Brussels & Amsterdam Days 6 - 7

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Hi everyone,

So, Brussel did turn out better than we expected and once we realised that we we're on the wrong street the night before and couldexplore in daylight. We had a train to catch at around lunch time so we only had the morning to explore the city. We visited the main attractions including the statue of the pissing boy which is not as exciting as it sounds. We also checked out a very nice Art Nouveau building which now houses the Museum of Music. The remainder of the buildings we saw were also very nice. All and all it was a very quick tour of the main sites in Brussels. On our way back to the sttion we passed a street market and wanderd through the stalls for a while before buying some canolli and heading on to catch our train.

Once we got back to the station after exploring Brussels we found that our train had broken down and there were going to be limited serivces to Amsterdam, so we had to catch a local train which ended up taking us to Antwerp were no one spoke English, but conveniently spoke German so we managed to find out that the later train wasn't cancelled at all. So we went to the platform and caught the now very busy train to Amsterdam.

Upon arriving in Amsterdam we made our way to the Hostel which Holly seemed to be less and less convinced of, and it wasn't until we spied it across the water that our fears were dispelled. It turns out that the boat we are staying on is very nice and very comfortable...the rooms are small but what can you expect when you are sleeping below decks on a boat? It also includes and incredibly well catered and inclusive breakfast menu which extends to lunch if done correctly. We certainly made the most of this opportunity. It is also very well located around some major landmarks in the area including NEMO, the maratime museum in Amsterdam and a well known Renzo Piano building. Also very close by is the AMRAC building which is basically a building to promote architecture in Amsterdam, unfortunetly closed on the days we are here.

After getting organised in our hostel we went for a wander to explore and find some dinner. We found a great little trendy resteraunt in the centre square where we had very yummy meals and a few beers to celebrate Holly's Australian birthday. After 2 beers Holly was ready for bed.


We spent the next morning taking a guided tour of the city as well as wandering about ourselves. The tour included some great spots and facts about Amsterdams history. We meet in the Centre of Amsterdam at the aptly named 'Monument of the Netherlands,' and then began our tour from there. Our tour guide funnily enough was from Canberra and this further backs up our stereotype of everyone we meet on holidays being from Australia. We did a brief tour of the red light district, 'cafes,' the centre of Amsterdam and genereal information about the canals and the history of Amsterdam. The founders of Amsterdam being two guys on a boat with a dog on the river Anstell who build a dam and when you combine the two, voila, Amster-dam. Original huh? Very good tour overall and it was good to round up all the things that make Amsterdam interesting, minus the general conception that Amsterdam is all sex and drugs.


We found our afternoon tour interesting enough that we decided to take the more comprehensive tour of the red light district later that night. P.S. inbetween we went to Anne Franks' house. We had the same tour guide for this evening tour and this went into gritty details about how some of the red light areas work, from the sex workers and prostitutes etc. This all came with funny stories. Especially interesting where how all the streets where divided up so well i.e the hardcore gay street, shemale street, 'elite street' so called cause it has the prettiest prostitutes and the fat street. Who would have thought that it would all be divided up so well 😊


We have been left with a very good impression of Amsterdam and with all the people we have meet and talked to this city is definitely going on the list of possible cities to live in for our overseas move. A must see city and also we very highly recommend staying on the Vito Nova, very friendly and great value for money. This is backed up by the safe, clean environment and the very welcoming and tolerant people.

Onto Berlin tomorrow and being a mostly all day trip there will not be much to blog about so we may also skip that day.

Till next time,
Nick and Holly

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