Surprisingly, I did achieve my goal and take some photos of Amsterdam – most of which did not work! Though I managed to catch one of a doorway erected in 1631 with the XXX coat of arms (three images of Saint Andrews silver cross).
There are many theories about Amsterdam’s crest and it’s obvious connection to the modern triple X symbol. All that seems to be concretely known about the association, is that it was adopted by Amsterdam first.
We sat in Dam Square for a while, people watching. Even late into the night/early morning (as it was), the Square was active with revellers.
We were in a conundrum anyway, so why not waste some time we thought. Still not ourselves, far from our car – who knew where the car was at that point and who cared – no one was going to be driving in this state.
We got something to eat (whatever was open) and drink (coffee) and decided the only plan we could really develop simply involved waiting it out until morning, ensuring we felt better, finding the car & heading to the rest stop just outside of town for some much needed (though sure to be uncomfortable) ‘car sleep’.
It was almost 4am by the time we got to Dam Square. The next few hours passed surprisingly quickly. We had hilarious chats while sitting with locals and other travellers, about our experience that evening – with more than one traveller having experienced the same horror show as us (the rest being smart enough to avoid the situation altogether)!
We had recovered by about 6:30am – after kilometres and kilometres of walking, lots of coffee, breakfast and almost exactly 12 hours.
We were finally ready to pull out my camera and find the photographic reminders of our parking location when I noticed hilarious evidence (scattered everywhere!) of the ‘suffering’ of others – if they were enjoying themselves, 3/4 of ‘it’ wouldn’t be scrunched on the ground!
Now to have a nap and tour some Dutch country side…
(continued)
You can follow this trip by heading to the ‘8 Country EU Tour‘ section, or you can enjoy many more photos of Holland by heading to the Habitual Runaway on Facebook.
Related articles
- XXX Coat Of Arms (Wikipedia)
- Amsterdam Vacations (orbitz.com)
- Bike Dodging Should Be An Olympic Sport,1/3[Day 8] – Amsterdam, Netherlands (travelpod.com)
- Amsterdam – Europe’s City of Vices (tomlikescode.wordpress.com)
Habitual Runaway Tours 
Oh my goodness, what a story. I can’t wait for the next instalment. I have filed this information away in my “not to do” list for future reference.
LikeLike
Oh thank you! Yes, a big reason for writing about that embarrassing experience was as a warning – and for my friends who seem to be sad that they won’t have made it out to visit before the legislative changes – they might be lucky that the Government has stopped them from making their own bad decisions!
LikeLike
Ah that state of just surrendering to it.. love that
LikeLike