Transport in the Netherlands: Personal Experience
You all have probably heard or read that in Holland, the situation with public transport is such that the citizens prefer to use it, and not personal cars. Chudaki? Not at all. Considering the fact that trams and buses have a wideline network of routes and a comfortable rolling stock, and all stops are equipped not only with cards, but also a schedule for each routes (even the number of minutes left until the next train / bus arrival). Sat down and went!
And this, Russian, ordinary electric train: two-storey wagons with air conditioning, electronic scoreboard and toilets. Dominate anywhere in the country with comfort. Often go, and tickets can be easily bought in the machine.
We used such an electric train to get to the next destination – the town of Vesp (15 minutes from Amsterdam).
Moving Amsterdam – Brussels
We moved all the time on the trains that go there with enviable regularity.
Tickets bought right before leaving, carefully punch them in composters on the perrons.
When it was in the edge – tried to look in advance, what time is the last train.
Especially carefully we began to plan our moving after they were thickened in Amsterdam and forced to stay there spent the night.
The fact is that within the country the train goes late, but in Brussels, where the hotel was booked, it is impossible to leave after 20:00. How would the Europeans have tried to unite all the moving Amsterdam-Brussels is considered an international, long and full of dangers.
Moving in Holland: trains, ferries, bikes, buses, taxis
Trains: Train stations are located in the center. Guided in a train – all at the train station there is a screen with a destination, stops and number of ways in which the train leaves.Prices in one direction between 5 and 15 Euro per person (within Holland).
Ferries: A very pleasant way to travel – on the ferry, which is called Fast Ferry. This applies only to cities that are located on the water. Thus, you can take a ferry ride around the following route: Dordrecht-Papendrecht-Ambaht-alblasserdam-Ridderkerk-Krimpen-Rotterdam (between endpoints journey time about 1 hour) or Dordrecht, Zwijndrecht, Papendrecht-Sleydreht (while a little less in the way hours). There are, of course, and other routes, in this case I am guided to Dordrecht. In any case, if you want to take a ride on the ferry, looking in indexes with an inscription Fast Ferry. Prices compared with a train is not very large, no more than 10 euros, the bike can be carried free of charge.
Trams and buses: Public transport runs everywhere, prices of around 2 euros per trip, the ticket is bought from the driver. At each stop, there is a map with the number of the bus / tram and their routes, allowing you to navigate where you want to go. Also, there are many bus stops display with route number of the bus / tram and the arrival time of the next "flight".
Taxi: Please note that the counter starts from 7.5 Euros, and with each second nabegaet 10 cents. goes cheap. Incidentally, in each city is located near the train station Tourist Information Office (icon – three letters of the V, arranged in a triangle), where you can buy maps, souvenirs, travel guides, book tours and just ask where that is.
From Amsterdam to beach g. Zandvoort aan Zee by train
Rent a bicycle in the park Keukenhof
From Schiphol – Amsterdam to take a walk, if you have 6 hours between flights
Short walk briskly turn.
Judge for yourself: in the airport Amster have to be up to 2 hours before departure, and I personally recommend not to risk coming 1.5 hours. It happens that on the inspection line moves fairly slowly. So, already 4:00 left.
The road to the city and back – about an hour. Already 3:00.
Search input-output and stops, plus just a / c very big distances – another half hour. And this scenario naiblagopriyatneyshem. If something goes wrong – the time will be even less.
I am so pessimistic, because a long time flew through Schiphol twice a week. So he had seen all of this, it is impossible to see with the occasional trip.
Passport control, but there are security check queues, sometimes quite long.
By the way, before the gates officially distant to walk 25 minutes.
And we still do not take into account any delay or taxiing. (After landing, the airplane still indefinitely taxis up sleeves – not exactly 5 minutes. I even recall, about twenty minutes).
No, do not worry, all you get, though, in three hours and will not be.
But it is worth it!
Schiphol: Problems with overall scoreboard, red payphones and baggage
To quote the beginning of the one already published reviews here, because I have familiarity with Schiphol started the same way: "Due on KLM, last Monday I had a tour of the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol". However with specially organized for this group. And due to the fact that in the Monday, November 28, 2011, my flight from Paris to Amsterdam was detained because of the fog, and docking have flown from Amsterdam to Moscow.
I understand that I will have to re-register for the next flight, which took off after 7.5 hours, I was able to have only on the gate, passing border control at Schiphol, stairs, corners and ran all the long corridor of his relegation zone. Because, unlike the pointers of the zones that I saw at this airport throughout, monitors with a common scoreboard, the leadership of Schiphol clearly neglected. What is very strange: at other airports, they are mostly found on the way more than once. I just directly at Gaya managed to see information about the status of my flight.
