Quick and unexpected trip to Amsterdam before we departed for Berlin

We learned the hard way about train reservations.  Decided Saturday May 24 it was high time to buy our train tickets to Berlin.   Danny spent a couple of hours trying to buy the tickets on line - nothing seemed to work.  Then I tried - same thing.  Credit cards which work fine for reservations in the US simply don't work well on line out of the country.  Then Danny's new cell phone sim card appeared to die.  So instead of being able to call around for information, we walked (another beautiful day we were planning when we thought of heading back to the beach) to the Haarlem station to buy a ticket - come to find out they are not sold there since this is international travel.  The station LOOKED big but it's actually for very localised train travel only.  So we used our train "chip card" to jump on the next train back to Amsterdam (not far, imagine taking BART from Lake Merritt to Embarcadero in San Francisco) but not part of our plans for the day.  My card card didn't work so I snuck on to the train.  We arrived at Central Station (18 minutes), stood in line for tickets, and when we got to the head of the line, were directed to another area at the other side of Central Station for International travel.  Who knew?  At least it was surprisingly short line especially considering it was a  weekend.  Next shocker, little did we know a ticket was not just a ticket and that ten days out, the prices go up exponentially.  Just like airplanes.  Tickets advertised for E39 a couple of months ago were now costing about E125. Ouch.  The ticket seller advised us to make sure we get tickets at least ten days out in the future.  I vaguely recalled someone may have told me this but for some reason, this important information had receded to the back of my mind and would now be coming back to haunt me!  I had thought of renting a car since Amsterdam to Berlin is just a day trip and had emailed Kemwel earlier but apparently the vehicle pick up in Netherlands, drop off in Germany would be a problem.  OK, so we had the tickets in hand finally, and hopped back on the next train to Haarlem.  Next day - to deal with the cell phones!  Again.

Danny kind off frustrated on the train to Amsterdam - Would we actually be going to Berlin on May 26 as scheduled?

YES!!