However, nothing prepared us for the room. It was THE BIGGEST HOTEL room we've been in. Having booked a family room, we were presented with a huge 'room' of about 1000 sqft (bigger than most apartments in Malaysia). It's referred to as a suite though in actual fact it was more like a room with a divider in the middle separating the two sleeping area. There was also a big sitting area with full set of 3+2+2 leather sofas and a balcony which in our case, being on the ground floor, opens up to a big garden. The bathroom alone was as huge as a double garage. The kids were very excited and of course, so were we. Considering that this was the last hotel in our trip and we were going to spend 2 nights here, what a great way to end the holidays. Parking is also free and ample.
Anyhow, enough about the hotel. After solat, we quickly left the hotel for the city but not before stopping over at the only restaurant that we ended up going twice to in our trip. Toko Java is a small Indonesian restaurant that sells...well..almost everything. The lady at the counter addressed us in Dutch and we responded back in English. She responded with something like, "No English" and we said..."Bahasa Indonesia bisa?"....and a smile of recognition that led us to placing all our orders and had one of the best meals during the journey. Being able to have a rice lunch with lauk Melayu like rendang, sambal tempe, sayur campur, ayam masak merah and tahu telur after a week was simply....priceless......
From Toko Java, we made our way to Amsterdam City and while trying to find a parking spot we couldn't help but noticed the thousands of bicycle being 'parked' in the city. There was also a multi-storey bicycle parking complex next to the Central Station and again, the number of bicycle there was mind-boggling. We wondered how does one find his/her bicycle from the thousands there.
Finally, we managed to park at the underground parking right next to the Central Station and upon coming out, we were at the ticket booth for the canal cruise. We decided that, a cruise would be a great way to see the city and quickly purchased the tickets. Quite dear - EUR12 per adult for an hour cruise.
Anyhow, there was a cruise every 15 minutes and before long we were in one of the flat, wide and long cruise boat. In total, it can carry up to 75 people but we did not have any problem finding seats around a table just for ourselves. The boat had clear, transparent roof and with the beautiful summer afternoon, all the windows were opened.
The cruise took us around the harbour before turning into one of the canals and then went around the city via the famous canal networks of Amsterdam. There were commentaries in at least 5 languages, from English to Mandarin and overall it was a great way to see the city.
After the cruise, we found ourselves back at the Central Station and decided to take a walk around the city. We explored the various streets and roads along the canals that we had earlier seen from the water. Amsterdam city is quite lively though we consciously decided not to stroll in the infamous Red Light District. Not that long afterwards, we got into one of the smaller side streets where the kids ended up having ice-creams (very good tasting) and we bought some kebabs for dinner (EUR7.50 for a relatively small kebab and EUR2 for a can drink - expensive).
After the walk, we got to our car and was back on our way to the hotel. The kids had planned games in the garden and couldn't wait to get back. It was indeed the best hotel we had been too and we know that we'll go there again in future trips to Amsterdam.
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