Blogs from North Holland, Netherlands, Europe - page 199

Amsterdam in three hours We had an eight hour layover in Amsterdam and could not resist a quick peek into the city. In no time we had cleared passports and were headed the centeral train station located in downtown Amsterdam. We walked down the narrow streets of gingerbread houses and canals. It was still dark when we got off the train and the city was mostly empty. The coffeshops, which sell something a little more stimulating than koffie, were the only thing open. We walked to the historic Jordaan district and saw the Anne Frank house. We took a very quick look into the infamouse Red Light Distric. Only place I know of were you see restrauts, baby strollers, cystalware shopps, and brothels in the same block! We had just enough time to stop for ... read more

So, we got back from amsterdam on Friday. I had a blast. It is such a cute city. Out of all the cities I've been to, this is the one I could really see myself living in. I feel like I get all the advantages of a city, but you still get a small town feel. The city is like Venice with lots of canals running through it. It was so nice to walk around. The weather wasn't bad either. It was supposed to rain the whole time but we didnt really get any, atleast not while we were out. Oh, and flying was so much easier and quicker, although the seats were very tight and the guy infront of me had to push his seat all the way back and the lady behind me kept ... read more

Erin again, as usual... No well, look in all honesty I'm actually writing this from Dublin, but couldn't be bothered cramming in the Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin entries all into one. We got to Amsterdam again as it was getting dark, and armed with our trusty directions and enormous backpacks trundled off to our 4 star hotel. On the way we were solicited 3 times for various backpacker hostels and not once for drugs or hookers. On the net the description of the hotel had casually mentioned that it was "a short walk to the red light district". Of course this translates to being actually IN the red light district... well almost. I am also now convinced that there should be a new category on the page that describes hotels on the wotif website. Hotel Name: ... read more

Amsterdam isn't a destination you immediately think of when considering a Christmas market tour - in fact, I doubt you'd think of it at all. The only reason we included it to our plans was because we came across some bargain Thalys fares, which meant we could travel from Brussels to Amsterdam and back for just £24. Neither Jasmin nor I had ever been to Amsterdam before; we thought this was an opportunity not to be missed. Thalys is a high-speed train run jointly by the Belgian, French, Dutch and German railways. Its network links Brussels with Paris, Amsterdam and Cologne. http://www.thalys.com/ The best thing about it is that, although it's a high-speed, high-quality service, it offers bargain fares called "Smilys" which allow even those of us on a budget to experience the pleasure of fast ... read more

We went to the Cologne and saw its giant cathedral and chocolate factory/museum. We learnt alot about the making of chocolate right through from growing the cocoa beans to the creation of the bar of chocolate. We revelled in the smells as we saw it being made, and i enjoyed watching the mechatronics engineers scratching their heads when the conveyor sysytem was misbehaving. Needless to say, we bought lots of chocolate at the shop afterwards. The day we left Cologne, it started snowing lightly. By the time we were 5 minutes out of town by train, everything was blanketed in snow. It turns out that the day before there had been a big snow storm and the route we took to Rotterdam had been blocked from the snow and nothing got through. So we were pretty ... read more