Amazing Amsterdam

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Our arrival in Amsterdam was pretty much uneventful although when we got off the train a lady about 55yo who shared a lift with us and her bike to the platform advised us to take care as there were many pickpockets about. So this was our intro to Amsterdam. We once again had good directions to our accomodation and found it to be 2 metro stops from the Regional train station. Only a 5min walk from there to the Hotel Ibis. The hotel was on a major road but welcoming. The room has to be the smallest yet with 3 single beds squished into one room and nowhere to put your bags. We found the mandatory supermarket and bought nibbles and drinks as it was only 5pm and too early for tea. Richard & Lisa were settling in for the night but I wanted out.......... only 3 nights left of our European vacation and I didnt want to spend it in a small hotel room so........ we didnt bother to dress up just our trackies and off for some tea. We found our breakfast cafe on the way! A few streets over one of the many bridges and we found ourselves in the red light istrict........... Girls & women in next to nothing int the windowed doors, some attractive and some very unattractive.... I suppose it takes all sorts! Then there were doors with their curtains pulled so you can only imagine what was taking place. We walked deeper into the alleys, as this was the only way to get to where the cafe's were, and there were sex shops and shows and lots of very interesting sites! We decided on a historical place called the Waag for coffee before heading back through the alleys. Nothing dangerous just lots of viewing. It turns out we are close to everything, cafes's, nightlife and transport.

I have forgotten to mention it doesnt get really dark until around 11pm so at 10pm is not even dusk! Bikes...... Bikes everywhere there are bikes with trollys on the back, bikes with trollys on the front there are bikes with baby seat back & front there are bikes of every kind with people all shapes and sizes dressed in business suits and skirt suits all the way down to men dressed in shorts & thongs. We have seen whole families on a bike and mostly well dressed men giving well dressed women a dinky!! We are tslking about push bikes not the motorised kind! I kind of think it is great....... no pollution and good exercise, of course the paths all have bike lanes so watch out if you step on it!!

Next day we walked to Anne Frank house where we waited in line for 50min before taking about 1hr 20min through the whole place, vvery interesting. We decided to walk to the Flower market which is exactly that, we found a supermarket and bought a ready made salad, rolls, ham & cheese, found a park and sat with all the other people to eat lunch. As it was now around 3pm and we had food in our stomache, we walked to the Heineken factory for a tour. It was interesting and they are very proud of their beer, but the best part was the sampling and free beer at the end, we were given tokens with our entrance band and I cheekily asked for more so I had 3 beer, Lisa 4 beer & Richard 5 beer. We were all a bit ticking when we left around 5pm so walked back to take a nap in readiness for tea. We ate tea at an Argintinean bar around 9.30pm and walked to the red light district again for a coffee. Another long day walkiing about 10k again and another late ngiht!

Today is our last full day with Lisa and we had a plan to take the canal boat and stop off at Van Gough Museum. Well we missed the first boat and had to wait 50min and the natives were restless, finally on the boat where we were charged 20 Euro each!!!! We could have walked in 20min! So as it was now 1.30pm Richard suggested we eat first before we hit the museum, he is starting to realise that us girls dont need to eat as oftern........... so we had a snack lunch in the park next to the museum .12.50Euro each to get into the museum where Richard was disappointed as he mixed up his painters and we realised he was looking forward to seeing Monet! :-) We should have made the most of our canal boat ticket and take it back but we decided to walk and found a lovely square so sat down for a few
refreshments. Then low and behold it was the beginning of the shopping street so we wandered that way home!

We decided to go all out and have a lovely tea as it is our last night so we found the buzzing little Italian pizza bar we past on our way home today. We each ordered what we were told was a pizza for one person but they lied! Each pizza could feed 2 but we managed to fininsh off a litre of Llmbursco and 3 pizza! Home to pack for our suitcases for our early morning depature then we say goodbye to Lisa where we leave her to catch a flight to Lisbon Portugal and us going back to Franfurt for an overnight stay before we fly onto Dubai. It scares me to think about Imeldo and all those shops we will hit in 3 days before heading home.

This is my last travelblog entry so we hope to catch up with you when we return. We wont have to tell you about it as you will already know! The time has moved really quickly but there are places we would visit again and more yet to see.

Cheers

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