Day in Amsterdam

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Day 2 - Amsterdam

We set off early to the reclaimed polderlands around the former Zuider See to check out dutch villages and farms.

The first stop was a Clog making place where we saw a demonstration on how to make a clogs the traditional way by the 'Mad' Dutchman.

We then went off to visit Rahul's Windmill which was built in 1650 to pump water up to the next lock. It wasn't too windy a day but the sails were still spinning at a fair pace making a really eerie noise.

Next we went to Volendam which is a really cute fishing village. After gorging ourselves on pancakes we wandered around the shops for a while. The bus then dropped us off in town and a few of us made our way to the Van Gogh museum. I also went to the Rijks Museum and checked out the Rembrandt exhibition they were having there.

We caught a tram to visit the house where Anne Frank and her family hid during the war. You could go into her room and there were photos and articles on her and her family. It was quite an intense exhibition - very moving.

Afterwards we walked into Dam Square. This area was very vibrant with various musicians dotted around. I would have loved to stay longer and people watch but we had to return to our hotels to get ready for a night out.

The team (me, Georgia, Gavin, and Amy) wandered through town in search of food and somehow found ourselves smack in the centre of the red-light district ;-) What an eye-opener! The girls where in what we renamed the 'tanning booths' and to my untrained eye, they looked young and gorgeous, but as Georgia pointed out, UV lights make us all look good.
We managed to get through without losing Gavin and eventually found a very nice restaurant that didn't look like the tourists had invaded it. We had a fantastic dinner (I had lobster :-) then went to check out a Coffee Shop. We found a nice place with tables outside where we could have a beer and watched the world go by.

It seemed that we hadn't had enough of museums for the day so our next stop was the Erotic Museum. It seemed that we hadn't had enough of museums for the day so our next stop was the Erotic Museum. We had a great time there and took some very interesting photos!! We got a great shot of Gavin and from that moment on he became Gavio :-)

Next was the GrassHopper bar for a few quiet ones before grabbing a feed (you can't beat dutch fries with mayonnaise) at Febos - the ultimate in fast food and headed back to the hotel.

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Photos

The Nights Watch
Rembrandt (1642)

Fun in the Erotic Museum
Meet Gavio :-)