I owe you all a blog post from Amsterdam

Well, Danny and I met on Friday night after work and took our flights to Amsterdam, we got a great package deal from London which included return flights and two nights in the holiday inn. Now I know holiday inn is a little sad but it was 4 star and close to town and a breakfast to die for all these cooked delights, pancakes, warm crossaints, cereal, fruit, yogurt, cheese and sliced meats we ate ourselves a bit stupid and didn’t ever need lunch.

On the plane we tried to learn some Dutch with the help of a local businessman. We arrived late and tired and crashed out in the hotel room. The next morning we headed into the centre of town on a tram (oh the days I forgot how cool trams are and here they are even better than Melbourne, bigger and faster). We booked ourselves a bike tour and then went for a walk. On our walk me managed to wander into the red light district.

Now in Amsterdam first thing that comes to mind is the coffee shops and red lights district and yeah while it is somewhat strange to see girls just standing in little windows, in their underwear or a bikini. It is not so out there as some people make out. I mean the girls work their own hours and it is safe for them which is better than in other countries where eastern europeans are forced into being prostitutes etc. However Danny did find his absolute favourite shop there.

I digress….We joined our bike tour which was really fun. When in Amsterdam! The amount of bikes here are crazy everyone rides them and all those old school big handlebar bikes. We rode around various parts of town, through a nice park, and along various canals. Danny and I tried out some of our Dutch but every attempt was greeted and returned with perfect English.

That night we got some cheap food and then sampled some of the legal produce that there was to offer, well again when in Amsterdam….. Late on wandering through the red light district again we found it a lot seedier mainly because of the groups of drunk and/or stoned British stag parties leering and chatting up the women.

The next day we were up early we were up early to the Heineken factory although most of the information about the beer was on boring information signs there were lots of interactive things about Heineken that were a lot of fun (I’m sure you all saw our fantastic Dutch karaoke) and also 3 free beers which is fun at about 10am.

After that we headed to the Van Gough museum, which was under renovation but had some lovely paintings. Afterwards we went to the Anne Frank house, I felt a little guilty for not having read the book but it was very fascinating and quite moving.

So we really enjoyed Amsterdam, the food was not that fantastic and despite it’s reputation it sometimes gets for being about drugs and sex, it is a beautiful city with a great relaxed vibe, lovely buildings and is really quite pretty and the people very friendly even more so when they found out you were Australian.