TTR63 Amsterdam- the capital city of the Netherlands, though not the administrative capital as that privilege lies with Den Haag, is home to more than half a million people - one million with its satellites.  Getting there is easy! You can travel by rail from the UK through the Channel Tunnel and then Brussels, or from Germany in an ICE3 train that runs along the NBS from Frankfurt to Cologne and on to Amsterdam.  There is also a connection with Berlin that enters the Netherlands at Bad Bentheim.  Most visitors from the UK will arrive by air, we show you Schiphol and how to get down town. We walk you through the public transport systems: trams, ferries and canal boats, and visit the GVB offices at Central Station as it’s the best place to buy your tickets and passes. So now you are ready!   The old city has been built on a pattern of concentric semi circles, the houses standing on piles that penetrate the swampy mud to reach the firm sands below..  The city is cut by canals,  that are in turn crossed by more than 200 bridges giving the city its special character.  Your Ticket to Ride.. team takes you round some principal sights: the Museum Quarter, the Heineken Experience, where we ARE bottles of that fine pale lager travelling through the brewery!, then onto  NEMO – the technology centre.  We take some day trips: by rail to Hoorn - perhaps the prettiest town in the country - where we make the classic triangular run: steam tram across the marshes to Medemblik,  transfer to the MV Friesland for an hour’s sail across the Ijsselmeer to Enkhuizen - where we see a black smith still at work!, and thence back by train to Hoorn and Amsterdam courtesy of the NS,  to Utrecht to visit the recently re-opened National Railway Museum, to Den Haag by train - now for many the classic architecture of Den Haag HS station would suffice,  but we have a trip to Madurodam - Holland in miniature - in mind!  It’s a tram ride of twenty minutes, and after our visit to the miniature wonderland,  five minutes more to the seaside at Scheveningen, where you can take the air and lose your money at the casino!  The return trip is along the interurban tramway to Delft where we watch genuine Delftware being made and painted. We return home via the world famous bulb fields near Haarlem. Narrated in English, running time 1hr45min.