nancythenice

We (myself and hubby, 60+) are taking the overnight ferry from London and will arrive in Amsterdam at about 10am Saturday morning a few weeks from now. The next day (Sunday) at 2pm we join our cruise group and go for a canal boat ride. I have never been to Amsterdam, so am looking for suggestions on how to spend our limited time. My plan so far is that when we arrive on Saturday, we will drop luggage at our hotel (which is near the central train station), and grab a bite to eat, and then I have arranged to take the WWII walking tour with Peter Schaapman starting at 1pm which begins at the Anne Frank house. It should be over about 3:30 and I think it ends near the Resistance museum. The question is: how to spend the rest of the day. The Van Gogh museum is a must, but I am thinking we will do that Sunday morning. If we are there when it opens at 10am, we can stay for 2-3 hours. We will see the Rijksmuseum on a later day as part of our tour, and as I mentioned, we will have the canal boat ride on Sunday afternoon. So what would you do with the remainder of Saturday afternoon and evening?

zeppole

I personally would go to the movies at the Tuschinski movie palace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuschinski

Rastaguytoday

It's a nice city to walk in. I've walked from the train station to the Museumplein and back many times.

For dinner, a rijstaffel restaurant is great. I've been to the Sama Sebo many times with locals. Here's Frommers review.
http://www.frommers.com/destinations...am/D36393.html

Later on that evening, go to a brown bar. I've been to many so I can't give you a specific, but I'm sure you'll find a recommendation.

zeppole

By the way, they show some movies in English. Here is their calendar of upcoming movies

http://www.pathe.nl/english/cinema/tuschinski

luvtotravel

If you are going in May-June-July, it doesn't get dark until late, so on a pretty night people are out in abundance. Just walking around is a lovely thing to do. You could go to Tripadvisor.com and look up the highest rated "things to do" in Amsterdam.

I'm curious, when I was in England I couldn't find a ferry that would take foot passengers. What ferry are you taking?

Diane

nancythenice

Hi zeppole. I learned a lot from your posts about Italy a few years ago. I am curious, what is so special about going to the movies in Amsterdam?
luvtotravel - I found out about the ferry on the website, The Man in Seat 61, www.seat61.com. I had used his advice on navigating the trains in France, so turned to it when trying to figure out how to get from London to the Netherlands without flying. The ferry is operated by the Stena Line, and is huge with nicely appointed individual cabins. You take a train from London to the coast, get on the ferry late in the evening, and upon disembarking the next morning, you take another train from the port on to Amsterdam. But it is all one ticket. It is a bargain because you save a night in a hotel.

joe4212

zeppole, thank you!

We were lodging at the Carlton Hotel close to cinema almost 25 years ago and it was the man on reception there that recommended we check the Tuschinski out. We have never forgotten that first visit.

We enjoyed it so much we returned two days later and sat through the SAME movie. This is a truly beautiful building both externally and, much more so, internally.

Two things that come to mind. The first was at the interval where a man came out on the stage and did a kind of comic routine. We didn’t expect this and at the time we couldn’t figure out what was happening.

The second (and this old brain might not be remembering too well) was also at the interval when we looked around and the plain beautiful wooden walls along the rear of the theatre, which we walked past to get to our seats, had disappeared. In its place was a long stylish bar with suited staff serving customers.

Ah, the memories. I want to go back!

(nancy, apologies for hijacking your thread)

Joe

zeppole

nancy,

joe has answered better than I can!

Thanks, joe!

PatrickLondon

I second the suggestion for the Tuschinski. It's worth just going into the foyer for a peek (and I think you can buy a drink there without necessarily buying a ticket for a movie). The first time I went I was struck by their having an interval in the middle of the main attraction (no stage act, but everyone wandered out for a coffee and ice-cream), and by getting jokes in stereo (the film was A Fish Called Wanda, with Dutch subtitles - half the audience got the joke from the soundtrack, while the other half only laughed when they read the subtitles). Other cinemas aren't quite so special.

Does the target finish time for your walk include visiting the Resistance Museum? It is worth a visit, and could take an hour or two.

Or if your walk hasn't tired you out, you could just stroll the canals in the early evening and find a cosy "brown café" to sit and people-watch - I'd look mostly to the western side, or along Brouwersgracht, and the arty shops in the Jordaan, but others might prefer the antiquey Spiegelkwartier
http://www.amsterdam.info/jordaan/
http://www.spiegelkwartier.nl/

Or there might be an interesting exhibition on in the Nieuwe Kerk:
http://www.nieuwekerk.nl/en/#/en/her...en_vieren/?m=5

Or you could rest a bit by taking a sort of "tram tour" of central Amsterdam, taking tram 5 one way and tram 16 or 24 the other way, changing at Central Station and the Concertgebouw:
http://en.gvb.nl/reisinformatie/plat...nnetkaart.aspx

nancythenice

Thanks so much everyone. There are some unique suggestions here that we would not have known about otherwise. My husband loves going to the movies so although I would usually avoid doing that on a trip he would be thrilled and it sounds very special. How do I indentify a " brown bar"? Any special ones you might suggest? Love the idea of the tram tour if we are tired.