Day 12 in Europe: Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Merry Christmas Eve! December 25th 2012:

It was Christmas Miracle! We were able to get out train Reservation to Munich Germany! We are taking the Midnight train going anywhere. Lol, sorry for the Journey quote,lol. But really, we booked the overnight train to Germany tonight. It wil be an 11 hour trai ride, but we got beds to sleep on for the journey. Were were luckh to be able to Reserve it for the same night, as the people in our Hostel have to stay in Amsterdam a few extra days because their train was booked until around New Years.

We woke up today, ate Breakfast and then booked our train. Then at about noon we decided to celebrate Christmas Eve the best way that we could, by going to the Heinekin Brewery for a tour! After roaming the streets for awhile and after finding a post office to mail some stuff, we finally found the tram to take us to the factory. The girl workin at our Hostel let us know of a specific tram that doesn't check tickets at the back of the tram, so we found it and took it for a free ride. We were now at thw Heinekin Brewery!

I much prefere Guinness over Heinekin, but in comparison to the Dublin Tour, i'd have to say that the Heinekin Tour was almsot by far much much better. It was way more interactive and as a whole a ton more fun! And unfortunately for all of you that have to see another band on my wrists, I have a brand new Heineken band that will be staying on for awhile! Lol. Anyway, we got personal prezenttations on how the Heineken is made, what goes into making it and how to proprley dri k it, other than chugging it, lol. We got to go on a ride that simulated us as barley and followed the journey in a Back to the Future Style ride that was actually pretty fun! During one of the Prezentations, Alex and I won a free ber by answering corrections correctly! At the end of the tour we got to see a lot ore fun interactive attractions (the whole tour was about an hour and a half) and ended in two free glasses of Heineken.

Much like the Guiness Brewery, we were able to steal a vouple of Hei eken glasses that we drank out of as free sojvineers! We got our two free drinks by turning in a coupleof mini bottle caps that we got at the beginin of he tour, but Alex found about 4 or 5 on thw floor so we drank a lot of free Heineken made straight from the original Brewery!! But unlike the Guinnes, the Heineken did't really taste that much different then the Heineken back in the states. Sinc it was Christmas Eve, were were able to get a sweet free Heineken Bottlw Opener and a free boat ride throuh the canals, but missed the last ride.

We hen walked around that part of town since we were there and took pictures in front of the large I AM AMSTERDAM sign. There were tons of people there! I was then ableto complete one of my main Objectives of the trip when we got back to the Red Light District hat night: to get pictures of the irls in the Rwd Light District!!! They are increadibly Super strict about not takin pictures, but with my Amazing zoom and great planning, I was able to pull off some pics! Since it was dark, it wasn't too obvious, and with the sweet zoom on my camera, I was able to stand super far away on a couple bridges over a few cannals and get some good shots! There were a lot of them dressed in Santa outfits and it was pretty cool! Only happens once a year! We also aent up to one of the girls in the windows and talked to them, (Don't worry Mom, I didn't end up going in! Lol.) But we did end ip seeing a quick show for Christmas Eve, (Sorry Mom! Haha).

By this time we left Amsterdam to get o an overniht train to Munich Germany. We slept in a room with 6 beds, the absolute tinniest beds and rooms I've ever seen. I was on the top bunk and had about a foot from my face to the celing. It was hard to sleep as there was a lot of movement on he train, and people entered around midniht, 2 and 4 in the mornin to fill most of the other Bunks. Good news is that we made it safley to Germany at 7:10AM for Christmas!

I shall tell my Christmas tale in my next entry, Happy Holidays and Stuff! I realized all my pictures are on my camera and now my phonw, so could't upload that many for this entry, but Merry Christmas Eve to you all!

-Chris

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