Amsterdam is an interesting place. The Netherlands was once all water and no land. They pumped out bucket loads of water to make it all dry. Apparently all of the Netherlands is under sea level and Amsterdam itself is built on top of a river. All of the quirky things about Amsterdam all have a perfectly legitimate reason behind it that always dates back centuries ago e.g. Cannabis was decriminilised because some guy back centuries ago didn’t think it was fair to jail all of the young kids because they were smoking cannabis.
Some other things to note about Amsterdam:
– There are more bicycles here than there are people. Seriously, there are 1.2 million bikes and only 700,000 people. Bikes have right of way and they are everywhere. They even have car parks but for bikes, I guess you could call them bike parks? Even dominos pizza is delivered on pushbikes.
– Every one knows about the red light district but have you heard of the blue light district? Well if you walk down the blue light district area the small difference is that all the pretty girls aren’t girls! Did some body say she-male?
– The red light district is actually heavily funded by the government. Apparently all of the girls work items are fully tax deductible e.g. implants, other types of plastic surgery, lube, toys etc… Apparently if any one takes a photo of one of the girls, you should expect to see some heavies come out and jump on their camera and then on top of them 🙂
– Amsterdam is nowhere near as picturesque as Paris, but I guess that’s to be expected. It’s just so varied and random with no consistency e.g. you’ll be walking through a block of buildings / homes and they will be all different styles and colours and everything.
– There are coffee shops and cafes. Coffee shops specialise in cannabis. Cafes specialise in coffee 🙂 Both types of shops have wide varieties of their respective products.
Yesterday we went on a bike tour. Not as good as Paris but still worth the money. The highlights were seeing and old style windmill and visiting a clog factory and cheese farm. Rach and I bought some cheese from there. It’s great. It’s made the old style way too.
Later that night we headed to the red light district. Nothing special really. I was expecting a lot more from what everyone described. It was really just woman in Windows with underwear on.
Today we went to the house that Anne Frank hid in. She was a jew hiding from the Germans. She wrote a diary of her encounters and that has been published in many different countries. If you’re interested check out the below link:
hahaha we got the same photo with those clogs think it was the same tour 😉
hehe you are hard to please sometimes adrian i think amsterdam is a great city it might not be soo pretty but i love all it’s lil querks, those granny bikes can be soo dangerous tho if you not looking they will take you out….i’m flying out there 2moro after work with the girls 😀
how is the bus travelling going???? can you sleep on it?? do you have a cool tour group???
Hi guys! So nice to be able to read where you are and what you are doing- regardless of the fact that Im currently sitting in an office insanly jealous that you are travelling while we are all slaving away- needless to say with major hangovers! As it was Miss Wilson’s bday yesterday we all helped her celebrate at a little pub called Dixies (where drinks are as cheap as they come in London!). Cant wait for Amsterdam tomo! Its going to rock- looking forward to consuming the local delicacies hehe
Anyhoo, just thought Id say hi and keep up the good (and organised!) work with the blog 🙂 Take care, Katie
Hey Jo and Kate,
For me the bus travelling is going easy as. I was dreading it but it’s fine for me. On the other hand Rach struggles. She usually looks like she is absolutley hating it. The stops are evey two hours so it’s not an issue. It’s also allowed me to read the first book I’ve read since college, “The Godfather”. Great story so far.
I haven’t been able to sleep. It’s too uncomfortable for my liking and the travel pillow just doesn’t cut the mustard.
The people on the bus are cool so far. Haven’t met any real annoyances. We’ve all got something in common so there is always something to talk about.
I didn’t think Amsterdam was that great, sight seeing wise. Apart from coffee shops, cafes there isn’t that much to do. But don’t get me wrong, I’d go back there. It would be way more fun to go there and party with a group like you guys are doing. Both of you will have a great time.
Anyway great to hear from you both.
Ciao,
Adrian