4 June, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I look in my guidebook for a hotel in Amsterdam and settle on one that doesn’t have a website, so I have to call them. I ask the guy who answers the phone if he speaks English and he laughs at me as if I’m a moron. I give him the dates of my four-day stay.
“Those are tough dates,” he says. “Give me a minute.”
“Okay,” I say.
After a few minutes he says, “I can accommodate you if you don’t mind changing rooms during your stay.”
“I don’t mind,” I say.
“You can stay here for your first, third and fourth night. For your second night, you’ll have to stay with my parents.”
“Um…uh…do your parents own their own hotel?”
“No, they live just around the corner.”
“Uh…do you normally send people over there to stay?”
“Sure, my parents don’t mind. They’ve got two extra rooms. You’ll have your own key.”
As you might imagine, I was a bit stunned that the manager of the hotel was trying to put me up with his parents for a night. Then I realized what had happened. I had dialed the wrong number. I meant to call a specific hotel listed in the guidebook, when in fact I had dialed the number of the entry below it, which is for a guy who rents out rooms in canal houses. It took me a few moments to realize my mistake. To be honest, the price he quoted was so fabulous — and so far below almost everything else I had found — that I would have taken him up on his offer regardless.
In other Amsterdam hilarity, I was going to stay in a boat hotel, called a “botel,” but my friend convinced me this was a typo in my guidebook and that it was actually a brothel. Best to just avoid it, I think.
Anglofille said @ 9:33 pm | travel |
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Ooh I don’t know, a canal house would be gorgeous. And look for a real boat hotel, because they are supposed to be cool (just a bit small). You’ll really like Amsterdam, it’s so photogenic. Make sure to eat some pancakes there– it’s like a crêpe but full sized, pizza-style.
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I am definitely staying in the canal house — perhaps I didn’t make that clear. The price is soooo good!
Those pancakes sound delish. I will definitely try one of those.
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Jan Says:
June 4th, 2008 at 10:31 pm??? Do you mean Amstel Botel? That’s great, and it IS a proper hotel. Not a brothel, but a portmanteau word from boat + hotel as it is a floating hotel on the canal (op een gracht).
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Yes, that’s the place. Mario scared me away from it!
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s. Says:
June 4th, 2008 at 11:18 pmI stayed on the botel! It was a great Amsterdam experience! Enjoy your trip!
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Silvana Says:
June 6th, 2008 at 12:28 amThe idea of a boat hotel sounds cool! If you try it let me know how it goes. I’ll be in Amsterdam in July. Happy travels!!
