Easter Break | Amsterdam Trip Part 1

Assalamualaikum...

last Easter Break which falls on the early April me, my bestie and 2 of my friends decided to go to a trip to Netherlands and Belgium for 4D3N...this is the first trip that I have ever planned in advance for almost a month! there should be more than 4 people but somehow 2 of my friends can't make it due to visa reason and another one just can't make it :(

our plan was to go to Brussels first, hire a car and drive to Netherlands and come back to Brussels and exit to London...so we took Eurostar train from St. Pancras to Brussels...my nightmare everytime I went for a trip happens during this time! we didn't make it before the time of boarding...we should be there half-hour before departure for check-in since we need to go thru custom as this is international train, the rules apply same as those with flight...but luckily, one of my friend managed to change the ticket time to a later one...

on the train, we met this Korean uncle named Donggel Li...he suddenly ask me where are we from since I was sitting at the aisle and he was sitting in front of me...starting from that point, he chats with us because he said that 2 hours journey will be so boring and thats so true tho...but since I just came back from San Francisco on the 30th March and we start our trip on the 2nd of April I was still having my jetlag, I doz off in the middle of the chat...when I woke up, we were almost there :D

this is the friendly Korean uncle! ^_^v

at the station itself, we rent a car from Europcar company to go to Brussels which is much more cheaper if you are travelling in a large group...another incident happened here when my bestie didn't bring her previous driving license card...it doesn't mentioned beforehand in the Europcar website that the driving license should be more than one year! arrghh...fortunately that I brought my previous driving license card since 2010...haha...so we just need to change the booking from my bestie's name to mine...Alhamdulillah...

I was already bear in mind that the road will be as apposite as in Malaysia and UK, but the moment I step in the car, I was nervous to start the engine...my leg were shaking! haha...

  

we start the journey smoothly...

  

  

  

  

  

we went thru beautiful houses, churches, lakes, trees that looks like whomping willow trees in Harry Potter :) few animals such as deer, horses and top of that we even went thru a bridge that looks like Penang bridge! lol

  

after such a long journey, we stop a while to eat..we found this since there are chairs and table for us to set up a mini picnic, but once we got out from the car, the wind was blowing crazily...so we end up eating in the car -_-'

we continue our journey until...

  

we found a dead end! we were shocked as there were no other way, it seems like we need to go thru the river...I have been suspicious along the way as we didn't reach the motorway/highway after almost 3 hours...and then this??? 

to convince me that we didn't lost, so I open my GPS using my phone and thats the only way for us to cross over the river and actually this is one of the route as mentioned in the Google Map...

fortunately the ferry ride is cheap...just Euro 2.35...pfftt~~

once we cross the river, I opened back the navi system and then I realised something!!! it was set up as "avoid motorway"arggghhh no wonder...so guys, if you hired a car next time, make sure the first thing you do is check the navigation set up! this might be set up from the previous renter -_-"

then after that we enter highway and straight to our accommodation...we reached our accommodation around 6.30pm...a 3 hours journey become 6 hours~ but I am satisfied because if not due to the faulty set up of the navigation, we wouldnt see the beautiful side of the villages here =D

sneak peak of our accommodation ^_*

will tell you more about this accommodation...highly recommended!!!! thumbs up! >.<

after prayer and freshen up a bit, we decided to go to the city for a while...we park our car at Park and Ride or they call it as P&R which is just 6 minutes away from our accommodation...its so convenient to travel and thats one of their way to avoid tourist cars in the city...I just love the idea :)

just 4 stations away from the P&R to the central station approx around 10 minutes ride by the train

this is Amsterdam Central Station, the centre for metro, interrail and international trains...since me and my bestie haven't change the money yet, so we decided to do it here...we went to one of the exchange money counter inside the station, the staff was so playful and funny to us...but he did helped us when he said that its better if we cash out the money using the ATM machine that situated just around the corner rather than using their service because there will be Euro5 and 3% charge...tq sir! :-*

then we took a train to the "I amsterdam" sign which is the must-visit-place if you come to Amsterdam

we took some photo and then we headed back to our accommodation...need some rest to continue our exploration on the next day~

Bye~^_^v