Out My Hotel Window -- Hotel Piet Hein, Amsterdam, NL (7/2008)

[agedwiz]

We arrived in Amsterdam on Sunday, July 20.   While the Hotel Piet Hein is a comfortable and quiet hotel in a terrific location (if you happen to be a museum goer, less so if you're interested in the Amsterdam nightlife) it's not one I could recommend.  The attitude of the staff was indifferent at best and destructive at worst.  One desk clerk

Comments

[deltamiss]

Somehow I missed that you were going out of the country again. :/

The courtyard looks like a maze. :D

[agedwiz]

...for three weeks. Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, Moscow then across Russia on the trans-siberian railway to Vladivostok. I'll post as much as I can, though connectivity is dubious...

[mrsmcgillicuddy]

Ah...I'm jealous of you guys! :D
Beautiful! Have fun!!!

[fauxklore]

I made the claim some years ago that if you took Amsterdam, stopped doing street maintenance for 40 or so years, and changed the signs to Cyrillic, it would turn into St. Petersburg.

I'm interested in your take on the two cities, since I was in Amsterdam more than 15 years before I was in St. Petersburg, while your time was separated by just hours.

Have fun on the trans-Siberian!

[agedwiz]

I don't have the sense that St. Petersburg is dirty or unmaintained, although I would certainly say that Amsterdam is in better shape. Although they have done (and continue to do) much restoration in St. Petersburg there is much to be done. Still, it is impressive and seems to be improving.