{"id":750,"date":"2018-09-03T07:36:08","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T07:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perrisinfo.org\/?p=750"},"modified":"2018-09-03T07:36:08","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T07:36:08","slug":"amsterdam-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perrisinfo.org\/index.php\/2018\/09\/03\/amsterdam-the-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Amsterdam The Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 1 \u2013 Hop on Bus<\/p>\n

We disembarked the Celebrity Eclipse at 9 am and got a taxi to our Mercure Hotel in the Amsterdam Canal District. The taxi ride was a thrill for Paul who was in the front seat. The driver looked for police, and if there were none, he turned at no right turn signs and followed the trams, narrowly missed cyclists and drove quite fast. It cost the maximum 25 euros for the trip (he had quoted us 12-25) and Paul thinks he wanted to get back to the ship to catch another unaware tourist.<\/p>\n

The Mercure is very centrally located. It is one block from a main road and close to many attractions.<\/p>\n

It is not on a main road so would be difficult to find on your own. It was originally 19 houses that were changed into hotel accommodation.<\/p>\n

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Amsterdam Original houses before Mercure 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Amsterdam Original houses before Mercure 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Amsterdam Street to Mercure Hotel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Amsterdam Entrance to Mercure Hotel 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Amsterdam Entrance to Mercure Hotel 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Amsterdam Entrance to Mercure Hotel 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Amsterdam Lobby of Mercure Hotel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lobby is very understated. The receptionist has a laptop on one small round table. There is an office area in the room behind. Anika is very friendly and helpful and manages to do the same job as a much larger hotel with a formal lobby area.<\/p>\n

We stored our luggage and bought hop on bus and boat tickets from the hotel desk. \u00a0It is about a 5 minute walk to the Heineken Experience where we can catch the bus. It was difficult to find the actual bus stop as local regulations prohibit them from putting up a bus sign (not helpful for tourists). They have a free app you can use to show them but we were not this organised on Day 1. So it was word of mouth with other tourists looking for the same place. We did a full loop which took 2 hours. No drivers stopping for cigarette breaks, or buses terminating without warning. Very pleasant compared to Stockholm.<\/p>\n

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Amsterdam Heineken Brewery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

See Paul’s video for more details of the bus trip.<\/p>\n