The ride into Central Amsterdam from Schiphol was relatively fast, and that was a good thing. At that point we were exhausted and dirty/sweaty from travel and two hours in the immigration line. We were hopeful that a room would be available early and we could check-in and catch a quick nap before our 3:00 walking tour.

It wasn’t meant to be. In fact, we heard words one never wants to hear at the end of an overnight flight, “Your room type is oversold.”

Ugh! I couldn’t even think straight to tell the hotel what we wanted to do. We had booked a Junior Suite because it had a separate “living room” and I thought that would be perfect for extra luggage and also a place to sit when one of us (that would be me🙄) couldn’t sleep. We went to lunch in the hotel cafe and took time to discuss our options.

Ultimately we decided a room with extra space was more important to us than an upgrade to a room with a terrace, so that’s what we settled on. The hotel added the amenities we would have gotten with the Junior Suite, and really bent over backwards to make up for the overbooking. Despite the mistake, we loved the hotel and thought the hotel staff was terrific.

We found out our room wouldn’t be ready until later so we retrieved our carry-ons and used the public restrooms to change clothes and freshen up before our afternoon walking tour Amsterdam in World War II.

Our guide was great and we walked all over town, but honestly at that point all I really wanted to do was put my pajamas on and relax. I thought the tour was a good prequel for our plans to visit the Resistance and Holocaust Museums on Friday, but ultimately we ended up cutting our time short so we could go back to the hotel and have some down time.

Back at the hotel we finally got in our room🎉 and ventured out one more time to the local grocery store for a dinner of cheese, meat, crackers, and cold vegetables. We saw some other interesting stores along the way!