Am(STAR)dam!

We made it to Amsterdam, after a TEN HOUR TRAIN RIDE! There was an accident on the tracks ahead of us, so the train was rerouted. We got to Amsterdam after 2 AM, and still had to figure out how to get to our hotel from the deserted subway station. We also were not sure our reservation was still good, seeing at it was much later than check in time.

A small side note here- often people say that European people are rude to Americans, but we experienced nothing but kindness during the train ordeal. We did not know what was going on, and the train conductor seemed to be explaining things in every language except English. Once the people around us realized that we did not understand what was happening, they went out of their way to translate for us. One guy even made a special stop at our seats to let us know that they were serving free drinks in the lounge car. Once we were at the deserted station, we asked a guy waiting for the train how to use the pay phone, and he helped us figure it out and was very gracious about it (his name was Robb!), the hotel people were nice, and everybody was very helpful.

We stayed at a very nice hotel last night- one of the nicest hotels I (Cathy) have ever been at. We hit up Priceline.com to see if we could find a better hotel than a hostel for the same price, and we were able to stay at the Marriott for sixty dollars. Yay! Today we moved downtown and we are staying at the Park Plaza. (thanks, Priceline- we did not pay anything close to that listed price) It's also very nice and close to everything we want to be near.

We're off to dinner and the Anne Frank House now! (it is open until 9 PM) We will be here today and part of tomorrow, and then we're off to Paris, with a brief stop in Brussels for lunch. We hope to update again (with photos) soon.