After leaving Amsterdam, we hopped on the first available train going to Rotterdam, which was the starting-off point for our journey to visit the hometown of my great-great-grand-mother. Well, we were apprarently on the wrong train, because after reaching the first stop we learned that we needed to pay a supplement of 10 euro each on top of our rail pass.We tried to get off, but by the time we reached the doors they had already locked. So, Jon, reasonable as he is, said he would just talk to the ticket man and get it sorted out.
Well, when the ticket man arrived, he informed us that we had 3 chances to hear or read that this was a supplement train. We explained that none of the signs at the departing station informed us as such and that we had tried to get off at the last station. He told us that in his 22 years working for the rail system, Americans were the only ones who have trouble following directions. "You never read anything and don't listen to directions!" he said. Jon informed him that we are both teachers and know very well how to read, and his retort was that we were "perhaps not very good teachers, then." THE. NERVE! That got my blood boiling to say the least, but at least he only made us pay one of the supplement prices rather than for both. By the way, when we arrived in Rotterdam, Jon checked the signs to see if they indeed said it was a supplement train. When they did not, he found the gentleman and asked him where the sign was that explained this... the man said "Well, it tells you in Dutch right there!" Sheesh...
Mishap #2
Ok, so maybe not so much a mishap as a crazy-annoying-scramble. We arrived in Rotterdam and needed to book a train to Paris for the next day. So, we wait in the ticket office for 30-40 minutes, listening to other people trying to get the same Paris tickets we need and being told that it is impossible and all the trains are full. I start to panic a bit, as this would throw off our whole schedule. Jon told me to chill out (as usual). We finally made it to the ticket counter and were the first customers of a nice (!) lady who had just started her shift or come back from lunch or something, because she was the only pleasant person we'd encountered that day who worked for the Dutch rail system. She found a way to make it work for us, though we'd have to take 3 trains and spend the better part of our day traveling. Worked for us, though, as we had a hotel already booked in Paris. So we go to pay our 6 euro reservation fee (plus the 10 euros they charged just to make the reservation for us...ridiculous), and our card won't work! Of course, we'd just spent what was left of our cash paying the supplement on the train, and needed an ATM. We were worried that we'd have to wait in line again and would lose our reservations, but the lady was kind enough to direct us to the nearest ATM and said she'd hold the reservations until we got back. Meanwhile, we are worried that we aren't going to make the last bus we need to take to get to the small town we're headed to, so I headed back to the ticket office to pay for our train tickets, and Jon got in line at the bus/metro/tram office to get our bus tickets.
We were headed to Dirksland, the small village where my great-great-grandmother grew up. When we told the man at the bus station where we were headed, he had to find it on a map. "And why are you going there?" he laughed. We had to spend 10 euro to get 2 subway passes each, and were told to buy a bus ticket at the main station where we were headed. So we get to the main station and ask to buy a ticket. The woman says we buy them from the bus driver, so we get on the bus and the bus driver seems very perturbed that he has to sell us tickets. All annoyances aside, it cost 14 euro one way! Yikes. Good thing we took out lots of cash.
Non-Mishap #1
Our trip to Dirksland was definitely not a mishap. Although it was quite an ordeal getting there, it was well worth it to experience a part of my heritage. Once we got to Dirskland, we just started walking towards the church, because all I could remember was that the house she lived in was across from the church, had a red door, and was either house number 43 or 93 (I remembered the 3 for sure). The church was easy to find (the only tall building in the village) and so incredibly quaint. There was a small stream running around it, and a bridge crossed over it that led to the church's gate. There were ducks roaming the green grass. People were riding by us on bicycles (we did get a few stares). It was so pituresque I can't even describe. And then, of course, there was the house with the red door, number 93, right where it was supposed to be. We went to lunch at a small restaurant up the street, stopped at a local pub to check out the environment, and then just like that it was time to get back on the bus. Although we weren't able to spend a lot of time in
Dirksland, I am so appreciative that I had the opportunity to see that part of my family history.
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| The house my great-great-grandmother grew up in is the first on the left, the one with the red door. |
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| The church is to the left and my grandmother's house to the right. Isn't this just the quaintest little street you ever did see? |
Mishap #3
Ok, back to the mishaps for the day, because we had to use public transportation again. We got on the bus we took to get to Dirksland, but the driver told us to take the next bus. Why? We don't know, we can't understand him, he just says "wait, wait, next bus coming." So, we get on the next bus. The driver says, "This isn't the normal bus. You were supposed to take the one that just left." For crying out LOUD! We think that man didn't want to take the time to sell us tickets (we noticed a trend here). So, the new bus driver says that this bus is 12 euro each. Well, for 24 euro we'll wait for the next bus to come around that we should have taken in the first place! "Ok," says the driver, "You'll be 12 euro (pointing to Jon) and she'll be 4 euro." Did I get the infant/toddler discount or what? So it ended up being only 2 euro more than the other bus, was much comfier, and made fewer stops. But still, it cost us 40 euro for that short 2 hour trip! Zoinks!
Non-Mishap #2
We had just the evening to spend in Rotterdam, and were lucky enough to find someone on Couchsurfing.org that was willing to take us in for the evening. It was his first time hosting couchsurfers, and it was our first time surfing, so it all worked out. Piet was a very friendly, gracious host. His roommate made us a yummy dinner, then we went walking around the town. Rotterdam was much more industrial than Amsterdam seemed, and is an important port city. We walked all over town, over the bridge, and Piet brought us to the New York Hotel, which was the old station where people taking boats to America would wait. It still had the "Holland-America Line" sign on top of the building. We had a few drinks and looked
around at the potographs of passengers from the early 1900s. To think, my grandmother could have waited in this very place to board a boat to America. Too cool! We had wanted to make it an early evening, but by the time we left the trams weren't running (and of course, it was raining and cold), so we had to walk all the way back and didn't make it back until 2 in the morning. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep.
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| Rotterdam |
Those Dutch sure know how to bake! We headed to the train station in lovely weather (just kidding, it was raining) and then it was off to Paris!
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