As September creeps upon me and I watch my savings grow, I know I have lots of expenses coming up with moving and finding my own place. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, however every time I find my nerves getting out of control I take a peek at my travel itinerary and remember it is all worth it.
First I get to spend a long layover in Dublin with plenty of time to leave the airport and explore a bit, I’m not sure where I will go exactly but I do know there is a bus that goes to and from the airport throughout the day and night and it isn’t very expensive. I just want to email and confirm they will have a bus in the middle of the night/early morning on the night I will need it. I would hate to plan my entire layover based around that transportation and get screwed. As far as what I will do there, I was thinking of just walking around the center of town a bit – take some pictures – and then find a spot to have a couple drinks before returning to the airport. Do you have any must see sites in Dublin for me?
Once I get to Amsterdam, I will have a few hours before I check into my Airbnb – if you have never stayed in one I highly suggest it! I had a fabulous experience in Asheville, NC staying in a tiny house. Once my flight lands and I get through customs, I’ll have plenty of time to catch a train and a tram to the Bloemenmarkt area of the city. If I am still too early to check in, I can always find a little spot to have some coffee and breakfast.
The first day I will probably just wander the area a bit and then get some sleep – I imagine I will be very tired. The next day I want to check out the Anne Frank House – when I lived in NL I really wanted to check this out but the line gets very long very early and every time I got to Amsterdam by train it was already wrapped around the block. Since I will be staying nearby, I intend to be one of the first people in the museum when they open at 9am.
My favorite artist is Dutch, MC Escher, I’ve loved his art since I was very young and even had a sweater with his hand drawing a hand picture on it. He has an exhibit in the Palace that I would like to go to after the Anne Frank House, it opens at 11am so if I am first in line at 9am I should be able to wrap up that exploration in two hours and then make my way to Het Paleis for an exploration of my favorite artist. The transportation will take about an hour and a half but I’m not worried, I’ll be printing all of my travel itineraries before departure so I can have them for reference and the museum is open until 5pm. With this museum I can purchase and print my ticket ahead of time to skip the queue which will save me precious time.
I think the next day I will take a boat tour to take some pictures of the city from a different vantage point. After that I will probably just wander around the various markets. I haven’t really gotten much further than this so far, any thoughts on must do/see things? At some point I would like to take a train ride to Bergen Op Zoom and/or Rotterdam for old time’s sake.
Dream Across The World 