Out of US..into Europe..

The flight to London was quite uneventful, except the fact that Neeraj and I had to sit apart. Aparently, everybody books seats online..we were left with none. :( Fortunately, it was only a 6 and half hours flight and I had some work to do :)

After landing into London, the immigration was quite smooth, we were going there just to drop all our stuff. No point in lugging around 4 suitcases 25 Kgs each everywhere. Moreover, the luggage restrictions are stricter withing Europe. Way too strict!!

We had booked most of the Europe trip on easyjet or Ryan Air. We were pleasantly surprised that EasyJet allows no restrictions on hand luggage. (Within reasonable limits :)). These flights are cheap and are very basic, make Southwest airlines look like a luxory! The other thing is that there is no food served on these flights ..not even soda and pretzels. Well in an hours flight, it does not really matter. Also these flights usually do not use the main airports, but the ones that are out of the town or not so well connected. Luton is one such airport. Neeraj's bro-in-law had to drop us off at 5 am and it was almost an hours drive. The taxing in Luton takes so long, that you almost feel like this plane will just drive its way to amsterdam :)

When we were close to landing in amsterdam, we could see a few fields that looked red, but having been told that the tulip season was almost over, we were skeptical. After reaching amsteram, we realized that the entire printout of the iternerary was missing. Neeraj forgot it at the check-in counter in Luton. Then began the mad rush to find an internet cafe only to be old that there are none and we had to go to the city. It was about 8 in the morning and we immigrated, bought tickets for KuKenhof gardens and then bought the rail tickets to go to the City. It took about 20 minutes and was quite crowded with British teenagers. I simply could not understand their accent. !!

The train stops at the centraal station which is in the heart of the city. It was crowded with commuters, except that they were on bicycles. :)
It was still too early and after getting the information for the nearest internet cafe, we set out to drag our bags on the oh-so-European cobbled streets. We needed that to get directions to the hotel although we vaguely knew where we wanted to go.

After walking about 20 minutes, we finally gave up and asked a local. He asked us to get on a tram and we did. You can purchase a one-time ticket, though we purchased a day-pass. These need to be validated, that is the date and time is stamped. After a few minutes, we did not know how long to wait and asked the train-conductor. He told us that we had passed Ramada long back.
We immediately stepped out. The other problem is that not all the stops were marked on the free map we got. There was no way to know how far we went. Once we got off, we walked over to the other side to go back. A desi, mostly software, guy smiled at us and asked us if we were staying in Ramada. Out of the blue!! He said he was living there was two years and it was about 20 steps away from where we were...thank God for small mercies.

The hotel is in a residential area, away from the city center, however neat and clean. The rooms are small but functional.
We crashed and went off to sleep and woke up only at 3 pm. Then we set out to look for lunch. We took the tram back and found a money changer to change the travellers checks that we got from Neeraj's sis. Its a good idea to get these from US, since 50 Euros = 45 Euros. You lose some in conversion (not exactly conversion)

We found a place which looked like mediteranian food and went in. I ordered Falafel and neeraj ordered something like a satay. Mine was sufficient with one sandwich and one round of salad. You have to buy water and a small bottle cost 2 Euros. We decided to keep this bottle for the rest of the trip and stepped out.

The city was still not very bustling. Night-life in amsterdam is famous (or notorious ;)). We booked a twilight tour in the canals and walked along the canals waiting for the tour to start...