In Amsterdam, I stayed at Die Port Van Cleve. I’ll go ahead and start with a summary. Something about this place just always seemed to feel wrong, although the location was near perfect.
Finding the place is relatively easy, provided you don’t get there at one of the non-main stations after dark. Unfortunately, as I’ve written about in a prior post, I got there in a non-main station after dark. The hotel is at the first stop on several traps from Amsterdam Centraal. Unfortunately, from Amsterdam Zuid, where my train stopped, it’s the next-to-last stop on line five. Unfortunately, after six, there’s no way to get tickets at Amsterdam Zuid. The people there told me I could get a ticket on the train, but that didn’t happen either. I ended up risking a fine and just hopping a train without a ticket. That’s not the hotel’s fault, though.
Check-in at the hotel was easy enough, but after taking nearly 30 minutes to get to the hotel, the receptionist gave me a key that didn’t open my door. My this time, the backpack felt like it weighed about five times its already 80 pounds and I wasn’t happy. The receptionist was very apologetic and got somebody to take my backpack to my room on the second trip, but it didn’t put me in a good mood.
The hotel room was small, as was the bed, but these are things I had gotten used to in the discount hotels that I’ve stayed in while in Europe. It seemed fairly clean, but a little sketchy as well. I had made the mistake of reading some reviews of the hotel right before I got there and there were a couple of mouse complaints. While I never saw a mouse or any hints that mice were present, I wasn’t able to get the thought out of my head.
I’m not even sure what to say about the “shower.” It had a tub, but not a regular tub. It was a tub that allows somebody to sit in it. In fact, it nearly forces you to sit in it because there was very little room to stand if you wanted to take a shower. I wanted to take a shower. It wasn’t easy, but I managed. This really didn’t help its score, though, when I reviewed it on Orbitz.
There was free wireless internet that worked very well. I learned in Vienna not to take that for granted anymore. Breakfast, however, was not included in the price of the hotel, but there were numerous coffee shops (no, not those coffeeshops), so I was able to get my morning fix (no, not that type of fix).
The hotel itself is just across the street from Koninkijk Palace and Nieuwe Kirk, probably the most famous buildings in Dam Square. And you should never underappreciate the little chuckle that goes on in the back of your head when you’re walking around and passing places called Dam Hotel, Dam Souvenirs and Dam Coffeeshop. My infantile sense of humor just liked that.
The hotel wasn’t cheap, at least not by the standards that I’d gotten used to in Europe, about $140/night. I’ve received much more around Europe for much less. I understand that there are other hotels in the neighborhood that are in the same price range and if I had to go back, I probably would try one of them out. This one wasn’t bad, but like I said, there was just something not feel right about it.
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