Day: October 4, 2019

We arrived in Amsterdam to more rain, which luckily started to dissipate as the bus arrived at the central station. After dropping bags at the hotel we bought metro tickets and headed straight to the Anne Frank house.

It’s quite a small museum, considering it’s the actual house the Frank family hid in this isn’t a big surprise. The museum very strictly control how many people can be there at any one time. You have to buy your ticket online and you have to enter in the 15 minute slot you are allocated. Even with that it’s still slow moving and crowded in the museum.

As with any house in Amsterdam, the stairs in the museum are more like ladders. Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside the museum. There is a shop where you can purchase a museum catalogue that contains everything.

It’s quite a moving experience, if you come to Amsterdam you should make the effort to visit. It will take just over an hour to move through the house and see everything.

The coffee in the museum in the Anne Frank house cafe was way way better than I expected, a very pleasant surprise !

Where we are staying is a few stops on the metro outside the main tourist part of Amsterdam central, however we found a great Italian place for dinner.

Restaurant where we had dinner

Great Coffee in the museum cafe

The ferry across the English Channel has been something I’ve wanted to try for sometime. The ferry itself is quite good, it’s by no means a 5 star cruise, but it was comfortable, with plenty of entertainment options and the the food is ok.

Checking in and getting onto the ship was easy and very fast. Way better than a plane, and considerably quicker than the last couple of Eurostar’s we have taken between the UK and the continent.

What let’s the ship down is the port location in Rotterdam and Hull. If coming to Amsterdam again, I wouldn’t take this ship. The starting terminal in Hull is reasonably close to the station but the traffic was terrible and it took over 30 minutes in a taxi to do the short trip. The train from Leeds to Hull was also unreliable adding some unnecessary stress to the journey.

The ferry included a transfer bus to Amsterdam, which they quote as an hour, but given it drops people at Rotterdam station first and usual motorway traffic it’s was actually 2.5 hours.

It probably would have been better to get the ferry to Brugge as it’s closer to its ferry terminal. If we visit the North of the UK again and the head to the continent I’d get an early flight instead, but glad to have checked European overnight ferry off the travel list. The actual ferry itself is fantastic.

One last thought, the ferry takes cars too. If you wanted to take your own car between the continent and the UK this would be a great way to do it.

Coffee Report : Don’t bother. Horrible machine made jobbie. Not even as good as Nespresso. Wait till you get to Amsterdam. Had a fantastic one there…

A standard cabin

Bathroom

Ship map

One of the lounges

The best bit of being on a ship : cocktails