WARNING: Don't even think about showing up at Amsterdam Centraal without a Thalys ticket if you didn't buy the ticket in the Netherlands!

So I show up at Amsterdam Centraal station yesterday at 11:45A intending to swipe my CC in a ticket machine and pick up our prepaid tickets for our return to Paris, and maybe getting on the earlier train. Hah...QUEL IDIOT I AM. OK, OK, I now know I should have picked up the sucker at Paris Nord on our departure. Normally it wouldn't have been an issue as we would have had an RT, but we went to Amsterdam with one of our kids and returned by ourselves, so two separate files.

This train station is a dump, and that's before one has the pleasure of experiencing the third world taxi free-for-all on arrival... but I digress.

After seeing one of our sons off on the Schiphol train, we head back to the ticket counters, on the surface the only modern looking part of the station, but in reality an overwhelmed and disorganized "pen". There appear to be two different lines with a hard to read electronic sign that I ultimately decipher as "International" and "Domestic".





Apparently, the news of Netherland's membership in the EU has not yet made it to the folks at Amsterdam Centraal and NSHispeed.nl. NSHipeed.nl?? Hah, if ever there was a misnomer, that is it... but more on that later.

Anyhoo, I follow the International queue to the end where I push a button and get a number... C201. This number is my real queue number which is required to speak with a live agent. The masses of people milling around tells me that this is not going to be quick, especially with the predominance of "Closed" signs and the fact the they are current serving C130. I'm number 71 in line and there appear to be 3 active counters for C (International). Clearly, I won't be taking the earlier train.





More happy travelers...





Exposed cables? Most likely no one will touch them...



I assume that I've missed something here and that there must be a better way for First Class or prepaid tickets to print a ticket. I talk to the "queue number spitter outer agent" who informs me that I can use the red machines to pick up my ticket. Thank you, thank you. I weave my way through the mass of humanity to one of the red machines. A couple of buttons and its asking me for my confirmation number. Yes! I enter my six character SNCF confirmation code only to see that the Big Red wants a 7th character. Uh-oh. I hit enter and get the "You have entered an incorrect number". After a couple of more unsuccessful attempts, I return to the "queue number spitter outer agent" and ask him what's up.

SFO: My confirmation is 6 digits. Big Red is looking for 7.
Agent: Where did you buy your ticket?
SFO: In France online at the Thalys site.
Agent: That's a problem.
SFO: What kind of a problem?
Agent: A large problem. You cannot pick up that ticket in the Netherlands. You must pick it up in France.
SFO: That's not going to happen since I'm in the Netherlands, not in France.
Agent: Unfortunately, you will have to buy another ticket.
Nearby Traveler: Yeah, me too... I have to buy another one.
Agent: Sorry, happens all the time.

Of course that make perfect sense... Thalys runs 20 trains a day to/from Amsterdam but have no ticketing counter or ticketing machine at Amsterdam Centraal.

Since the Currently Servicing number is changing about as fast as grass grows, I figure I'll try the HiSpeed.nl computer and simply buy a ticket. After 10 minutes on three different "computers" I come to the conclusion that they are merely decorative and tease one into thinking that the Dutch railway system actually uses computers.



My next brilliant idea is WiFi. Hey, I'll just fire up my MacBook, buy my ticket online and use BigRed. Hah, again! No WiFi service penetrates the ancient walls of this dilapidated station.

Alas, we are making progress as were now up to C143, but we're now only two hours from scheduled 2:26P departure. I report to the Mrs. who decides to wait on the Track 13 platform let me handle this one.

At 1:10P, my number comes up and finally make it to a counter and a live person. I explain my predicament to the agent who replied with the same "sorry, happens all the time".

I show him my SNCF confirmation which now confuses him since it lists our car and seat number.

Agent: I think this might be your ticket, your print-at-home ticket.
SFO: I don't think so. (thinking to myself... two weeks in Paris and I know that no one on the Thalys is going to take this for a ticket!)
Agent: I am 90% sure that this will work.
SFO: Sorry, but I'd rather you just sell me two more tickets and I'll get a refund in Paris.
Agent: But I think this will work. Let me talk to me colleague... after 2 minutes... He is also 90% certain it will work.
SFO: Thank you for checking, but I'd rather not take a chance. I'll just buy another.
Agent: But it will cost you €171 each, more than the €119 you paid in France.
SFO: That's OK, I'll get a refund on the unused ticket.
Agent: Let me check with Thalys here in Amsterdam. As he asks his colleague for his cellphone to call Thalys, I'm wondering if Thalys has an office in Amsterdam, shouldn't it perhaps be at the train station??
5 minutes later...
Agent: Good thing I checked, that will not work. You will have to purchase another ticket.

Now after all this time of course, there are no more F seats left on the 2:26P departure, except the ones that I had already purchased in Paris which are now useless. But I need to get on the train. After another 3-4 minutes, he is able to force 2 F seats without a reserved seat, but bearing an ominous "OVERBOOKING" notation. We agree that it is unlikely that they will resell my previously reserved seats and that I should speak to the conductor and explain the situation and simply take our originally assigned seats and "good luck".



And in what I has to be one of nicest customer service gestures I can recall in recent memory, he then hand-writes a note to the Conductor. Thank you's all around and have a pleasant trip.



It is now 1:50P, and after 40 minutes at the counter, my new best agent friend leaves for lunch or a break, switches on the "Closed" sign and I spot my wife who decided to leave the platform and find out if I have completely abandoned her.

Before we head out for our track, I take all of these pictures just to preserve and savor the memories, although the crowd had greatly thinned by this time so the pics don't do it justice. Back at Track 13, Thalys 9346 pulls up at 2:15P, we show both our new ticket and the old confirmation and we board and take our originally assigned seats. After a relaxing four hours with no one claiming to have our seats, we arrive on time at Paris Nord. Twenty minutes later, we are "home" at our apartment, and of course much wiser to another of the quirks of life in Europe... never leave home without your Thalys return ticket!