Blogs from Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands, Europe - page 189

Day 0: Friday, November 26, 2004 Its just beginning to drizzle when the taxi reaches Heathrow airport. This is not good news for me. I have this terrible fear of flying and dark clouds, rains and wind only mean that the flight will be more than just bumpy. The lady at the bmi check-in desk assures me that the flight is only 45 minutes long and than it will be over before I know it. Some what convinced (though not totally) I board the flight. Take - off is normal and just as I begin to sip my glass of white wine, the plane jumps. Its turbulence and turbulence so bad that the pilot has to order the crew to belt up. This is not good and in the five minutes that the tossing around happens, ... read more

Today was our free day around Amsterdam. I tagged along with Stu, Kirsten, Nicola and Suzanne this morning. We caught the tram to Centraal Station, a little further than we had wanted, so then walked along to Anne Frank's House, though didn't go in. Then we walked along Kalverstraat, where we looked around some of the shops. I found a music store, and bought myself a Dutch cd, called 'Sensation', an Amsterdam dance music mix. I also bought two shirts. I then walked over to the Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace) and Nieuwe Kerk, a 15th-century church, which has been rebuilt, splitting up with the others, as I wanted to check out a few other places. I walked over to Rembrandt Huis, but didn't find what the attraction was, then over to Bloemen-markt, which was a large ... read more

Major, high-profile cities have a tendency to attract odd people. People of supernormal or unconventional behavior roam the streets of these cities, adding to the charm or as a deterrent, depending on who’s behind the camera. Amsterdam in the liberal Netherlands is no exception. The Dam square in the heart of the city is the ideal spot for people-watching. This spot is the gathering point for everyone who visits the city at one point or the other, centrally located between the central train station and the museum quarters. The square is decorated with a huge war monument. The wide steps leading up to the monument and the socket on which the pillar is mounted make up ideal seats, where people rest after a day at foot. Rich as well as poor is welcome, from loaded tourists ... read more

19th to 22nd August 2004 - Amsterdam Our route took us from Sydney to Bangkok, then onto Heathrow and a bus to Gatwick, and finally a flight to Amsterdam. The reason for the round-a-bout journey was that the only flights we could get from Heathrow to Amsterdam meant we would be waiting at Heathrow for five hours (something we did not want to do). So, we opted for the bus transfer to Gatwick instead, which at least kept us moving. Waiting for the Gatwick bus we got talking to some Kenyans who were on their way home to continue their studies. They were interesting young people and suggested we visit their country sometime to see the wildlife. We continued our talk once we got to Gatwick and helped them get their suitcases from the luggage hold ... read more

We’re in Amsterdam! Long long flight over. Over 8 hours on the same plane and every seat filled. When we arrived in Amsterdam local time was 7:30AM so our mission was to stay awake the whole day and have an early bedtime. By the time we hit the sack we had been awake about 30 hours. We spent most of the wandering the city and drinking coffee. Mike had a tough time sleeping. His internal clock was quite a bit out of whack and he woke up at 3AM wide awake. It also didn’t help that it didn’t get dark there until almost 11PM. In Sweden it was even worse, dark finally at midnight and light again at 3:30AM. Our hotel was very interesting. An old house which was built in the 1650's alongside a canal. ... read more