I won’t say that Amsterdam is on our bucket list of places to visit, but it is high on our while-in-Germany-we-have-to-do-this list. The guys are working in Mönchengladbach, Germany about a half hour from our hotel and on the way to Amsterdam. So it is decided that I’m going to catch a train from Dusseldorf to Mönchengladbach. Goodie! I’ve been dying to try out this train thing. With the help of the front desk staff, I managed to get to the right train station. A nice fellow passenger helped me figure out the ticketing thing and got me on my way. Train riding is…interesting.
The trains stop everywhere. If you’ve ever read the “Girl on the Train” you’ll understand what I’m talking about. They even have areas for bicycle travelers to ride the trains with their bikes. Pretty cool.
I met up with the guys at the main transportation center in Mönchengladbach and we took our two hour car ride to Amsterdam.
Peter and JF travel often and have many travel reward points so they stayed in a HIGH END, $700 a night hotel. John and I stayed at a non-chain, locally-owned hotel. It was exactly the experience I was hoping for. The room was clean and the most unique hotel we have ever stayed in.
We almost couldn’t find the entrance to the hotel. The doorway was very wee, and the buildings very large. John barely fit through it.
Hotel the Exchange, launched in 2011, is located in interconnect buildings on Damrak. The street is one of the oldest streets in Amsterdam and quite lively at all times of the day. Every other store, it seemed, was a souvenir shop!
It is a concept hotel by Suzanne Oxenaar and Otto Nan, some sort of famous hotel designers, and is a collaborative project linked to the urban rejuvenation of Amsterdam. Students from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute were commissioned to create the rooms. We stayed in Room 204, History Repeated. This is the write-up on our room.
Be sure to look at the pictures carefully so you see all the “dressed in memory” fun! (hint the current bathroom door is closed and the only item of our clothes hanging is John’s coat.)
There was no “real” picture hanging over the bed.
I keep touching things to see what is real and what is part of the wall paper. Fun!
Shoot, the bathroom is about the same overall size of the one in the RV!
They have a few pictures of some of 61 rooms on their website if you are curious about the other rooms.
For you “old-timers” from Williamsport, remember the elevator in the Brozman’s store? Small, cloth walls, creaky? Well, the elevators, there are at least two that we use, are just like that. The one elevator has a regular door that locks shut when the lift starts moving with no barrier between you and the elevator shaft.
And don’t take the wrong elevator or the wrong set of stairs because they all lead somewhere different. Its the stereotypical, you-can’t-get-there-from-here scenario. I’m loving the whole experience, don’t know about John, but he usually is happy when I’m happy.
But evening has arrived and the city is coming alive. Time to hit the town and check out the lit monuments and the Red Light District.
