I am (in) sterdam

Mon, Nov 17, 2008

So, I am a week old in Germany now.. Oops..Let me call it Deutschland!.. (people here prefer Deutschland to Germany).

Work took me to Cologne and hence got to see the ruins of World War-2 and the Cologne dome. Rhine from the city Bridge looks majestic!

Come weekend, I was in Amsterdam... I know, I know, most of you will be cursing me now!!!! :)

First all of, the journey to Amsterdam was eventful. Just to save a few Euros, I decided not to take the direct fast train, but take four connecting normal trains (They travel around 120-150kmph). I was at the German border at 1600hrs and was suppose to take a Netherlands train at 1602hrs... by the time I could figure out what was happening and thanks to the sign boards in Dutch, I missed the train :(. I finally managed to reach Amsterdam hopping another 3 trains.... And all I saved was 15 Euros and lost 2hrs.. Damn me!!!

So, I was finally at Amsterdam Central.. I then walked into a tourist info office and confirmed myself a hotel room.... dropped my backpack at the hotel, bought a map and off I was walking and figuring out the city.. My word, you will find ppl from every country here.. it feels like 10XGoa... There is a famous Vodka musuem.... It is just amazing to see different kinds of Vodka and models for each brand:). That night we were on the streets till 3am and we could see the streets full of ppl even though it was 2 degree centigrade.. Christmas markets have already started!!.. Hardrock cafe was buzzing with ppl; English spoilt brats mostly.

Next day, I registered for the City tour.. They covered lots of places such as Royal palace, tulip garden, diamond factory, the famous wind mill, hardrock cafe and the infamous Red light district:)..
It was amazing to see how a city was built on a river with lot of bridges , dams etc... The tallest building here is of 6 floors.
Shahrukh Khan and Tendulkar are quite famous here.. I even saw a movie hall playing a Shahrukh movie.. and when I introduce myself as Indian, the next words they utter is Cricket and Tendulkar!

  

Time to say goodbye to "I am sterdam". Sense prevailed this time, and I took the High Speed ICE back to Deutschland... I simply have fallen in love with these trains. Every time I take them, they beat my expectations. This time, the ICE clocked 300kmph (for about 2 min flat), near the Rhine valley between Cologne and Frankfurt... Felt like Mr. Schumacher in his Ferrari. "Mrs. Rathode" sitting next to me told me in her broken English me that, it was this place where the maximum speed of ICE (333kmph) was tested.

River Rhine is so wide that it feels like an ocean, and on her banks lot of cows graze. I still wonder if I can call them cows or elephants without a trunk!!!