We arrived in Amsterdam within 4 hours from Hampsire by Eurostar.  Quite ironic really. This is a 30-day interrailing trip and it is quite ironic that on the first leg of the journey from Hook we failed! There was a rail strike which meant that we had to find alternative ways of getting to St Pancras for the Eurostar train. Fortunately my son works near Heathrow and so he dropped us at T5 for the underground connection to London!!! Very funny really!

Love the fact too that one flight to Amsterdam is equivalent to 13 train journeys by Eurostar - as can be seen on the display below - a great way to reduce your carbon footprint! It was an amazingly easy and calm journey and it was great to avoid busy terminals, frantic security checks and passport controls. Once on the train we settled back in comfort to enjoy the journey with plenty of space, a light lunch served with wine and coffee and even power supply and internet if required!

https://www.eurostar.com/rw-en

https://www.interrail.eu/en

We settled into our hotel right next to the main station and we had plenty of time to have dinner and stroll around this incredible city, dodging the bikes, of course!  Amsterdam is totally worth a visit in its own right and we had spent some time here before. We absolutely love the Netherlands - the people, the culture and the lifestyle. On this occasion, though, we are just passing through and tomorrow we will be heading off on the next part of our journey north.

Ibis - a good but quite basic hotel for travellers on a budget and right next to the station.

https://all.accor.com/hotel/1556/index.en.shtml