Amsterdam - An Amusement Park for Adults

Now, for the rest of these pages we are going to pretend that we do not know these things,
or at least do not notice them. Then we will be very much in the illusion of Amsterdam.
Come along with us... it'll be fun....

ALL ABOARD
From Paris, we took Le Metro to Gare du Nord, the major train station in the northern section of the city. There we boarded a Rail Europe Thalys train, the system of
high-speed supertrains in Northeast Europe. We were ready for our trip through Belgium to Amsterdam.

The Thalys is fast and efficient. It's a little under four hours from Paris Nord direct to Amsterdam's Centraal Station, with no additional commuting time from the airport to the city. You get to see the countryside as you ride in comfort. A refreshments car gives you a nice choice of things to eat and drink, if you wish. Announcements are made in the language of the country of departure, the country one is passing through at the time, and English.

After we pulled into Centraal Station, we went right to the taxis... the land kind. We just wanted to see our hotel before we did the canal thing. The reason was that we had splurged a little on accommodations for the last stop on our European vacation, and we wanted to see how it would be. We'd had it recommended by Rail Europe's travel agency (Click here for Rail Europe ) and we wanted to see what we'd bought. We had of course checked out the hotel's website, but the reality can be different from the 'best foot forward' everyone naturally puts on the net.

Yes, the building looks lovely in a photo. There are supposed to be canal boats practically right outside the door. The rooms are touted as spacious, by European standards, which always makes me wonder a little. European standard rooms can be very small. But our expectations had become really quite high, and that tends to make me a little anxious. Easy to get disappointed that way.

The Reality
The Park Hotel met even those high expectations. What a relief. The service staff at the desk set the tone with perfect efficiency and bright smiles, and those smiles stayed on during our entire stay.
This was as true in the morning when we were greeted at the elegant dining room entrance where the buffet was laid out in the very early hours, as it was late at night when the intimate pub on the corner of the building closed. And it was true as the staff directed us to our room on the fourth floor.

It was spacious even by American standards, well appointed to the point of being plush, perfect for the comfortable luxury we were looking forward to at the end of our journey. I must admit there is a sizeable upcharge for these rooms, and there are reasonably nice accommodations available in Amsterdam at a lesser cost. But there are also some not-so-nice ones
at a cost equivalent to what we were paying.
We were very happy with our well-guided choice.

A fresh-fruit-and-assorted-drinks-basket arrived several of the days we were there, without charge. An absolutely sumptious breakfast feast in a beautiful dining room was included each day with our room. Along with buffet tables providing a "Full Irish Breakfast", there were Dutch foods we had not tried before. They were fun and absolutely delicious, and since our return we have found them in local foodstores. Now they grace our breakfast table at home.

Gotta see Amsterdam
Now that we were set with our room, we elevatored back to the lobby and out the marble steps. The Park Hotel is at 25 Stadhouderskade, on one of the outer rings of canals around the Centrum, close to the huge Vondlespark, the Rijksmuseum, the Leidseplein (more on all those later). It is also in a very nice district of little shops. We crossed the street, and there was the canalboat 'stand', next to a regular taxi stand.
Right in front of us was the Holland Casino.

Holland Casino
This is Europe's largest casino.
The size is not even in the same universe as the Las Vegas megacasinos, but there are definitely pros and cons to that. It is different.
That's the fun of it.

The feeling is a little more relaxed, and a little more formal at the same time. I know that hardly seems possible, but it's as close as I can come to the reality of it. At night no 'outside' jackets are allowed, although suits jackets are not at all required. There is a small entrance fee, but guests of the Park Hotel are given free passes. The management is, however, quite serious about having everyone register at the front desk. It is for house security, mostly, but the ambience is much improved by it. When you get on the floor, you feel far more comfortable than places where anyone can walk in at any time.

In the picture at right, Colleen is walking by the little dock that is in front of the casino. At the top of the ramp is the Casino entrance to the left, and then a plaza with the Amsterdam Hard Rock cafe, among other things. To the right is the bridge across the canal and the crosswalk that goes to the Park Hotel, in the background.

The ground floor of the Holland Casino has registration, a coat room with attendant, and a huge area of slot machines and other gambling machines for horse racing, roulette, bingo, and much much more. Upstairs are the real Roulette Wheels and 21 tables and other, high-stakes gaming tables. Upstairs is much more serious than downstairs.
One evening we dressed and had 'casino night' upstairs. A couple of the other days, we just dropped in downstairs and spent a few hours making sure the machines worked okay.

There are places to eat and drink in the Casino, and in restaurants around the Casino, but no entertainment or lounge shows. For entertainment, however, there is the rest of Amsterdam, and that is where we spent most of our time... finding out what the rest of Amsterdam was all about.

If you'd like to see what we saw, Click here to go on with a Visit to Amsterdam,
or click on one of the buttons at the bottom of the page to select another country.

Or if you ready to start planning your own European vacation,

Travel Europe the way Europeans do.

Rail Europe's lines includes the THALYS trains,
and has been serving the American market since 1934.
Here is a link to the Rail Europe website. There you can order the famous Eurail Pass,
which is an excellent buy if you're traveling to more than one country.
(If you're going to just one country, they offer multi-day passes at a discount.)

Visit Amsterdam virtually on informationeurope.com but actually go to Amsterdam as soon as possible. Click on the excellent Amsterdam travel links above and find an Amsterdam hotel. Make reservations on the Thalys train from Paris to Amsterdam. I think you will really enjoy Amsterdam. We did.