Wednesday, June 1, 2022
We began our day with a “Hop On Hop Off Boat Tour,” which disembarked from Nyhavn. The tour took us through the rivers and canals of Copenhagen. The weather was sublime right until we were exiting the boat. We got hit with a 45-minute downpour, which the locals say is typical weather.
After the boat ride, we took advantage of the “Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour.” We saw just about all you could in Copenhagen between the two tours.
Once we were done at around 6 PM, dad and I decided to expand our poker chip collection; only to find out that it cost 100 Danish Krone, or $15 a pop, just to enter the casino. Not only do you get to lose your money in European casinos, but you have to pay to do it! Ha! As you can probably guess, our poker chip collection did not grow.
Demoralized, dad and I kept walking. We came acros s a street party that must have had 5,000 Danes, several of which we witnessed urinating off a bridge.
We continued to Nyhavn, where I put my DJI Mavic 3 Cine up into the air. I captured some incredible photographs of the vibrantly colored 17th and early 18th-century townhouses, bars, cafes, and restaurants. I was also able to get pictures of The Copenhagen Opera House, the national opera house of Denmark, and Amalienborg Palace, the home of the Queen of Denmark.
Thursday, June 2, 2022
Today was the day we would find out if we could make it into Germany and the Netherlands, despite not being fully vaccinated. We purchased train tickets from Copenhagen to Amsterdam. Our route was scheduled to stop in Hamburg, Germany, where we were to get on a different train that would take us to Osnabrueck, Germany, where we were to switch trains once more for our final leg to Amsterdam. If you’ve read my work before, you can surmise that this did not happen as planned.
Since we bought the train tickets the day of, we did not have any seat reservations. Instead, we could only sit in seats that did not have reservations, which are “first come, first serve.” We hopped on our train to Hamburg early enough to secure seats on the train. That is until we realized we got on the wrong train. We got off at the next stop and waited for the correct train to arrive. This train, however, had all of its seats accounted for. This meant that my mom, dad, pregnant wife, and I sat on the train floor for four hours. Luckily we weren’t the only ones. In fact, due to technical difficulties with the train, two carriages weren’t being used, so there were dozens of people sitting on the floor. Though the train ride was incredibly uncomfortable and something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, I managed to make friends with a German and Frenchman who were my same age.
Once we arrived in Hamburg, at Altona Station, we discovered that our next train to Osnabrueck departed from Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (central railway station). We took the subway system across the city to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, where we dined luxuriously at Burger King. What? You thought I wouldn’t eat a hamburger while I was in Hamburg?
Our train left Hamburg fifteen minutes late at 6 PM. When we got on our train, we were told by the ticket checker that our final train from Osnabrueck to Amsterdam had been canceled. She advised us to get off at Münster, Germany, and get on a train to Oberhausen, Germany, where we would get on our *new* final leg to Amsterdam.
I wish that were where the story ended! While on our train to Oberhausen, the train conductor announced that the train to Amsterdam had already departed and that another train to Amsterdam was scheduled to leave three minutes after we arrived in Oberhausen and that they would not wait for any passengers. As soon as our train arrived, I dashed out of the doors and across the train station to the correct platform. I stood in the trains’ doorway so that they couldn’t close without the rest of our family. I’m not sure the conductor was thrilled that his train was delayed, but I sure was!
We arrived at Amsterdam Centraal at midnight, and at our hotel, across the street from The Johan Cruyff Arena, home of AFC Ajax, at 1 AM. We opened our hotel room to find two lovely twin-sized beds.
Through all of this chaos and turmoil, it completely slipped my mind that the original plan I hatched up at O’Hare went just as planned. Despite not being able to fly into Amsterdam, we were still able to make it by crossing the border via land and skipping any COVID-19 checkpoints. Bravo, Luke, Bravo.
Friday, June 3, 2022
Because of the hectic day we endured yesterday, we decided to get going a tad later, around Noon. We bought tickets to The Rijksmuseum, the national museum of the Netherlands. The museum has over 1 million pieces of art, 8,000 of which are on display. Some of them include works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Van Gogh. Some of the notable pieces of art we appreciated were: The Battle of Waterloo by Jan Willem Pieneman, The Night Watch by Rembrandt, and The Milkmaid by Vermeer.
After soaking up the art, we made use of Amsterdam’s waterways and took an hour-long tour on a boat that sailed through the famous canals.
Upon disembarking the boat, we took the tram to the Anne Frank house but could not go in because of the high volume of tourists. Nevertheless, it was mesmerizing standing at the doorway of a building with so much history.
We capped off the night with some Dutch cuisine. We ate Bitterballen, a deep-fried type of goulash that just about seared a hole through the roof of our mouths.
Following our dinner, Brooke and I went for a thirty-minute walk, which led us to The Royal Palace of Amsterdam and the ever so notorious “Red Light District.” As we exited the district, I made sure not to look back, lest I would become a pillar of salt.
