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Published: December 28th 2010
Amsterdam
At Tante Co and Oom Henk's placeAmsterdam 12 to 15 Dec 10, by Gin
Goede Dag! (That's hello in Dutch). I'm a little behind in my blogs so I'll try and pump them out so I'm up to date!
So following the whirlwind tour of Belguim came the whirlwind tour of the Netherlands! The first stop was at the rallies place in the bulb growing district, though to be fair there was only bare fields to be seen as its not tulip season! We met some of Gin's great aunts and uncles and some of their family, and they took one look at our camper (it was about -2 degrees at this stage) and asked us to stay, which was awesome! Oom Henk showed us his collection of birds and rare small animals, and even though we didn't understand a word he was saying, it was still really cool (although Renton was fighting the urge to chase the mini deer around). We had a look around the bulb growing business etc and the next day set off for Amsterdam city.
First impressions of Amsterdam - bikes, canals, and, well, "coffee shops". Took us a while to click on, but a coffee shop isn't really
Amsterdam
Sunrise over the fields (at like 8 o'clock...) a coffee shop, though they don't look at you strange when you go into a coffee shop for a coffee. The best way to get around the city was by foot, so we took a couple of walking tours - one around the city and one around the red light district, which has red light windows for women, and blue light windows for women that aren't really women. Our tour guide warned us about crossing the roads - not because of the busy 5 lane road, but because of the two lane cycle lane beside it which was twice as dangerous! There were bikes EVERYWHERE - and they were all the old school bikes that you see in like 60's movies and stuff. Crazy.
Our camp ground had a small beach leading onto the canal, though good luck swimming at it as the water was frozen right up to the sand. The souvenier shops were full of tulips, windmills and clogs, although I didn't actually see anyone wearing actual clogs... And the beer here is ok, but not as good as Belguim, although they were serving beer in Amsterdam before Abel Tasman had even found NZ. We went on
Amsterdam
Gin and Renton on the canal cruise a tour of the canals as well, and had a look at the Anne Frank house and museum, which was interesting but there is no furniture left in the secret annex that they hid in during the war so it was hard to get an appreciation of their living conditions.
I also attempted to force some culture on Renton and Jacko and I took them to the Van Gogh museum. Needless to say they spent most of their time in the cafe. Renton also wanted to go to the diamond museum, which was a bit of a let down as we didn't get free diamonds at the end. However, the Heineken brewery experience was quite cool, and we got a couple of beers at the end!
Afscheid! (I think that's goodbye in Dutch. For someone with a name like mine, I don't know much Dutch!)
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Poppa & Maree
non-member comment
Fabulous clogs
Matt you look georgeous in your new shoes & Josh you can bring your clogs back as a prototype all the guys would like some ha. Gin you know you can let the others tell him off it saves you the job. lol I'm just here at Hamilton airport dropping Poppa off so we had a look at all your new photos. Love ewes OL & Poppa. xxx