he Hotel Estheréa is located about six blocks from the train station. It is an easy walk that takes you past the main square and then off to the right to the first canal, Single. The address is 303 - 309 Singel.

The Estheréa has been owned by the same family since its beginnings and is built within the walls of neighboring 17th-century canal houses. In the 1930s the owners spent a lot of money on wood paneling and other structural additions; more recent owners have had the good sense to leave all of it in place. The room sizes vary considerably according to their location in the canal houses, and a few are quite small, though not seriously so. The hotel offers a concierge, limited hours room service, dry cleaning and laundry, in-room massage, baby-sitting, secretarial services, bicycle rental, tour desk, and free coffee in the lobby.

This hotel is expensive by our standards--about $200 US a night. We have picked the Estheréa partly out of panic. It seems as though we have scheduled our arrival in Amsterdam in the middle of Fluoriade 2002 . This huge flower show occurs only once every ten years and attracts a lot of folks. When we tried to book a room in Amsterdam we found all of our choices booked. Finally, after checking out about six hotels, we defaulted to the American Express web site and found the Estheréa.

We arrived at the hotel at about 8:30 AM after a long flight from Seattle. The hotel provided us with coffee and hot chocolate while they prepared our room. We we in by 9:00 and were able to take advantage of a great shower and comfortable accommodations.

The staff at the Estheréa are great. Like almost everyone else in the Netherlands they speak excellent English. We were made to feel comfortable and welcome.

We settled into our room and prepared for a one-day tourist exploration of Amsterdam. Our experience is that it is folly to take a nap after a major time change. Rather, the best course of action is to stay awake and active until the normal bedtime in the new time zone. When we do this we experience only the pain of the first day and are established in the new time zone for the rest of the trip.

We spent only one night in Amsterdam and had to leave by about 6:30 the next morning to catch our train for France. The hotel provided a great buffet breakfast and it was available even though we were early.

A good, reliable and easy -to-find hotel at the end of a long journey always proves a value in starting a trip rested and in good spirits.

Click here to see the Estheréa web site.

Now we tour Amsterdam.

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