Friday, August 31, 2018: Transfer to Amsterdam, Pulitzer Hotel, Ann Frank House

Today we said goodbye to Oslo and took an early afternoon flight to Amsterdam. We are overnighting in Amsterdam simply to avoid having to get up in the middle of the night in Oslo in order to make the flight connection to Minneapolis.  As we are accustomed to do when arriving in Amsterdam, we take the train to Centraal Station and then head to our hotel from there.

[Photo from 2017]

The trains are slow today and stop several times and wait to approach the station.  When we arrive we find a major portion of the station cordoned off with police tape.  Only later do we learn that a double stabbing and subsequent police shooting had occurred there just two hours earlier.  Close only counts in horseshoes.

Some months ago when making reservations for our hotel this evening I made a mistake and canceled a perfectly good reservation at a perfectly good hotel.  I then discovered that remaking that  reservation was twice as expensive.  Ouch.  After checking around I was able to obtain a suite at a fabulous five-star property using one of our credit card travel perks.  This turned out to be a great mistake.  The Pulitzer hotel is fabulous.

Our two room suite looks out onto the canal.

And then the hotel brought complementary flowers, champaign and a welcome card.

After a quick snack in the bar because we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we head to the Ann Frank House.  [Purchase your tickets well ahead of time on-line.]  It has changed greatly since I first visited about twenty years ago.  In fact, a lot of it was unrecognizable.  They have added additional buildings to the side to add additional display material but, unfortunately, limited some of the viewing of the actual annex due to the sheer number of people passing through.  No pictures are allowed inside.

Then since it is too nice to leave our room, we have room service dinner and begin packing for the trip home tomorrow.

Goodnight Amsterdam.