Koppelpoort. July 2017
The Netherlands on the Cheap
No two ways about it, the Netherlands is expensive. It is also an amazingly easy country to travel in once a traveler has accepted the fact that a lot of money will be spent. I ended up in Amersfoort simply because I did not want to shell out even more money to base myself in Amsterdam. The Dutch train system (with its amazing OV Chip Card that works on every form of transport except a plane) was orderly, frequent, and easy to use, so I just kept checking hotels further and further out from Amsterdam Centraal Station. I hit upon Amersfoort with a good, cheap hotel near the station and that was not too price gouging.
I arrived at Schiphol Airport early in the morning and got to the hotel about 9am. It had been a long couple of flights from Abha. I was told check-in was at 2pm, strictly observed. The Dutch make the Germans look "loosey goosey" on rule adherence. I said I was an Accor Gold Member. "Ohhhh, that entitles you to check in an hour earlier". WTF? So, I left my bags at reception (surprised I didn't have to pay) and went out for a coffee. Amersfoort was not an early rising kind of place, so I even had a hard time even finding a coffee shop that was open. After a lot of uncomfortable waiting, I was in the room and showered and ready to start my second big journey in the Netherlands.
Amersfoort itself was old and worth a look. The city symbol was the Koppelpoort Water/Land Gate from the old wall system (the second set of walls built around the city). The medieval city center was predictably lovely, but small. After a few hours I had seen everything - I really didn't come to see the city anyway. Amersfoort had great train connections (almost as good as Amsterdam Centraal) and it let me take day trips easily all over the country. The bonus of Amersfoort was no tourists. My temporary home was just a sleepy old town in the province of Utrecht. Even if the start was a little brutal, I quickly came to appreciate my choice for a travel base. The hotel was right by the old city center in case I wanted some atmosphere for an afternoon coffee AND it was just a stone's throw from the train station.
While staying in Amersfoort I came to see Dutch life from a different perspective. In my "travel-in-between-moments" I observed people. The Dutch seemed so serious even though they lived in a country where everything was fairly "automatic" (like Japan) and the average citizen had little to worry about except to wake up and go to work. I wouldn't say people were dour - it wasn't the Eastern Europe of my trip back from Japan in the late 80's [see: Beijing to Athens]. I was just surprised in a place that was spotlessly clean and everyone had "enough" that people were not just a little happier - especially in a small city like Amersfoort.
The biggest observation I made there was about clothes and the weather. The Netherlands weather really is unpredictable and one of those places where one could experience all four seasons in a day. Because of this, when waiting for public transport you could see people in shorts and t-shirts standing next to someone bundled up in a jacket with a scarf. I think in that country people dressed according to their activity and outlook for the day NOT for the actual weather. It made me reflect on New York City and how I noticed people wore clothes according to season more than the weather (I was equally guilty). I remember wearing winter jackets and sweating profusely in January on sunny mild days. Wear anything less and people might have actually thought a person mad. The Dutch seemed far more realistic.
So, dressed as a summer tourist and armed with my OV Chip Card, I explored a big chunk of the Netherlands from Amersfoort (which means a "ford" on the River Amer - long since renamed the River Eem). It was a good four or five days.