Museumplein and Hotel Heemskerk

When we arrived at Centraal Station, we immediately went to the taxi area just outside. Since we've been here quite a few time before in just during our trip alone, we were quite acquainted to the whereabouts of things. We needed to get our stuff that Masha had kept for us during our trip. We handed to her just before we left Amsterdam for Berlin. After we obtained it, we headed to our hotel, Hotel Heemskerk.


View Larger Map

Hotel Heemskerk was located in Museumplein area, where as the name suggested museums were about centrally located. The hotel itself felt a lot more like a bed & breakfast. It was once a rowhouse that was converted into a hotel. The house had a sense of old-ness yet comfy. The downside was that our room was on the 3rd floor, and they just didn't have an elevator. The staircases were a bit narrow and steep. The steps themselves were quite narrow. Thus, carrying our heavy luggages was in its own an exercise. Luckily, the front desk person, who was this tall, too-friendly Dutch man helped us by taking the heavier luggage.

Our room was called the blue room. It was so mostly because the wallpapers were of blue tint, and the bed comforter and pillow cases were blueish too. It did not matter how it was going to be anyway, since we've experienced relatively bad hotel rooms. Since Sheilla chose the hotel based on her taste, it did turn out decent. Moreover, our room had a decent view from the window. If only the weather was not cold and windy, we would had kept it open for the breeze.



After we had settled ourselves in, we decided to walk towards the city center. Since we were close to the museums which we had to go through anyway, we took the opportunity to take a few pictures. In particular, we saw the I a m s t e r d a m letter-art that looked pretty cool.













Then we continued on. We only went as far as Leidseplein, where they have lots of restaurants, and where we would meet Angie for dinner.


View Larger Map

We went to a Thai restaurant somewhere on a smaller street where, according to Angie, served one of the best Thai food. She was quite right. She asked questions about our trip around Europe. We told her stories in summary on each city. We also told her how we got swindled in Prague and Rome. She also told of her plans to travel to Prague and perhaps including Romania and Bulgaria. We chatted away till it was closing time.

When we got out, it had started raining. Lucky for all of us we had hoods on our clothes. So we headed back to Leidseplein where we went our separate ways. I knew that that would be the last time I saw Angie, and I believe Sheilla had that feeling too. It would be a long time till we would meet again, particularly since she had no interest in visiting the US. So we said goodbyes, hugged, gave kisses on cheeks, and basically stalling to put more time to spend together. But the rain came down still, and we were getting soaked. We took our respective trams, and that was that.