Not Goededag! Ik ben uitstekend! Hoe gaat het?
hellooooo! how’s everyone doing? I hope you are doing as well as me. i must really apologies for not posting so often – I had been lazing around!
For the past month, I had been traveling and sleeping and eating. Not to far far away countries, but in Netherlands plus some trips to Belgium! It was great fun! You should really come for an exchange.
me outside the Schiphol airport
So if you happen to come to Netherlands, you can come and find me!!!! It’s fairly simple! What you need to do is to arrive at the Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport. From there, it is really simple already. I will go through with you a step by step illustration on how to find me. This is because I will not go to the airport to pick you up. Below is the route which I came to Maastricht with.
if you want, you can walk to Maastricht. Follow the train tracks
Step 1: Before you leave from anywhere, please go to http://www.ns.nl and look for a travel planner, please pick the English language one. Then you type in from airport to Maastricht and pick a time after your arrival time. Let us assume that you are arriving at 0730am.
This above is an example of what you should get from the travel planner. Take this information down because it is quite important because it tells you where you would be required to change your train etc. If you are afraid of missing the train, do print other timings of the train. Different timings of departure require you to change at different train stations.
Step 2: Once you reached Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport, please turn left from the departure gates/hall. You should be able to find big signs telling you where the train station is. (The train station is below the airport). Next, you would be require to buy your train ticket. There are 2 ways of buying a train ticket; one way is to purchase them from the yellow machines as shown. The other easier way would be to purchase them from the tickets kiosk/office (which is quite visible). I would recommend you to buy it from the kiosk/office because it is easier and faster. However, if you buy from a kiosk/office, you would be required to pay an additional 50cents Euro. Don’t worry about communication because their English is fairly well. If you die die want to experience buying tickets from the machines, you can do so as well. It is simple too! They give English instructions which are easy to follow. Please select the following, (1) singles (if you plan to stay with me for a few days), returns (if you plan to see me for 3 hours), (2) 2nd Class (if you want first class, it cost 44.50 Euros), (3) full-fare (because you do not have a discount card), (4) on the day (the ticket is valid for the day) and of course the destination. I seriously do not know how I bought the ticket when I first came here because. So I anyhow press and wala!, a ticket drop out, which I thought that I paid by my credit card. If you do not have a credit card or debit card, please prepare 27.30 Euros worth of coins. Importantly, do not be alarm when you see the yellow rectangle small piece of ticket. The ticket does not show the train timings. It will only show (1) Dutch which you do not understand, (2) From where to where, (3) The amount which you paid.
look out for these machines!
Step 3: Follow your NS planner information which you printed out from this point onwards. How do you interpret that information? Time shows what time your train leaves. The platform is where the train will be. In this case, it is platform one. Please check the direction. In this case, please check that it goes to Amsterdam Central. Then board the train before 831 am. The timing of the train is very very accurate. If you reach the airport at 730am, come out of the hall at 745am, eat your breakfast until 815am and then 829am then finish buying your ticket, good luck to you! You have 2 minute to get inside your train before it starts moving. You will reach Amsterdam Central platform 14A at 850am. Once your train stop, you have 8 minutes to get from platform 14A to platform 5, which leaves for Heerlen platform 5A and reach at 1136am. Then go to platform 1 which leaves for Maastricht at 1156am and you will reach
Maastricht at 1218am. The whole train journey should take 3hours plus. If you feel that you would be bored, buy some magazines or newspapers. Buy some food too if you think you would be hungry.
Vertrek means Departure, Spoor means Platform, Bottom left corner is the destination
Step 4: Once you reach Maastricht, come out and you would see a bus stop. Look for buses 1,2,3,4,8,22 (actually I don’t know whether I am correct a not, just in case, take numbers 1,9 and 22 which I normally take). Get up the bus and tell him you want to go brusselsport (pronunciation: Brussels – port) or you can tell him that you want to go to the court house. Then he will alert you where to get off. The bus fee should be 1.60 Euros.
Maastricht Station
Step 5: Call me at +6598****** (friends you should have my number right?) if you have auto roaming. Tell me that you are here and I will go pick you up from the bus stop.
See! So easy right?. You only need 15+ hours to see me! Come Come! I will cook you a hot meal!
Posted by: Fordy Lai
