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Published: December 30th 2008
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More map issues
With those gloves on I had trouble getting the map open, let alone working out where we were. Herzliche Grüße aus Köln! Which (hopefully) means, 'best wishes from Cologne'. We caught the train here from Amsterdam today in order to save about 200€, but more on that in a second.
The last time that we had the pleasure of your company Sharon and I were sitting in an internet cafe in Amsterdam, scared to go out into the -4 degree evening. After eventually getting up the courage, we headed out to the street and after some deliberation decided to visit a local Indian restaurant. The food was quite delicious and it made us laugh thinking that two Australians were in Holland eating Indian food - what a multicultural society we live in.
The next morning we pushed our way into the breakfast room at the hotel/hostel where around 50 people were jostling about, trying to get their hands on the last couple pieces of toast. We managed somehow to find a couple of unoccupied seats and ate a rather uninspiring breakfast.
Luckily the weather outside was warmer than the previous evening - about 0 degrees - and we took the tram toward Dam square to check out Madame Tussaud's. Despite being fairly expensive, the exhibitions were quite cool
Shazzy spice
Wearing a little bit too much clothing I think. and the sculptures really are quite life-like.
After a quick bite to eat, we wandered up Damrak Straat and headed into the Sex Museum. I'm not sure that there are many cities in the world that could get away with the blatant sexuality that Amsterdam exudes, and the Sex Museum was no exception. Some of the exhibits were just silly, but a lot of them were very explicit - the 1900s porn exhibit for example. I was surprised at the number of women that were in the Museum - I'm not saying that women aren't interested in sex, but the museum was certainly targeted toward a male audience and we expected the gender to be distributed as such.
After the Sex Museum we headed for the Red Light District proper, and decided to visit the Hemp Museum. It was interesting - although not at all surprising - that the museum extolled the virtues of marijuana consumption and the (seemingly endless) uses of hemp, while seeming to pay little attention to the negative effects that have been discovered by decades of scientific research. All that aside, it was fascinating to learn more about cannabis and the 'coffeeshop' culture that plays a
Robbie
Oh oh, looks like someone got a better offer. major role in shaping Amsterdam's identity.
After a brief wander around the Red Light District, we headed to a nearby internet cafe in order to book some accomodation for the next couple nights, including New Years Eve. We knew that it would be expensive, but we had no idea...
Several of the hotels in Amsterdam were asking 100€ for NYE and we figured that we could do better than that so we headed back to our hotel to see how much it would cost us to stay there over the New Year period. The room that we were already staying in, which had cost us 60€ a night thus far, was suddenly worth 139€ for NYE. In fact, to extend our booking by four nights, we were up for over 500€, or $1000 Australian. I know it's a peak period and all that, but I'm not sure how they can justify charging more than twice the normal price for the same, fairly ordinary room, just because it is NYE.
After heading back to another internet cafe to reassess our options, and a visit to Centraal station, we decided to book ourselves onto a train for Köln (Cologne) in Germany,
Woah...
Fairly high penalty for failure methinks - I would be finding somewhere else to park. knowing that accomodation there would be slightly cheaper. We also booked ourselves into a hotel across town in Amsterdam for one night, not wishing to pay 129€ for a night (70€ increase overnight) when we could get a similar sort of room for 60€.
After all of those shenanigans we decided to head back to the Red Light District to experience it at night, and it was certainly different. The numerous coffeeshops were packed, the streets were brimming with people, and the ladies were out selling there wares. We tossed around the idea of going to see a live sex show, you know, 'when in Rome' and all that, but when we discovered that it was going to cost us 50€ (it would have been 60€ but like at Pisa we unwillingly haggled by walking away) we decided we could probably buy 10 porn DVDs for that much. We didn't do that either.
After wandering around for an hour or so, we found a pub and sat down to have a beer. It was interesting watching the numerous punters open the door to speak to the ladies behind the glass, only to prompty close the door and leave, presumably after
Something something dark side...
The conservatives were right! Amsterdam really has turned to the dark side. an exchange that included the words 'How much?' and an attempt to haggle. In the 45 minutes that we sat there watching, only one of the three girls across the canal from us managed to get a visitor, though all of them had plenty of interested looks and stares. If you were wondering, the gentleman's visit lasted almost exactly 20 minutes exactly, after which the lady promptly returned to her position at the window and continued her rhythmic swaying and beckoning hand gestures.
Our breakfast the following morning wasn't quite as hectic as the previous day, but it was equally as average. After breakfast we packed our bags, jumped on the train to Centraal and then walked the 15 minutes to our new hotel. The room wasn't ready for us yet, but we were happy to be rid of our backpacks and we set off on the day's adventure. We wandered beside canals and down backstreets, visiting markets and generally just enjoying the freedom of being able to do whatever we pleased. We visited the Jewish Historical Museum, erected on the site of a synagogue which was destroyed and looted in WWII, which was an interesting and informative experience.
Houseboats and that
Cute little canal in Amsterdam complete with houseboats, birds and buildings that don't look like they are standing straight. After some more wandering we found Leidesplein where we had seen that a temporary ice skating rink had been erected. We had hot chocolate and glühwein (yum) at the nearby cafe before I busted our some of my unbelivably awesome ice skating skills. The rink wasn't as large or as well maintained as the one at Gouda, but it was fun nonetheless and a good chance to wow the crowd that had amassed. Or not.
The rest of the day was spent eating, taking photos, and our favourite pasttime, wandering. It's just so much fun to put the map away and just walk, seeing were your legs, and sometimes your stomach, takes you. Also, when you are just wandering around you don't feel bad about getting lost, after all that's the point, but when you get lost while holding a map in front of you you just feel like a tool.
So here we are in Köln, where the train system is confusing and the computer keyboards insist on having the 'y' where the 'z' should be. The train trip from Amsterdam was nice and relaxing as all of our intercity train trips have been so far. There's
Dear oh dear
Holland in a basket - clogs, tulips and weed. something so cool about the train system here in Europe - whether it's the flexibility, massive coverage of the networks or just the fact that you are seeing the world without even lifiting a finger, the train journeys have been great. Köln's suburban rail network is another story. For the first time on the trip we found ourselves struggling with the local Metro. It took us around 30 minutes to work out if we needed the S-bahn or the U-bahn, line 1 or line 16 and if our Eurail pass was valid on the network or not. After all that, and a visit to the local information office for directions to our hotel - given that our directions consisted of 'we are five minutes from Köln Arena' - we managed to check into our hotel with no troubles.
We are here for the next three nights at least, and we are looking forward to seeing what Köln has to offer in terms of NYE celebrations.
Until next time, have a safe and happy new year and we will see you all next year. Tschüss!
Matt & Shaz
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