When re-registered, I was given to the code among other things – for a free five-minute phone call to anywhere in the world. It was written on it that it is necessary to call from a red payphone. At the same time they did not say that a certain ambush with this taxophone in Schiphole: many devices, but blue. And no plan, how to find, did not give. Therefore, the cherished red I was looking for broken minutes of forty, even repeatedly surveyed by me in the process of searching the airport employees knew his location very approximately. The device, as it turned out, was buried in the area of the 7th gay, modestly hiding among the blue fellow.
To top it all my baggage in Moscow did not arrive with me. He was taken in two days. Found, apparently, by smell. Probably, the cheese, which I was lucky in Him from Paris, left the memory of myself in Schiphole for a long time 🙂
With the exception of this airport is beautiful, with a diverse assortment of souvenirs in numerous Duty Friend.
I managed to sleep well a couple of hours in a huge soft chair in a recreation area: under the sounds of the TV, Homon of the Merry Ecuadorian group, the piano behind the back, on which the whole thing they played all who are not too lazy and who in that Most, Niagara’s noise of dry aqua massage capsule , informed from the open area of the neighboring spa, and under the loudspeaker, who announced flights.
Tourist Card I Amsterdam City Card – ambiguous convenience
Bicycle rental conditions
Holland: Features of the purchase of railway tickets
A ticket in automata or cashier at the station is bought for trips to Holland. This ticket is not tied to a specific train and does not give the right to place. You can sit on any train on this day and interrupt the trip how much you want. It is desirable that the route is more or less corresponded to the line between the initial and end item specified in the ticket. As a rule, these are one day tickets. But you can buy a ticket without a date, then it will need to compost when leaving perron.
In Belgium, Germany, France walk high-speed expressions Ice. In the ticket on such trains, a specific train is specified and a place is reserved. You can buy a ticket without a place a few minutes before the train is departed, but then the opportunity to stand in the vestibule all the way.
High-speed expresses stop only at large stations, develop speeds up to 250 km / h and have an additional service in the form of a cafe and other. Therefore, Ice tickets are sold with a surcharge (Met Toeslag). A couple of years ago, the Dutch ceased to make a ticket, if the point of sending, and the destination is out of Holland. Railway tickets in Belgium are cheaper than in Holland. Antwerp Amsterdam ticket (bought in Belgium) can be cheaper Amsterdam-Antwerp ticket (purchased in Holland). Absurdity is complete, but really.
Intercity trips
- Between cities cheaper and more convenient to travel by train. Buses – very long in the way. Tickets are better to take on the day and "There and back again". Time and train number are not affixed, that is, you can go on any train, with any number of transfers and short stops in other cities, roughly holding the route. Such a ticket is called DagkaArt Retour (Dakhkart Retur). Bought at the station in the machine or cashier (50 cents for the service will take at the checkout). There are still various subscriptions, but the smallest time is a month. So you will not work.
- Strippenkart – this is a bus ticket or tram. Find out how many zones, you can on schedule book. Without knowledge of Dutch problematic. So it’s not worth such a book. Come on the bus, give Strippenkart to the driver and say the name of the stop. He will postpone you the required number of zones. I initially proceeded from the principle: 15 minutes of the trip – about one zone. But really you know, passing the route, or from the book.
Recently there are day tickets for the bus. It turns out more profitable. But there are such tickets only in the pair of provinces. Offer their drivers themselves.
Payment of transport tickets in automata
Single machines for selling railway tickets, receiving visa maps and a master that I saw in Holland installed in Schiphole. On the other Dutch railway station (including Amsterdam Central Station) – only cash, local cards and Maestro places.
Cash automata There are those that take only coins (in small stations are usually such), and there are that takes and bills (such are found at some major stations).
Machines are different types on one station, t.E. If the one that in front of you takes, for example, only coins and does not take banknotes, no Maestro cards, look at the neighboring – some of the neighboring can, on the contrary, work only with cards (including Maestro).
Automators at the Amsterdam train station take only a trifle
Problems with payment of tickets by bank cards
He conducted a search on the Internet, that’s what I found:
At HOW TO USE THE TICKET MACHINE The author notes that it is impossible to use "Not local" Debit cards. There is still a picture with the image of a machine, if you enlarge it, then the right above the screen seems to be visible for coins.
