August, 2016. I couldn't remember anything about arriving in Amsterdam in 2013. I figured I must have gone in by train. I used the yellow ticket booths (info in English) in Schipol to get a ticket.
I asked a young woman in a natty uniform and a red baseball cap with a train-like logo if she worked there. She hesitated a moment before recovering herself and saying sorry, yes: trains always go to Amsterdam Centraal station from platforms 1 or 2.
The chairs were clean, plastic, practical and spacious - very different to the grimy velveteen cramped seats I am used to in Scotland, never mind that Scotrail is owned by Dutch company Abellio. The journey was fast, only ten or fifteen minutes. I was to see over and over in the coming months that the Dutch are practical, pragmatic, efficient.
I looked for a bus following signs upstairs. There was a great view of the water, the IJ (pron. “Ey”). I realised this wasn't the right place. A young man told me I could get the bus I wanted outside Hotel Factoria - Victoria I realised upon exit. Of course, I could have read this first. In front of the station there is a very large square, Stationsplein full of buses, trams and people. Plein, not far from place, the french for square, or even the place we use ourselves. If you know the bus number you want it is easy enough to find a sign saying which stand to go to. The stands are each indicated by very large letters beside them.
The front of the station is worth pausing to look at. It was designed by Pierre Cuypers, who also designed the Rijksmuseum. I don't know why he's called Pierre. He was born in Roermond and I always think of him as Pieter Cuypers though his page on Dutch Wikipedia calls him Petrus/Pierre too.
After all the trouble, trying to book acommodation the place I found turned out to be functional and fine in an area that suited me. It was a traveller's stopover rather than a home but I expected to be out most of the time. A long-term Russian émigré showed me the place and with acquired? Dutch efficiency moved on to service the next property.
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