Eurorail Trip Day 8

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Day 8

Today started off our first full day in Amsterdam, we decided that because the sights are all spread out we were going to do a free walking tour in the morning. This was probably the best idea we have had since deciding to tour Europe.


We meet at the national monument which is totally nothing to write home about, we then did a lot fo historical things learning facts from our wacky Australian guide Stevo along the way. For example the Drugs in Amsterdam are not legal they are jsut very taxed so the government turns a blind eye to the shops and same goes fot he sex trade. As they say the Dutch are all about money and if it brings it in then well we can live with it.... interesting philosophy I say. We also found out a lot about Dutch history which was good not to much but just enough to understand the way the town is the way it is. We went past the famous “coffee shops” which according to both of us stink, but then we were never smokers in our hey day anyway!


After the tour we headed off to do a boat trip around the canals, that was informative and nice to see the city from an angle other than your tired feet after walking everywhere for three hours on the tour. The boat trip took us past some interesting land marks and provided a well needed rest.
Once that was over we had a beer in a local pub and just watched the world go by, that was interesting watching tourists almost get run over by bicycles and watching the dutch get irate with them. By the way Amsterdam is a bicycle capital, there are lanes and even crossing paths at robots for the bikes, everywhere you look you are bound to see a bike that is 100% for certain.


Well we then had our selves in store for something completely Amsterdam style. That was our 7 o clock tour of the red light district, yes 2 hours looking at naked women , sure all the guys reading are thinking dam Ricky you a lucky guy... little to say 7 is to early for most of the girls that are worth looking at (the mama’s where out in full force) and it was also a tour that didn’t revolve around staring a naked women! We found out a load of fact and interesting tid bits about the red light district, fables about the lights and where they come from and why they red etc etc... it was really fun to take a walk through there with someone who had spoken to the girls and could answer the things that you don’t generally ask random strangers, if you know what i mean for example the girls hire a window for 100 euro for 8 hour shifts, they charge minimum 30 euro per 15 minutes and that is just for oral.... imagine the bucks they making.. thinking I am persuing the wrong profession!!! Haha



We then grabbed a bite to eat a nice little Chinese place in the district which had fabulous food, following that it was late enough for the “real girls” to be up and about and the windows started getting busy and filling up so we took a browse through the district ourselves just to see what the fuss was about, amazing how many guys are in an out of those windows. ... there are some really pretty girls too.




Next for the night was the erotic museum,, that was great fun as you will see from the pics, some things you don’t want your mom to see so ma close your eyes this time! Hahah last on the list for the night we decided to go to a peep show! That was a very eye opening experience, and well its one of things as jill says that you can call a memory thats about all I think I will mention about that!




So that is Amsterdam wrapped up for you in one day, oh not forgetting the endless frites - fries with sauce that we could have lived off... the portions are huge at some places  definitely Gails favourite part of Amsterdam and Belgium  the food!

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