A Few Hours in Amsterdam

Layovers can be a drag.  Being locked in an airport terminal, counting down the seconds until you can finally board your next flight, is not exactly a glamorous aspect of traveling.  However, sometimes you can maximize a layover into a sightseeing opportunity with a little bit of research and pre-planning.

While en route from Uganda back to the United States in August 2007 after a mission trip, I had the opportunity to get a brief taste of Amsterdam for a few hours, thanks to some forethought by our group leaders.  We arrived in Schipol Airport in the early morning hours (somewhere between four and six a.m.) and took advantage of their somewhat comfortable chair-beds to doze for a few hours before going out into the city.  Bleary-eyed and groggy, we secured our luggage in the airport lockers, made our way through passport control, and down into the train station below Schipol.  After only fifteen minutes on the Intercity direct train line, we emerged at the beautiful Centraal Station ready for a few hours in the city!

Having spent the prior nine days in Uganda, Amsterdam was a bit of culture shock for many of us in the group.  We were out and about before the street cleaners had finished their work, and the remnants of the prior night's revels still littered the streets.  Nevertheless, the buildings shone brightly in the early morning sun, the fresh flowers in the window boxes sweetened the air, and the canals provided a quiet playground for many ducks.  It was my first taste of Europe, and I was hooked!

We found a little breakfast cafe where we enjoyed an English breakfast and not-so-friendly service from our Dutch waiter.  To this day I'm not sure whether he just didn't like Americans (since the British couple in the corner seemed to get a warmer reception) or whether he lacked the patience to handle a large group so early in the morning, but I've often wanted to go back and give him a second chance to change my opinion.

After breakfast we continued to wander the streets.  The culture shock (and entertainment) increased as we encountered our first coffee shop.  For those of you unfamiliar with Amsterdam, a coffee shop actually serves marijuana.  Contrasted with our recent arrival from a Christ-centric mission trip to Africa, the idea and reality of a coffee shop simultaneously amused us and reminded us that "we weren't in Kansas anymore!"  For those of you who need actual coffee while in Amsterdam, find yourself a nice little cafe (preferably one with a great canal view) for a hot cup of Joe.

"This car is so tiny!"

Sadly, we were not in Amsterdam long enough to tour the Anne Frank house, the Corrie ten Boom museum, the Royal Palace, any churches, the Rijksmuseum (National Museum), or the plethora of other world-class museums located in the city.  We also did not visit De Wallen, more commonly known as the Red Light district, but then again, we had no desire or inclination to do so.  Even in the nicer neighborhoods, however, rainbow-colored flags shadowed many doorways, and we soon figured out that this is an indicator of it being a sex shop or something similar.

Having spent as long as possible walking through such beautiful neighborhoods as the Jordaan and admiring many pristine canals, it was finally time to return to Schipol for our flight to the states.  I have yet to return for a proper exploration of Amsterdam, but I will always hold those brief layover hours in high regard as the beginning of my love affair with Europe.

Have you ever squeezed any sight-seeing into a layover?  Have you ever visited Amsterdam?

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