Arrived in Berlin

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Tuesday Evening, where has the time gone already!! It is 7pm here, so around 3am Melbourne time. It is a strange feeling, knowing that you guys are all asleep and we have just had dinner.

We are having a quiet night in tonight. We have managed to find an apartment to stay in, in Berlin. It has 5 rooms (Lounge, Foyer, Bathroom, Kitchen & Bedroom) for about $140 a night and it is really nice. The bathroom has floor heating, so feet are nice and warm when you get out of the shower! Went and bought some food/drink from Aldi and cooked some pasta tonight, first meal that we have been able to make ourselves, since we left home. It was a nice, simple meal which was good.

From our last blog, we have been through another beautiful country and multiple cities!

On Friday morning, we left Brugges and headed to Rotterdam via Antwerp. Antwerp was a quick bypass, the Lonely Planet Guide suggested to go there, as it is where 80% of the worlds diamonds are sold/passed through. They suggested to go to a jeweller which did diamond polishing and you could watch. Of course, of all the days they decided to be closed to do stocktake, it was the day we wanted to go. There was so many jewellers, so we did a bit of window shopping instead.

From there, we went to Kinderdijk, where we saw the famous dikes and windmills that the Netherlands are famous for. We got to go inside one to see how they lived, and it was interesting the way they were built. It started raining on us as we were visiting the windmills, so we were happy to leave there (wet and a little chilly) and head to Rotterdam.

Our hotel was located a fair way out of Rotterdam, so we did a drive through central Rotterdam (cyclists everywhere) and then went back to our hotel that night. Saturday morning, we visited the Euromast - which is a 360 degree view of Rotterdam. It was a great view and we were able to watch a barge go through a loch. (Filmed this one, easier to show than explain).

From there, we left Rotterdam to go to Amsterdam! Everything that you hear about Amsterdam is real plus much much more. Thank you Scott and Jackie for making sure we visited here, it is somewhere you would never forget. We found our hotel on Trip Advisor, and it was an interesting one. It was a student hotel, part of a business hospitality school that people can stay in and the students look after you. It was about 15 mins from the centre of Amsterdam by Tram, but it was perfect as the tram stop was right outside the door.

We visited the Royal Delft Pottery Factory in Amsterdam. If your not sure what they make - google their name. They had so much on offer and all different price ranges. We could have bought a heap of nice things (ok, I could have), but Andrew was good at reminding me that we had to somehow get them home in one piece.

Then we went into Amsterdam on the Tram for a Red Light District Tour. We ended up being on the only people on the tour, so it was great, we could hear and ask our tour guide Kimberly anything. She was an ex-American who has lived here for approx. 26 years. She was very open-minded and took us all around the streets, showing us the "windows", porn shops, lap dance places, great places to go to eat and shouted as a drink at the end.

Wow, those windows.. You hear about it, but until you see it, you don't quite believe or understand that these girls would actually stand in a window in barely nothing, marketing themselves and hoping that a man (or woman) decides to utilise their services. Kimberley told us it was around 50 Euros for 15 mins. (Will leave to your imagination what might happen in that 15 mins).

After the tour, we decided to visit one of the live shows, which was interesting. It was a no holds barred experience, with a rotating stage, come bed, that you saw all. Nothing was left to the imagination. Including a nice young lady who managed to smoke a cigar with her box.

On our way back to our hotel, we went past many a "Coffee Shop" which had rather strange smells coming out of the doors (not a single coffee aroma). We figured we didn't need to go in, all you had to was breathe in the fumes from the doorways.

Day 2 in Amsterdam, was a little tamer, but confirmed that we really liked this city and would love to come back one day and spend more time there. We could understand, why people would live there.

Our day consisted of visiting the Anne Frank House (thanks again for the recommendation Jackie), it was a 45 minute wait in line to get in, but so worth it. The museum is very well done and you don't have to read anything about it before going, as it explains it all. It was a moving experience and brings home the history and horrors of what people went through to avoid being caught by Hitler.

Van Gogh Museum (our attempt at being cultural), which surprised us, as we quite enjoyed it. Next step was souvenir shopping, then Canal Cruise and more shopping. We had dinner at a traditional Dutch restaurant. We didn't stray too far from our normal though. I got a schnitzel and Andrew steak, but they were served with traditional Dutch carrots, potatoes and red cabbage and apple stew. It was really nice - the carrots were amazing - photos to follow.

Monday morning and we were sad to leave Amsterdam, but Germany was calling. We almost got the border around lunchtime and decided to stop at Maccas for lunch. I had a Fillet O Fish and Andrew had McKroket burger, which was like a croquet in a pattie shape. He said it was so-so. The fries and drink were exactly the same as home. Though we did notice, there were no young ones working at Maccas, they were all mature workers.

Germany countryside is beautiful, so green and lush. The Autobahns are fantastic to drive on. Everyone keeps to the right, unless you are over-taking, and they really over-take here. From memory (or at least what Andrew has been game to tell me, is the fastest he has gone in the "No Speed Limit" Sections is 160 klms an hour). Though, he has just added, it was actually 170klms, as he had an Audi sitting on our arse. We have had Mercedes, Porsches, Audis and even Kia Carnivals zooming past us when we are doing 150klms. We are sure there was one BMW M4 doing 200+ clicks an hour.

We stayed in Hamburg last night. It was a very industrial city, with so much construction work going on. They appear to build things and when they start to get old, pull it down and build it again. We went for a cruise around the harbour/port. Very busy port with containers ships moving around, being loaded/unloaded. There was a massive cruise ship in for the day also.

Today, we have driven approx. 2.5 hours to Berlin. So far, so good. We are going to have a very busy two days, as there looks like plenty to do and see in Berlin. Hopefully, we will have a good night sleep tonight (have a bit of a cold, so am keeping Andrew awake at night) and be right and ready to go tomorrow.

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