Amsterdam

I just arrived into Amsterdam and I will be here two nights. Guess where I am now? My hotel (and this internet cafe) are one block from Anne Frank's home. If I looked out the door and to the left I could see the people milling around the outside of it. I just reserved the hotel room for 2 nights. It is quite nice and overlooks a busy street. We stayed in the same hotel last year ... It is very close to the Jordaan neighborhood, by the way.

On Sat, I am headed to Copenhagen on an overnight train from here to Cologne (where the massive church is on the Rhine) for 2 hours and then I sleep in a 6-person train couchette. This is wise because the trip is very long and I want to get up to Scandinavia soon. I hope to see parts of northern Germany on the way back--Hamburg, Rostock and in between.

I am so pleased that I made reservations for this segment. I made them at the very busy Amsterdam train station. I waited for about a half-hour but it went quickly for I had a thermos full of coffee and I needed time to articulate exactly what I wanted to say to, whom I believed would be rushed and unfriendly, reservation person. My number was called and I went up, said "dag" (good day in Dutch to make a tiny bit of inroads for service) immediately followed by "good morning" (to let him know I spoke English). He greeted me by stirring his coffee and I thought to myself this will be a tough experience. I showed him my itinerary and told him my intention of reserving a couchette to Copenhagen. He stirred his coffee and smiled and assisted me with warmth and precision; I was surprised how nice, flexible and efficient he was in counselling me on the best route. He actually suggested I go to Cologne and see the "Church"
He ended up validating my pass, reserving the couchette (bottom bunk, even) and forged the best possible route for me given my situation. I was impressed that the service was so good given the large city and busy environs.