I’m in Berlin right now, and it’s been a very loong day. I never got the chance to write bout my night and the last day in Amsterdam so I will just give a quick summary right now. We went through the Red Light District, although it was definitely alot different than I expected. It was quite explicit but very classy. I know, it sounds like an oxymoron. There was no flyers, no one hassling you. It’s very clean and just little windows on the street where the women stand and just sit there waiting. I didn’t really want to be there though, as it was kind of awkward with my family and just a little bit weird. Kathryn was obsessed with finding a flyer for Erin but there were none! And I told them I got a picture of the post card with the prices but noo we had to go look at every postcard stand even though it clearly wasn’t there. But that was ok. I don’t think we did anything of interest yesterday. We were supposed to rent bikes but we never got around to it. Oh ya! We went to the Anne Frank house. We got there just as it opened and there was a line. My Mom found it amazing that so many people go there to see, but I guess it’s one of the only historical sites in Amsterdam. It was alot bigger than I had expected it to be, two floors with not too badly sized rooms. But when you can’t leave those rooms for two years it probably gets very cramped. They had the pictures on the wall that she pasted there and her original diary. It didn’t hit me until later in the day how weird it actually was that I was standing in the same room those people lived in, hidden from the world. When you go through the museum it just feels like a recreation or an exhibit. Strange. But when we were eating lunch this tremendous siren went off all around the city. It was extremely creepy and I thought it sounded quite like the air raid warning. It turns out that they test the city’s evacuation (I think that’s what it was for) alarm on the first Monday of every month. But the sound made me think for a while. We then went to the Amsterdam Historic Museum. It was pretty good, kind of neat to see how the city was made. It spanned from 1200 to the present, and was alot of art and such. They also had exhibit of The Letters of Anne Frank and a special Rembrant exhibit. I really liked Amsterdam. It may have sounded like I didn’t, but I did. It was a very nice city but I’m glad we’re on to some place new.
So today, we packed up and headed to Berlin! Oh...my...gosh. That was a disasterous ride. The main highway out of Amsterdam was shut off and we had already been sitting in traffic for an hour. This lead to hasty redirections from a map and alot of arguing. I finally got a route down and we were well on our way. The Dutch countryside is very nice, alot of cows and even sheep! I also saw windmills! And the old kind too, they are very cool to see, all scattered about the countryside. We then lost the road we were on when we went through a Dutch town and some words were exchanged. But our detour lead us to the road we originally wanted to be on so all in all it was a good thing we got lost. The German country is very nice as well. These countries are basically the same as North America and you don’t realize that until you actually drive through. The towns are very pretty; all the roofs are red shingled and small and the towns are very quaint. I would love to live in one because it looks so peaceful. We had our first experience with no English today. Well Dad did, not the rest of us. The girl at McDonald’s only spoke German so it was funny to observe the exchange. Eastern Germany didn’t look that different as we crossed over except for the fact of the old guard towers which was very interesting to observe. Dad said when he was here 20 years ago Eastern Germany was like going into a time warp. I had hoped it would still look a bit that way, but it didn’t really. Or I just didn’t notice. We got into Berlin later than we expected due to our delay at the beginning and also lost our way to the hotel. It didn’t take us that long to get back on track and soon we arrived. I felt so annoyed by the end of it after repeating directions and arguing and uh! But I guess it wasn’t really arguing, I think we were all just tired and didn’t want to be figuring this stuff out. Our hotel is... interesting. Definitely (I can never spell that word!) not what we are used to. But our room is extremely spacious, if a bit sparse. It was an old apartment building, so our room is an apartment! We have the old bathroom and kitchen & the original carpet I’m guessing. But there are no covers on the bed... I hope it’s hot tonight! Since it was late we stuck by the hotel and just looked into some shops. Did you know that there are at least two of every store within a block from each other? On our street there are two Esprits, two Zaras, and THREE H&Ms. They must be very absent of stores since they have to repeat them so many times. It was kind of like that in Amsterdam too. Everyone looves Esprit here! I don’t know anyone that shops there at home... people, if you want to be European, shop at Esprit. We went to a spectacular church as well. It was bombed during WWII and the top had been completely removed. The other half of the church was torn down after the bombing so it is only the main entrance. But it is extremely beautiful. The roof in inlayed with gold and colorful mosaic. It is so pretty. Tomorrow I think we’re going to try a couple of tours or another museum. Dad says they have alot of cool stuff because the Germans took alot of ‘treasures’ during the wars.
I’m not going to be able to update this blog as much as I would have hoped. It is basically going to be on and off, with pictures some days and other days just the entry and the pictures coming later. It is because it depends where there is wireless internet so I can use my laptop to upload the pictures. We don’t have it in this hotel, so we are going to try Starbucks tomorrow. Right now I’m typing this in my word processor. They will be current, just not an entry everyday, and then a few one day. So keep checking back because I shall update it at some point!! (And hopefully we will have access on the cruise)
previous travel blog entry
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