UEFA 041 – Lost our money & passport in Amsterdam

UEFA 041 – Lost our money & passport in Amsterdam


As before, the Immigration procedure was a breeze without stamping our passports. Before we could even identify between the immigration officials from the Custom officials, we were already moving fast on the road towards North. There were not many traffic along the highway.

Somewhere in highway to Amsterdam in Belgium the Euroline bus stopped for midnight supper. There were McDonalds, Burger King, a mini market, cafes and pubs.

As the dawn was breaking, we arrived at Rotterdam. I saw once again the familiar buildings as I had seen in 1994. This time I saw more unique buildings as the Euroline bus took us right into the heart of the Rotterdam city centre for some passengers to alight.

After a short wait, some new passengers boarded the bus and off it went towards Amsterdam.

We reached Amstel Bus Terminal in Amsterdam at about 8 am.

We made some enquiries and were shown to a nearby family hotel which I didn’t even got to know the name. It was a short entertaining walk, although, we had to pull quite heavy luggage.

Although the family hotel had only shared common toilets but it was a good bargain, as we were only on transit to other destinations.

After negotiating the price and other arrangements, a tragedy happened.

When we were asked to pay a deposit, my wife turned pale, as she found that she did not have her handbag with her. She realized traumatically that she had left it in the Euroline bus. All our money and travelers cheques were in her handbag.

We were blank with silent for a while, before, we could think of what to do next.

The land lady was kind. She offered some advice. She suggested that we pay the deposit with whatever cash we had in hand and she willingly served us breakfast.

In the meantime, she helped us to call the Traveller Cheque’s office to cancel our traveler cheques, so that, whoever found them cannot turn them for cash.

Then she suggested also that we go back to the Euroline Bus Terminal and asked for access to the bus to find the lost handbag.

We were assured by the officer in the Traveler cheques office that we will get back our money, the next day. My wife was slightly relieved and can smile a little bit.

With that we enjoyed our continental breakfast. The landlady had a young daughter named Megan. She was cute and was about 7 years old. We talked to her and she could understand and speak English. She and her dog, named Shadow was looking at us from far while we dig into the bread and jam.

Megan always smile while Shadow was looking at us with sharp eyes, like a guard. I think Shadow was an Alsatian, or perhaps a Shepherd dog. Although, he looked fierce in the beginning with his growl, but after some pat from Megan, he looked a bit friendly.

UEFA 034 - Adam

UEFA 034 - Adam


Along the way, I had been wondering if there was a town named Adam in Holland. The name was seen in many signboards and road signs.




O how proud I’d been, to have my name displayed everywhere in Holland.





Already in Singapore I had a road after my name, that is Adam Road. Along with it there is also Adam Road Hospital, Adam Park, Adam Food Centre and I hope the Circle-Line MRT station there will be named Adam MRT Station.




Soon I found out that Adam in Holland’s road sign was an abbreviation for Amsterdam and Adam was also a name of a big telephone company, but, I do not know if that was Dutch.




We alighted at the Centraal Station. Hi guys…take it easy. It was not typo error or my negligence. That is the way the Dutch spell the word Central, with a double ‘a’.



Ooops I suddenly realized that I did not write much about the different currencies of the countries I had visited thus far. Let’s do it now.




In Switzerland the currency was Swiss Francs (Sfr) = 100 centimes.

In Austria, the currency was called Schilling = 100 groschen.

The French currency was French Franc (Ffr) = 100 centimes.

The German had Deutsche Mark = 100 pfennig.

The Dutch currency was Guilder = 100 cents.

England’s currency was Pound Sterling = 100 pence.

Belgium’s currency was Belgian Franc = 100 centimes.




We did not have to change to Belgian Franc, as we only ride through Belgium via train, and we did not go down anywhere, and did not buy anything in Belgium.




At the Amsterdam Centraal Station, we immediately went to the Money Changer to get Dutch Guilders. Money Changer was also known as Gambio and many of them are operated by Thomas Cook.

Then we walked along the streets and found a budget hotel named

El-Alkmaar Hotel. Being cheap, we had to climb up to the 4th storey, but it had its own toilet, which was my wife’s pre-requisite for any hotel we need to stay. She dislike hotel with shared common toilet.

