I had a flight connection in Amsterdam back in August 2014 and started to write a blog entry but then totally left it to gather dust. Since I had so much written already, I feel like I should finish it. Should I call this a #laterpost?
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During my 7-hour connection in Amsterdam, I got a chance to venture out from the airport to the city. I've visited Amsterdam once before and had a great time. However, I realized I forgot a lot about getting back and forth between the airport and the city. For a seasoned traveler, I was discombobulated mess. But I survived and learned a lot. I made the mistakes so you don't have to! Allons-y!
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| Entertainment and shops at Schiphol airport |
Amsterdam Schiphol is a great airport. Pro: It's huge. Con: It's huge. I landed in Terminal G from the US and had to walk the entire airport to Terminal B for my intra-Europe flight. Along the way, I came across lots of great shops. LOTS of shops. You could spend days shopping in the airport. An overall plus about The Netherlands is that the Dutch are fluent in English. So don't hesitate to ask an airport employee for help. Also along the way, you may have to go through customs while you're transiting. Make sure to have a print-out of your itinerary handy. For me, I didn't have a boarding pass for my intra-Europe flight yet so my itinerary print-out helped a lot.
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| Lounges upstairs and lockers underneath the escalators |
Wifi was a pain point. There is free wifi but you only get two 30-minute sessions per day. After you use up your daily allowance, you have to pay which I wasn't willing to do. So as much as I wanted to hang out in the airport and shop for hours, this was more incentive for me to head out to the city. Since it was a short Europe trip, I had a large duffel bag with me as my luggage. It was too heavy and bulky to carry around with me through the city so I checked with the information desk about lockers. I had noticed some earlier as I was traipsing through the airport. The desk attendant pointed behind me and informed me there were lockers under the escalators. Perfect! I would have never noticed them on my own. A medium locker rental cost 7 euros for 24 hours. There were clear instructions so very easy to handle. (This reminds me of the time I tried to store my luggage in a locker in Tokyo. That was painful.)
So having used up all my free wifi time and stored my luggage in a locker, I headed for the train. The airport train 'station' is located within the airport which is great. There were tons of kiosks and a super helpful guy walking around helping people. First dilemma - figuring out what ticket to get. Fares between the airport and the city's main station, Centraal, cost 4 euros. You can buy a one-use ticket but there is a 1 euro surcharge. Or you could purchase an OV-chipkaart for a 7,50 euro surcharge. The card lasts 5 years, works on all Amsterdam public transport, and is refillable. Tempting. Most people purchase the one-time use ticket but as a frequent traveler, I wasn't sure if I would be returning to Amsterdam. Plus I love collecting reusable metro cards from around the world. Let's summarize with some math:
One-time card: (4 euro fare + $1 surcharge) x 2 for roundtrip = 10 euros
OV-chipkaart: (4 euro fare x 2 for roundtrip) + 7,50 surcharge = 15,50 euros
Obviously for a one time roundtrip to the city center, the first option was more economical. But... would I come back in the next 5 years?? If only it didn't expire. And because of the 5-year expiration date, I went for the first option. So after it took me forever to come to a decision, I started making the purchase at the kiosk. And note that I used the word 'started' because the kiosk would not accept my credit card. Denied! If you've ever been to Europe, you know that everyone uses chip + pin credit cards. Well my chip + signature card was just not cutting it. Booo. So I went to some ladies at a desk nearby since you could also purchase tickets from them. Their machines also did not like my credit card. Just when I thought I was stuck at the airport, the ladies suggested I go to the main ticketing counters where I could pay cash. Hallelujah! Followed by a smack to the forehead. When they pointed in the direction of the counters, I finally noticed the huge area dedicated to train ticketing. Problem solved. I finally got my ticket and it ended up being 9 euros since the guy was able to get me a same-day roundtrip card. Yay!
Finally, one more mistake. After I got my ticket I headed down to the tracks. I didn't recognize the stations listed on the status boards for the tracks I was on so I asked a conductor if any of them were going Centraal. He gave me a sigh and told me Centraal trains departed from a different track. Oops. I just assumed all trains passed through the downtown area but I guess not. Also, the entrance to the tracks did not list their destination. You have to look at the main board (or ask) before heading to a track number. Yes, this is normal procedure but, for some reason, escaped my mind in Amsterdam. Lesson learned!
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here for Part 2!
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