Amsterdam!!

 Strange how time seems to fly and already we are heading towards Christmas! For the past goodness knows how long I have had a pre Christmas trip with three of my girl friends. This tradition started when the children were young and we managed to sneak a weekend away at Centre Parks, but as we have got older the lure of throwing ourselves down water chutes in freezing cold weather has subsided. We have however retained the liking for a winter break. In the past we have been to France, Belgium and New York, this year we went to Amsterdam. We were fairly late booking but managed to get an Easy Jet flight for a bargain price. I decided to look for accommodation by looking at  TripAdvisor.

 TripAdvisor threw up Boogaard's Bed and Breakfast, which was the number two ranked bed and breakfast in Amsterdam, so it had to be good!! All the reviews said about the hospitality of the owner and how comfortable the accommodation was. We just had to give it a go. 

So we headed off at 4.15 am to Luton Airport for our flight to Schiphol Airport. I have never flown Easy Jet and didn't know how that would go, but as it happens the plane was great, very comfortable. The only problem is that we were too cheap to pay for priority boarding so boarding was a bit of a free for all!! We decided to send Sandra on ahead to bag us some seats together. She rushed off and got three on one side of the aisle and one on the other.  We had a lady pilot and the roughest flight that I have ever been on!!! The wind was very strong and we managed to get to Holland in 40 minutes. Once off the plane we took a train into Amsterdam and then a taxi to our B and B. Once we arrived we met Peter, our host who immediately invited us into his delightful warm dining room. We piled our suitcases into the corner and used the toilet facilities!!! once we had sorted ourselves out Peter gave us a map, and umbrellas and explained where to go for a bite to eat. Before we left he also served us all a glass of champagne and orange juice, you can't beat that for a start to the day!!

Once we returned late in the afternoon we were shown to our apartment, there were two bedrooms both en suite and both beautifully furnished with gorgeous soft furnishing, wooden floor boards and lovely rugs. All of the rooms were decorated for Christmas with Santas and red berries.

It was the little touches that made it special, a fridge containing cold meats, cheeses, eggs, soft drinks, wine and beer, plus tea, coffee, cakes, biscuits, three different types of bread. There was also a dishwasher and best of all a computer so I was able to skype the kids!!

The living room/kitchen was between the two bedrooms and that was equip with CD player and around 30 visitors guides to Amsterdam!!! In the above photo you can see the small touches such as Santa cushions  and decorations on the table. It was really a home from home.

Peter has two dogs, Curly and Pepe, they are both very friendly and love all the fuss and attentions that visitors give them. Our host was more than happy to do what ever he could to help us, including making reservations for dinner and calling us a taxi. He was a mine of useful information on all sorts of things. We left late on in the day so he stored our cases and arranged for a taxi to take us directly to the airport (for a very good flat rate) He also gave us all a token of our visit to remind us of wonderful Amsterdam!!!

I would not hesitate to recommend this establishment, check out the web site - 

 Boogaards Bed and Breakfast!