Covid deferred the first full IM race we signed up for 2 yrs ago. While the race was a go last year, we were unable to travel since Sinovac wasn’t recognized as an acceptable vaccine for entry to Germany.
When travel restrictions were relaxed this year, we were raring to go. Unfortunately though, Germany still allowed only tourists with EMA-approved vaccines (Sinovac not one of them), thus we thought of detouring via the Netherlands (which has the most relaxed travel restrictions- it even allows entry to unvaccinated peeps!)
So our whirlwind adventure started in Amsterdam. Colloquially referred to as the world’s capital of bicycles, it’s no surprise Schipol airport has provisions for bike luggage. We then left our bikes and boarded the train for the hotel.
We found the hotel tucked in the quiet side of a residential area. As we only had 2 days plotted for Amsterdam, first on our agenda was the Van Gogh museum. We weren’t able to get in the first time we visited because as we learned, you can only buy tickets online – strictly no walk ins. We were not disappointed this time. 3 floors of Van Gogh’s paintings were definitely a feast for the eyes.
The museum also features a rich collection of stunning artworks from other famous painters in the 19th century such as Claude Monet.
We also didn’t waste the chance to visit the city sights again.
We were supposed to take a plane to our next stop – Hamburg, but got an email ( 12 hrs before the flight!) that the flight was cancelled. With trains as the primary mode of transpo in most of Europe, this was easy. It’d be just a hassle to bring 2 bike bags on the train, but we had no choice. Our first train ride was scheduled at 615 am so we thought of booking a car to bring us to the station. Check out our ride!
Interested to find out what happened to the next leg of our adventure? Read on! >>
https://norhene.wordpress.com/2022/06/25/gateway-to-the-world/
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