Just a few steps from the hotel was the Sarang Mas Indonesian Restaurant. Suddenly we felt like home, and sat there for a cup of tea. We glanced at the menu and decided not to have dinner there as it was X.

We walked further across the river and saw the famous Dutch water taxis (passenger boats) and we also noticed the preservation and conservation of the old houses along the streets and river bank. I supposed we were in the city centre of old Amsterdam.

We had a simple kebab and pita for dinner, like the one we had in Osnabruck and retired for the night.

Pita is a kind of Greek bread. It was soft, round and easy to eat. It was half-sliced and stuffed with sliced kebab, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, onions and topped with tartar or mayonnaise sauce or any other sauce available.

Next morning we walked to an old castle in the city. Then we saw a collection of cheese. There were so many of them with different look and different prices. We walked along a back-lane and found ourselves in a Chinatown. There were some Chinese and Chinese food and goods. There were also curry powder, fresh chili padi, ikan bilis, tom yam paste, dried fish and even belachan.

At lunch we decided to go back to the same Turkish restaurant and had a luxurious shish and doner kebabs with skewers

After lunch we continued walking and came across a canal. As we walked along the canal we noticed a strange shape of steel bollards. On the other side of the canal, we saw row of glass panel shop houses. Inside these glass panels were women clad in half-exposed dress.

We understood later that they were prostitutes trying to seduce customers with their erotic window displays. In this area we saw many advertisement boards of Erotic night clubs and the peepshow clubs. Although we did not go in,it was so obvious from the signboards.

552 words

Drafted on 07.04.2007

Edited on 22.07.2007 at 1002hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5

UEFA 033 - Osnabruck

UEFA 033 - Osnabruck

While we had our breakfast in one of the snack shop,

I flipped through the map of Germany, which I bought in Heerbrugg, and planned our way up to Amsterdam in Holland.

I had 2 plans.

Plan A is to visit Mike at Blumenstrasse in Drensteinfurt, which is just some distance from Dortmund. Mike was my daughter’s pen pal and she was a cute girl of about 12 years old. They had been writing to each other for quite sometime.

I had also written to Mike, while I was in Heerbrugg, of our intention to visit her, and she seemed to be accommodating in her reply.

Plan B is to go straight up to Amsterdam, if the visit to Mike’s place was not possible.

After considering the odds and evens, we decided on Plan B. It was a train trip north to Osnabruck, where we had to change to a westward train to Amsterdam. I checked the train timing and found that we had some time to wander about in Osnabruck.

Similar to my trip to Europe in 1986, our passports were not stamped by the immigration officers in Switzerland, France and Germany.

Therefore, as a proof of our visit to Osnabruck, I deliberately, took picture of a bus that had Osnabruck displayed on its electronic panel.

After that we stopped for lunch in a Turkish restaurant. My wife enjoyed the kebab wrapped in round Turkish bread called 'pita' and light English Earl Grey tea.

We went to the train station early, to make sure we do not miss the train.

As the time was drawing near, we get very worried, because, all announcements were made in German.

It made us unsure if the train to Amsterdam is coming or we had missed it. We were also unsure, if were waiting at the right platform.

All praises to Al-Mighty God, who hears everything, including a whisper in the hearts. An European man, a fellow commuter, approached us and made enquiry of our destination. He immediately consoled us that the train is coming in a minute, after knowing that we were going to Amsterdam.

It was a DB train. DB is an abbreviation for Deutschbahn meaning German-train.

We had to stop in Hengelo to change to a Dutch train which will take us straight into Amsterdam. The Dutch train was bright yellow with a little bulge on the top of both end of the body.

Hengelo is at the border of Germany and Holland.

We arrived at Hengelo at 5:30pm. Once again our passports were not stamped by the Dutch Immigration.

Germany in German is called Deutschland.

In French is Allemagne and in Spanish

and Italian is known as Germania.

From Hengelo the train moved on to Amsterdam via the towns Almelo and Apeldoorn. I had the thought of going via the town Groningen, where our football hero, Fandi Ahmad, used to stay when he was playing for Ajax Football Club, but it was 120km north of Apeldoorn.

431 words

Drafted on 07.04.2007

Edited on 22.07.2007 at 0915hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5