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Published: July 24th 2008
Clogs in Holland
Trying on some clogs on our way to Amsterdam, now we're in The Netherlands!Greetings from sunny London!
It's actually not sunny here, in fact it's pitch black! Granted it is 2am and I have safely arrived at Olivia's friend Cate's house to spend the next two days in her care, showing me around the amazing city of London.
Firstly I'll fill you in on my previous stops on the journey: from my afternoon in Berlin I got ready for our 'pub crawl' that evening, which was an absolute blast! The pubs were really cosy and alternative and it was a really awesome way to immerse ourselves in German culture. They certainly love to drink 😊 We were given T-Shirts we had to wear, which had David Hasselhoff's face on them with the words 'I LOVE BERLIN' below (to signify his popularity as a singer over here). We were all unified in our love of Berlin, the hoff and German Beer...oh what a night.
From Berlin we headed to the Netherlands, formally known as Holland, to Amsterdam. On our way there we stopped to watch traditional clog and cheese making demos. They make clogs SO fast and they make AMAZING cheese in Holland! I wanted to at least try on a pair
Bikes in Amsterdam
A car park for bikes - there are more bikes than cars in Amsterdam! of clogs, which unfortunately clanked everywhere I went, so I bought a pair of clog shaped fluffy slippers instead 😊
We finally arrived in Amsterdam at about 6pm and that night we headed into the heart of the city to the infamous 'Red Light District'. Well, I had heard the stories and seen the movies based on this area but it was even more confronting than I had imagined it would be. There were so many girls in windows! It's hard to comprehend how they all get work!! That night we also went to a sex show at the 'Moulin Rouge' club which was both hilarious and partially disturbing - I decided to head in for an early night and also looked forward to escaping the everpresent smell of marijuana which was literally everywhere. On my way to the train station with the other 'nanas' (as we were dubbed by the partiers) we stopped for a dessert of waffles with strawberries and cream...well I think my waffles may have had a little something-something in them because I definitely fell asleep quite easily later in the evening 😊
Our free day in Amsterdam started with a fun bike tour
Red Light
You aren't allowed to take photos in the 'Red Light District', this is as close as I got. with the whole group, after which we all did our own thing. The bike tour was a great way to see the city as it is a town with more bikes than people - and apparently the 'Venice of the North' has over 200,000 bikes fished out of its canals evey year...that's A LOT of bikes! The remainder of my day was filled with shopping in the main Leiderstraat area as well as the Flower Market and flea markets along Waterloopin. I also visited an amazing milliner I had seen the previous night and bought myself a gorgeous purple hat for the races later this year...a one of a kind handmade in the very store.
That night, being our last night together as a group on the tour, we went to a lovely dinner at a floating chinese restaurant followed by a 2 hour canal cruise with drinks and snacks included...also an excellent way to see the city! We did lots of singing and dancing, took a RIDICULOUS amount of photos together and on the whole, reminisced and made plans to all stay in touch and meet again some day. Needless to say the following morning was a sad
day, our last breakfast together! After 22 days together, it's definitely sad to say goodbye 😞
Today we drove back to the port of Calais in France via Brugge in Belgium. Talk about delicious chocolate! It was amazing!! I have brought back a small box and hopefully they don't melt 😞 It was really great to visit both Switzerland and Belgium to sample both their famous chocolates fresh off the run!
After crossing the English channel by P&O Ferry we arrived at Dover, England at 6pm local time and made our way to the hostel by 8pm. Cate picked me up at around 8:30 and we went back to her house here for dinner before having an early night after my big night last night. She'll be taking me round London for the next 2 days as she has the next 5 off with her 26th birthday falling on Friday - we will be having a nice dinner out with her friends that night, my last night in London, so the timing is simply perfecto 😊
I will hopefully touch base before I leave the fair lands of the UK - I am due back home late
Biking
Bike riding through the city was quite scary! Sunday night. If I do not touch in by then, then I will be seeing you soon indeed 😊 xx lots of love, missing everyone - but can see the end is near!! Alyse-Grace
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