Advertisement
Published: January 2nd 2008
Edit Blog Post
Day 24 Friday 9th February 2007
Back on the bus and off to our last city, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, famous for extraordinary paintings, cheese, clogs and liberal attitudes. As we drove through the Netherlands towards Amsterdam it was time for our last history lesson. The Dutch were originally bound with Belgium and Luxemburg and known as the Low Countries, until the 16th century. In 1795 the French invaded and occupied the Netherlands until 1815 when the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (including Belgium and Luxemburg) was formed. In 1830 Belgium rebelled and became an independent country, Luxemburg followed 9 years later. The Netherlands, who were neutral during WW1 tried to remain neutral during WW2, were invaded by the Germans, who devastated the country and killed most of the Dutch Jews. In the 1960’s Amsterdam became the radical heart of Europe, giving rise to the promiscuity that still occupies the city. In 2000, the Netherlands became the first country to legalise doctor - assisted euthanasia and legalised same-sex marriages. In 2003, the Netherlands became the first country to legalise prescriptions of medicinal cannabis. The Dutch are very liberal people and believe that you should be free to do as you
please as long as it doesn’t inconvenience others. We entered Amsterdam and went through the Heineken Experience, a museum dedicated to the 2nd most transported liquid across the Atlantic after oil, beer. We were able to discover the history, brewing, bottling, worldwide communication, facts and figures about million of litres of beer and the people who drink it. We went into a ‘ride’ where we pretended we were beer bottles and went through a simulated beer bottling process. We sat in sun beds and watched all the TV advertisements for Heineken and best of all along the tour we stopped and had 3 middies of Heineken, just in case we forgot what we were there for. Later we heard about the process of making Amstel beer. The water for this beer comes from the Amstel River in Amsterdam. Drunk men love to urinate in this river after a big night out, so you are literally drinking ‘piss’ when you drink Amstel beer (or so Lucky informed us, but I’m sure people will still drink Amstel beer). Then it was off to a cheese making demonstration and a clogs demonstration. We saw the left clog being made, the wood is very
moist and pliable. We saw some traditional wedding clogs, which the groom makes his future wife and decorates the clogs which she wears on the wedding day to show all how clever her husband is with his hands!!
After dinner we headed back into the city centre and walked around the red-light district. Near naked prostitutes propositioning passers-by from black-lit windows. A bewildering experience. After we went to a ‘cultural show’ and then had coffee and cake at a ‘coffee shop.’ We then experienced the local night life before catching a taxi back to the hotel. Probably the most frightening taxi ride ever, incredibly fast, no respect for the traffic lights and very tight corners. Have never been so glad to see our hotel!
Day 25 Saturday 10th February 2007
Amsterdam by day. We walked to the Anne Frankhuis (Anne Frank House), where Anne wrote her diary while hiding from the Nazis. We toured throughout the house, seeing the famous secret bookcase entrance into the rooms that they lived in for over 3 years. I was so moved by the whole experience I just had to buy the book to read more about the lives of the Frank family during WW2. We then walked back towards the city centre, passing along the way the Royal Palace and National monument. For lunch we tried Amsterdam’s best chips for 2006 with Mayonnaise, not exactly the same as gravy or sauce but still nice chips. After lunch we strolled along the main shopping streets Kalverstraat and Damrak, looking at all the souvenirs. For our last night together we went out as a group to the Van Den Hogen Restaurant (their slogan is “neither the cheapest nor the most expensive, we are just very good”). Then it was time for a canal cruise in a glass covered boat showing us great views of Amsterdam before heading back to the hotel’s bar for last night drinks and celebrations.
Day 26 Sunday 11th February 2007
Did not want to get up this morning! A very quiet and painful bus ride through Belgium back to Calais, France. Here we boarded the ferry back to Dover. Rough weather didn’t make the boat ride enjoyable! We arrived back at the Grand National Hotel, said our sad farewells and best wishes to all out fellow travellers before heading off on the London underground out to South Ealing to stay with Andrew. A nice hot shower refreshed us for a while as did the delicious lasagne Andrew made us, but the biggest relief was when our heads hit the pillow and we drifted off to sleep.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0555s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb