m.

to then go to dinner in Amsterdam at a decent hour); naturally I came back victorious in the sense that I found a taxi for seven people at 70 euros to Brussels…and since there were two of us I had to find another 5 people with the same destination as me to spend only 10 euros, the fact is that we arrived in Brussels before the bus we had seen leave and spending less too; from Brussels immediately the train to Alphen aan den Rijn with only one change at Leiden (16 euros each).

Arrived at the hotel at 5 p.m., a nice shower and off to Amsterdam where New Year's Eve awaits us….naturally the first impact with this wonderful city is very shocking 'given its beauty', so we take a stroll in Dam Square and then immediately in search of a little restaurant (I hadn't managed to book earlier because the dinner on Dec 31 in Holland is a dinner like any other day….the party comes later), we're inspired by an Argentine restaurant whose name I don't remember near Leidesplein and given how hungry we are we stop there right away (2 appetizers, 2 meat main courses, 2 fish main courses, 2 medium beers, 1 bottle of wine, bread, water, coffee and amaro 100 euros).

At this point the evening really begins (my intentions were to ring in the new year in Dam Square and then go to the Escape nightclub around one but unfortunately I wasn't able to book for the club via the internet and it's a big problem since on New Year's Eve in 2005 always here I rang in the new year in Dam Square and then roamed all night trying to get into some club without results apart from a few small disco pubs and naturally coffee shops) so we head toward Dam Square…it was 11 p.m. when we pass by the Escape by chance and I notice there was no queue to get in and the ticket still cost the same as presales so without thinking twice we throw ourselves into the club from 11 until 5 in the morning and naturally here I'll leave you to imagine the level of fun.

The return to Alphen was devastating because we had been awake for 24 hours and had been overdoing it..but arriving in that paradise of a hotel was fantastic in the end..the last cigarette and off into the world of dreams to wake up at 7 p.m. on January 1st.

alphen aan den rijn

Naturally, this was a day where there's nothing much to say, since we woke up at 19:00. Anyway, we visited a bit of Alphen aan den Rijn. We went to eat in a small Greek restaurant and around midnight we returned to our comfortable hotel to wear off the last remnants of the previous evening, download photos and videos onto the PC to have more memory in the camera. (Unfortunately my PC is running out of battery and my charger with the classic Italian 3-prong plug doesn't fit and the hotel doesn't have suitable double sockets, so I'm left without a PC. Anyway, I decide to buy a double socket in Rotterdam the following day, but unfortunately between Amsterdam and Rotterdam I went around 2 MediaWorlds and couldn't find one.) And also because the next day, the earlier the wake-up, the better the day started.

rotterdam and delft

We leave the hotel after a super abundant breakfast (think that I even managed to make 10 overstuffed sandwiches on the sly, naturally, which we ate during the day and then every day the same thing). We arrive in Rotterdam a little before ten and immediately buy the Holland Pass (it's a pass that costs 35 euros each and it's really worth it a lot for going around museums, attractions, discounts in shops and restaurants etc.)... As soon as you come out of the station, you immediately realise you've arrived in the little European Manhattan. Tons of skyscrapers and buildings constructed in fine style make this city a true spectacle. I think that a lover of modern architecture really has plenty to sink their teeth into here.

We start wandering a bit around the centre, passing near various monuments and really very particular shopping streets, often fortunately turned into pedestrian areas, until we reach the famous cube houses, which are dozens of apartments built in a very particular way that, to look at them, seem impossible to live in but naturally inside everything is normal in the end (since one of these houses has been turned into a museum precisely to show how the Dutch can live inside them). I'd say that even though it's all one big attic inside, it wouldn't be at all uncomfortable to live there. Having left the cube houses, we head towards the largest port in Europe and spend a couple of hours wandering around observing a bit of everything around us.

We could say we've already seen the most particular things in Rotterdam (at least for what the guidebook says), so we head towards the Euromast, which is a panoramic tower 185 m high. We pay 8 euros each and immediately an elevator takes us to the middle of the structure at about 100 m above ground, where we find a restaurant and many high-altitude attractions built in a circular way... and it's already a spectacle to see the whole city and the port from every side, but for those who don't suffer from vertigo there's another glass elevator that goes up to the top. Naturally we go, and immediately the audio guide starts talking but we didn't understand a word, so the ascent begins... the glass wall that takes you all the way up with a porthole under your feet where you see the city getting further and further away is a spectacle...

Once at the top, this sort of elevator (which goes up while making a 360° turn like a corkscrew) starts making some very, very abrupt movements and I can tell you that at 180 m of height, even if you don't suffer from vertigo, you get a bit scared, but I immediately realise that everyone was calm and so I imagine that everything was under control and that maybe the audio guide voice at the start had also said so, so I relax and enjoy the fantastic panorama. OK, now we have a general view of this city all in all, so we start wandering around the city again until 19:00. We leave Rotterdam and in half an hour, we don't even get off the train in Delft. It's not big as a city, but it's very pretty and follows the classic Dutch style, invaded by bridges and canals... an hour and a half was more than enough to see a bit of Delft, so we head towards our Alphen...

dinner at the Turkish place because I love kebab, and at eleven I'm back at the hotel for a bit of relaxation.

amsterdaaaaaam

We arrive at the fantastic central station of Amsterdam around nine, breakfast at the Green House and right after we take a bus with glass walls that goes all around the city passing through all the most famous places of Amsterdam (very useful since there was also the guide in Italian). Around 11:00 it stops at the diamond factory, which they have us visit and offer us an aperitif... Once the bus tour is over, around 12:00 we head towards NEMO, the science museum (I won't dwell on the details because it's something absurd, the strange technology you see in there... it's absolutely a must-see...). We spend a couple of very pleasant hours playing like 2 kids, and then off through the streets of Amsterdam to wander for a few hours. It's 17:00 and the tiredness is starting to make itself felt a bit. The last stop of our day is Anne Frank's house, where you can admire all of her story.

