Amsterdam
Having previously done P&O Mini Cruises to Bruges in Belgium, we finally booked do another to Amsterdam in The Netherlands in December 2015, here is our review.
Having been to Prague earlier in the year (March 2015, check our review here), I find myself comparing the two and for me I enjoyed Prague more, don't get me wrong, Amsterdam is very nice, but I feel it's not the best representation of The Netherlands, in very much the same way I felt Sant Antoni would put a lot of people off Ibiza. In fairness we did have more time in Prague and had done plenty of research in advance and planned our days, whereas with Amsterdam we only had a day, well actually about 6 hours. It was a few years ago since we did our second P&O mini cruise to Bruges and although I can't remember everything, it wasn't as long a transfer (1hr 30mins from port to Amsterdam each way, the first 30 minutes of which portrays a very industrial setting, before it finally opens up and you get to see the beautiful countryside, dotted with windmills, the picture postcard of The Netherlands). Bruges is a lot smaller, so a day was enough to see what you wanted and overall it had a nicer feel, Amsterdam on the other hand made me feel a little on edge and stressed. There are a lot of bicycles whizzing around in Amsterdam, they don't all adhere to the rules, so be aware when crossing the roads, and a green man doesn't mean it's definitely safe to cross, although it is safer in numbers, when a mass of people cross, everything stops. Along with bicycles there are also scooters/motorbikes and the two wheeled vehicles are permitted down what appear to be pedestrianised areas. They've also got trams in Amsterdam and there's no curb to indicate a "safe" edge, so be careful how close you wander near the tram lines, but it's kind of hair raising watching bicycles, cars and vans playing chicken with a tram.
Amsterdam is a maze of streets, so much so it's difficult to cover them in any kind of sensible way, most are littered with the same souvenir shops and bakers selling chocolate covered waffles (they have a weird obsession with Nutella), but there's also the typical high street shops you find in the UK and of course the ones you don't. After a busy 6 hours covering as much ground as possible, dodging bicycles, cars, vans and trams you then arrive back at the drop off point, looking for stop H3, which doesn't seem to exist, but no bother, there's so many people you'll know when the P&O bus turns up, as the mass of people heads for the doors like a swarm of bees and then you have to hope by the time you get to the door there's a seat left.
If you decide you'd like to visit Amsterdam, I'd suggest spending a few days, then you can plan your days, maybe take a canal boat trip and venture away from the hectic streets and see more of what The Netherlands have to offer.
Amsterdam is a maze of streets, so much so it's difficult to cover them in any kind of sensible way, most are littered with the same souvenir shops and bakers selling chocolate covered waffles (they have a weird obsession with Nutella), but there's also the typical high street shops you find in the UK and of course the ones you don't. After a busy 6 hours covering as much ground as possible, dodging bicycles, cars, vans and trams you then arrive back at the drop off point, looking for stop H3, which doesn't seem to exist, but no bother, there's so many people you'll know when the P&O bus turns up, as the mass of people heads for the doors like a swarm of bees and then you have to hope by the time you get to the door there's a seat left.
If you decide you'd like to visit Amsterdam, I'd suggest spending a few days, then you can plan your days, maybe take a canal boat trip and venture away from the hectic streets and see more of what The Netherlands have to offer.
The below map shows the coach transfer route we took (black line) and if you zoom in over Amsterdam, the green line is where we walked around Amsterdam and disappointingly, we can now see we totally missed The Oude Church (Oude Kerk), which we initially marked to see, but whilst there we navigated away from it (I think it was at the point at which my wife looked at the map) down a different street and found another old building we thought was it, however having seen where we have been, we now know where we haven't if we ever revisit Amsterdam.
