Paris Day 3, Amsterdam Day 1

18 October 2007

Paris -> Amsterdam

We were due to travel to Amsterdam on a 1255 Thalys train from Paris Gare du Nord station, but we were unfortunately caught the transport strike. Very thankfully, our hostel is located not far from the train station, and we planned only to walk around our hostel area in the morning before we left, so we weren’t really affected much.

The Basilique du Sacre-Coeur (dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus), is located on the top of Montmartre (or the Butte). The Butte is as tall as the top of the Eiffel Tower, and offers fantastic views of Paris as well. The Sacre-Coeur is the hippest church I’ve ever been to, because the art and stained glass within the church is decidedly more “modern” than other churches. No wonder, as artists used to congregate in the Montmartre area which is more laidback than the rest of Paris.

View from the Butte, the top most point of Montmartre

On the streets of Montmartre

We left Montmartre early, and reached the Gare du Nord station to take our train to Amsterdam.

Paris Gare du Nord station, the statues on the top represent 7 of the cities that the trains go to, including Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne etc.

The train was very crowded, but it was a good train ride as we were sitting next to a Dutch lady and her young daughter who just returned on a trip from Paris. She spoke good English and was very chatty, talking about her experiences as a reporter, asking us about Asia, Singapore, even though initially her daughter thought we were from Japan. And we also talked about how Asians can’t tell Ang Mohs apart, much like they can’t tell Asians apart. She also gave us tips on where to go in Amsterdam, and suggested we rent a bicycle to get around the place. They got off at Rotterdam, and after 45 min we arrived in Amsterdam Centraal.

We got to our hostel, a hip and happening place, abit too rowdy for our liking, and we had a very bad experience there, won’t blog about it, but ask me if you do happen to be interested. But our hostel was close to the Rijks and Van Gogh museums. We took a leisurely walk around the area, went to the supermarket and was pleasantly surprised to finally see cheap food, bought a lot of stroopwaffels , and got microwave meals to have for dinner. They sell Nasi Goreng and Chinese fried rice! You can even find beansprouts in the vegetables section.