Having left Anne Frank's house, we approach the station area, stopping at souvenir shops, coffee shops and everything that makes the streets of Amsterdam unique. Also this evening, dinner was thrown together between one fast food place and another, and at 23:00 we return to the hotel.

amsterdaaaaaaaaam

Like good tourists, at nine we're already back at Amsterdam Central (from Alphen it takes about an hour and costs 10 euros round trip). Today is the last day in the capital, so I prepare a programme that tries to bring the most beautiful things of Amsterdam into our memories, since seeing everything like any other place is impossible in a few days. The first stop is the Historical Museum, where you can admire everything possible and imaginable about the history of this fantastic city over the last 200 years. We stay in the Historical Museum for a little more than 2 hours, after which we head towards the ICE BAR... What's the ICE BAR??... well, I'll answer you that it's something you can't imagine could exist in a city that's far from the North Pole... (it's a bar with two main rooms... the first room has a normal bar style and service adorned in icy style, where you have the first drink.

When the time comes to enter the second one, they put jackets, gloves and Eskimo hats on you and you enter a venue of max 50 sqm carved out of 35 tons of worked and sculpted ice, everything in ice, but seriously everything, even the glasses, so that if you start talking your drink melts, the chairs, sculptures, truly everything. I couldn't believe it, and the cherry on top comes when the girl guide starts a 3D video with a giant screen and glasses that seriously makes you think 'where are we heading if technology advances at this pace?'... A UNIQUE AND UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE.

Having exited the Ice Bar, we go to visit an old Dutch luxury house with a ticket at 4 euros, and about this I'll only tell you the word LUXURY... in your face to those who pay the mortgage... ahah.

It's 15:00 and finally for my girlfriend, but unfortunately for me, the moment arrives to go to the Van Gogh Museum. I can't help it, I understand that he's one of the best painters in history, but for me every minute in there was real torture... Then my girlfriend (very passionate about this genre) looked at every single painting in detail, and I'll let you just imagine my meltdown... but I can say I've also been to the Van Gogh Museum if it comes up. I don't even give Barbara time to tell me she had finished visiting it before we're already outside with fifth gear and nitro on, heading towards the Heineken Experience. The Heineken Experience is the factory where Heineken beer was born... and you can observe the whole process of the birth of this beer while having little tastings step by step...

In addition there are tons of displays of everything related to this brand and many multimedia stations where you can leave your memory in a very burlesque way and send it by email. A SPECTACLE BROUGHT TO YOU BY HEINEKEN... Ah, I must also tell you that from the Heineken Experience, if you don't come out truly drunk, you definitely come out nice and merry. ABSOLUTELY A MUST-DO. With all that beer, it gets to 20:00 so we go out and eat (tonight being the last restaurant) and we linger in Amsterdam Damstreet between one thing and another until 23:00 when, reluctantly, I say goodbye to what for me is the capital of capitals and tell it SEE YOU SOON.

towards italy

Today the awakening isn't the best, since it's the last day and at 19:00 we have our flight Dusseldorf Weeze (Germany, on the border, Ryanair flight 15 euros each) to Bologna. So we leave our splendid hotel (ah, I forgot that the hotel is next to the central station of Alphen and nearby there's a fantastic multi-storey bicycle parking garage in the shape of an apple, ABSURD TO SEE FOR AN ITALIAN) and take the train to Utrecht. Along the way, from the window you can admire many typical windmills, and believe me, lots of rivers, canals and small ponds in an immense green plain surrounded by the little snow left from the previous week. We arrive in Utrecht in about an hour and start visiting the city, which is very pretty. The style is the classic Dutch one with canals, there are various monuments but the cathedral with a large tower stands out.

A little more than two hours are more than enough to visit the centre, so we head towards the station to take the train to Nijmegen, where we have to catch a shuttle to the airport. And yes, because unfortunately our holiday is over and we're returning to our beautiful Italy, which unfortunately always seems to have stopped to watch the development of other nations.

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MAIN EXPENSES FOR 2 PEOPLE FLIGHT: round trip: 80 EUROS AIRPORT SHUTTLES: round trip 50 EUROS HOTEL 5 NIGHTS: 220 EUROS BELGIUM NETHERLANDS TRAINS: 35 EUROS NETHERLANDS TRAINS: 40 EUROS (only my girlfriend, I never did it because by now I'm an expert at dodging Dutch ticket inspectors since the trains are double-decker) HOLLAND PASS: 70 EUROS (ALL the museums and attractions except the HEINEKEN EXPERIENCE, which cost 12 euros each, were included in the Holland Pass.)