May 17, 2025

Weather sunny and 60’s

As I write this, we are in our room at the Pulitzer Hotel in Amsterdam after a good flight, no hassle entry and delivered into the competent hands of Viking.  Our trip from Chattanooga to Atlanta was uneventful, arrived in time to get through security and have a nice lunch at TGI Friday’s.  We boarded and took off and landed on time with no luggage drama.  Our flight was smooth and the food was really very good (Veggie risotto for dinner and bread pudding for breakfast).


On the plane

Outside the baggage claim we were met by our Viking hostess and our driver took us to the Hotel.  The Pulitzer is an amalgamation of 25 old warehouses on the Prinsengracht canal – one of the major ones in the city.  Our room was not ready, but we upgraded to a canal view and a ready room.  


Pulitzer and environs



Our room from the street


Our room

We cleaned up, rested a bit and then walked around the block. The Church of Our Lady is in the block with the hotel, and they have an English Mass at 6 PM tonight.  We booked a table for 6 at Jannz, the Hotel restaurant for 7pm.

When we got back from our short walk, we met Loren and Pam and caught up on the travails of air travel (the Minneapolis Airport had only 1 working runway last night) and got acquainted. Shirley found the yarn shop her knitting friends recommended, and it opens at 12 so we will just chill in the room until then.

After a short nap, we set out on a walk to the yarn shop.  The weather was in the 60’s and sunny with a little wind. Beautiful!  We walked along the canal past many small shops and restaurants.  We picked one at random and had a nice lunch and chat with some tourists from San Diego.

There are a lot of bicycles.  I mean a LOT of bicycles, and the word from our Viking host proved very true (there is only one rule for cyclists here in Amsterdam: we don’t follow any rules!)  So, when crossing any paved surface where there may be bicycles, it is best to look both ways before venturing across.  The streets are lined with jumbles of bicycles most with locks, and mostly older models.  That is, we did not see new fancy bicycles.  We did see a fair number of young mothers pedaling bicycles with large child ‘boxes’ between the seat and the front wheel.  And everyone rode. We saw riders from 8 to 80 zooming in and out.


Bicycle with box

Shirley made friends at the yarn shop, Stephen & Penelope, and purchased a new project. We then wound our way back to the hotel past many cafes, the Anne Frank House and photo opportunities over the canals. 

Shirley making friends at Stephen & Penelope


Shirley’s new project

A word about the museums here. Tickets are mandatory and they are sold out months in advance. We were unable to go to the Van Gogh Museum as we had hoped, and would have been unable to see the Anne Frank House or really any of the wonderful Museums around.  The Hotel Concierge, just smiled and said not possible when we asked.

Upon entering we met Bob and Anna who were getting the spiel from the Viking Host. We decided to all meet up for a walk at 2:45.



Selfie at the canal


Typical canal view

We all (Paul, Shirley, Bob, Anna, Loren and Pam) ventured out toward the Flower market. We passed many shops, cafes and photo ops along the way. After returning to the hotel,  we opted for a snack in the courtyard and cancelled the dinner reservation, as we all were too jet lagged to make it to 7 PM.



(L to R) Loren, Bob, Anna, Shirley, Paul, Pam

Dinner in the courtyard

Our Lady Catholic church was just around the corner from the Hotel, and they had a 6 PM Mass in English.  It was crowded.  The congregation was local and varied in age.  We prayed for the 20 local couples undergoing Marriage Prep, a very hopeful sign in a city not known for religiosity.

Say good night!  The first day over here is the hardest on the circadian schedule, but we have found that an energetic first day and a good night’s sleep sets us up for the rest of the trip.

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