On Friday evening Matt, Byron and myself set off on a coach from London on the 9 hour journey to Amsterdam!! We drove through some beautiful parts of England before getting on the English Channel train to cross the French border. We travelled through France and Belgium on our way to the land of clogs and arrived on Saturday morning, fresh and ready to experience all that Amsterdam had to offer!
We headed straight for our accommodation- we stayed in a backpackers place- they're the best place to stay when you travel because you meet lots of people! We checked in and then headed off to a cafe for a breaky of bacon and eggs and cappuccinos for the boys and hot chocolate for me! Mmmm was delicious (but cost us a small fortune!!)
After breaky we headed to a 'coffee shop'. Coffee shops in Amsterdam aren't like your regular coffee shops we'd see anywhere in the world. A coffee shop in Amsterdam means- "come in and smoke some cannabis or have some space cakes'. It's really quite bizzare. You can smoke marijuana on the streets or inside a coffee shop, it's insane!! They have a wide variety of 'products' to choose from and I was just in complete and utter shock that this was all legal and ok to do!! The boys bought a joint and smoked a little bit of it inside the coffee shop. This is a photo of the coffee shop!
After this we had a quick walk around and saw some pretty tulips.... Amsterdam is famous for its tulips...
After this we had a quick walk around and saw some pretty tulips.... Amsterdam is famous for its tulips...
Byron with one of the many canals behind him....
Then we decided to hire some bikes and ride around the city to see the sights. Riding bikes is the best way to get around Amsterdam- there are more bikes on the roads than cars!! So we hired our bikes and grabbed our maps and headed off for a few hours seeing the pretty sights of Amsterdam! Here's the boys...
We rode past the Heineken Brewery....
More canals...
The Amsterdam canal system is the result of conscious city planning, woohoo!! My research tells me that in the early 17th century, when immigration was at a peak, a plan was developed that was based on four concentric half-circles of canals with their ends emerging at the IJ bay. Three of the canals are mostly for residential development and the fourth and outermost canal served purposes of defense and water management. As a result of this over 100 bridges were constructed! So there’s your history lesson for the day! Hehehe! Here's some photos of the beautiful (yet dirty) canals of Amsterdam...
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Pretty architecture.....jpg)
The gorgeous streets.... .jpg)
The city of bike riders.....jpg)
There are lots of old Merchant houses and a lot of them are collapsing or sinking because the city is obviously built on water. In this photo, the 3rd house from the left, the dark one, is falling forward!! There are SO many houses like this!
I love this photo!! Bikes, canals and pretty houses!!
Me and Matty strutting our stuff on our bikes! I know mine is awesome and bright orange!! Haha!
And here's me and Byron....
I hadn't riden a bike since i was about 10 i think so i was quite worried how i would go. I was sure I would fall off and stack it but I didn't! YAY!!! (Although I did have a couple of close calls!!) It really was as people say- you dont forget- its just like riding a bike!!Here's a guy in a boat who was playing the trumpet to entertain passers by- he drew quite a crowd!!!
And the other thing Holland is famous for.... CLOGS!!! They're everywhere!!!
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After a long day of bike riding and sight seeing, we headed back to the backpackers place because we were all buggered and needed a powernap! We had a couple of hours rest and then got up and ready to go out for the night. We decided to check out the red light district.... We had returned our bikes so we walked there- it was only a 10 minute walk from where we staying!
And the other thing Holland is famous for.... CLOGS!!! They're everywhere!!!.jpg)
After a long day of bike riding and sight seeing, we headed back to the backpackers place because we were all buggered and needed a powernap! We had a couple of hours rest and then got up and ready to go out for the night. We decided to check out the red light district.... We had returned our bikes so we walked there- it was only a 10 minute walk from where we staying!On the way we passed this shop!! Very exciting!! It's a bakery that doesn't sell anything remotely Australian, but hey, who cares right?!!! Here's the boys....
Pretty Amsterdam by night....
Then we arrived in the red light district... and oh my goodness, what an eye opener!!! I was shocked an appauled!!!! 'De Wallen' is a designated area for legalised prostitution and is Amsterdam's largest and most well known red-light district. It consists of a network of roads and alleys containing several hundred small, one-room apartments rented by female sex workers who offer their services from behind a window or glass door, typically illuminated with red lights. You weren't allowed to take photos of it so here's one I got off the net just to show you what its like.... There's the red lights and under them are glass doors with women standing in there wearing next to nothing... so disturbing.
The area also has a number of sex shops, sex theatres, an erotic museum, a cannabis museum, and a number of coffee shops offering various cannabis products. While 26 percent of the tourists come to the district to have a "look", the number of brothels is decreasing sufficiently for the Chamber of Commerce to sound the alarm. Here's Matt outside a 'colourful' sex shop....
We then sat in a coffee shop for an hour or so where I experienced my first space cake. I had a chocolate muffin and it tasted like CRAP!!! However i had a redbull to wash it down with which made it a little better... After that we headed to a pub to have a drink. Here's Matt with his beer, nice face my son, nice face!
It's after sitting in the pub for another hour or so that the space cake finally hit me and let me tell you I did not like how it made me feel!! I felt all fuzzy and didnt have any energy, it was not cool! Here's me and Byron (I think perhaps he had some cake too by the looks of his facial expression....)
All the pubs closed around 2am so we decided to slowly wander back to our accommodation. We passed Dam Square on the way through....
And stopped at the CHIPSY KING which as the name implies sells hot chips with very yummy toppings and sauces. So we got some of them to share for the walk as well and finally got back to the backpackers place at aroun 3am and heading soundly off to sleep for the night!
Pretty Amsterdam by night....
Then we arrived in the red light district... and oh my goodness, what an eye opener!!! I was shocked an appauled!!!! 'De Wallen' is a designated area for legalised prostitution and is Amsterdam's largest and most well known red-light district. It consists of a network of roads and alleys containing several hundred small, one-room apartments rented by female sex workers who offer their services from behind a window or glass door, typically illuminated with red lights. You weren't allowed to take photos of it so here's one I got off the net just to show you what its like.... There's the red lights and under them are glass doors with women standing in there wearing next to nothing... so disturbing.The area also has a number of sex shops, sex theatres, an erotic museum, a cannabis museum, and a number of coffee shops offering various cannabis products. While 26 percent of the tourists come to the district to have a "look", the number of brothels is decreasing sufficiently for the Chamber of Commerce to sound the alarm. Here's Matt outside a 'colourful' sex shop....
We then sat in a coffee shop for an hour or so where I experienced my first space cake. I had a chocolate muffin and it tasted like CRAP!!! However i had a redbull to wash it down with which made it a little better... After that we headed to a pub to have a drink. Here's Matt with his beer, nice face my son, nice face!
It's after sitting in the pub for another hour or so that the space cake finally hit me and let me tell you I did not like how it made me feel!! I felt all fuzzy and didnt have any energy, it was not cool! Here's me and Byron (I think perhaps he had some cake too by the looks of his facial expression....)
All the pubs closed around 2am so we decided to slowly wander back to our accommodation. We passed Dam Square on the way through....
And stopped at the CHIPSY KING which as the name implies sells hot chips with very yummy toppings and sauces. So we got some of them to share for the walk as well and finally got back to the backpackers place at aroun 3am and heading soundly off to sleep for the night! What an eye opening action packed first day!!
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