Day 3 : Hamburg to Amsterdam

Bicycles and Canals
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10th of June , it was our first day to start European Discovery with our Contiki Friends . We were very excited to meet our new friends and also the tour manager . Contiki folks started their voyage from London , through white cliffs of Dover . We were about to catch them in Amsterdam .

We booked with 'Rainbow Tours' it was 35 Euros each for a bus there and back and a day to hang out . Which is pretty dert cheap . Priya's mom had arranged for the tickets before we arrived Hamburg .

Bikes , Canals and Night Life

Canal Cruise , Amsterdam
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It was 7 a.m in the morning and we were waiting in Central station for our bus . I think the bus started around 7.20 am and it took us around 4 hours to reach Amsterdam . We arrived in Amsterdam some time around 12 noon and it was love at first sight .

What can you say about this place? Amsterdam is the Las Vegas of Europe but not as artificial or made up. First off, the Dutch are by far the friendliest and most helpful people we have ever met .

Amsterdam is a city of Bikes and Canals . Our bus dropped us near the central station , which is heart of downtown . We took few snaps and then our mission is to find out Hotel Ibis Schipol . First day in a new country and we don't know how to find our hotel to check-in . It gave us some opportunity to travel as a traveler rather than a tourist .

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Dutch people are very friendly and almost everyone speak English . It took us around 10-15 mins to find out the direction of our Hotel and then another 25-30 mins to reach there . We took a over land train from central station to Schipol airport and from there we took the shuttel bus to our Hotel .

Our room was very clean and comfortable , though the Hotel was away from downtown Amsterdam . Later on we found out to keep the cost of the package affordable to most of the individual this is a unique strategy of Contiki . Throughout our European discover we stayed in very nice 3 star hotels , but little away from town .

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Waiting for Contiki ..................

After check-in to our room , we had nothing much to do . We had our lunch and it was time to relax a bit , while I was anxiously waiting to meet Contiki folks and to understand the itinerary from our tour manager .

It was around 5.00 pm when the Contiki folks arrived in Ibis Schipol and I received a call at my room from Dave Drew our tour manager . He explained me everything quite nicely and also briefed me on the day's agenda .

Amsterdam at dusk
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We had a very good buffet dinner in our hotel around 7:00 pm and after that European discovery started officially.

At the beginning of the tour Dave told us that the Dutch believe that everyone is a pillar of society, including the prostitutes and drug dealers. Everyone has their place, which is why they're so tolerant.

Our Amsterdam experience started with an amazing canal cruise the rest of the evening was spent exploring the finer side of the Red-Light district .

The canal cruse was really great we all were in a very much party mood and there was free flow of drinks on board . We made lot of noise and waved our hands to the locals while exploring the city of Amsterdam , through it's various canals .

The canal cruise lasted for more than 2 hours and it was done some time around 10:00 pm , when we started our expedition through the famous RLD of Amsterdam.

The girls all wear bikinis and kind of wiggle their butts in the windows to attract customers . There are these red florescent lights above them , and curtains they draw when they're busy . The glass windows were all kind of stacked on top of each other, so it looked like a prostitute vending machine.

This visit held no surprises until we were offered entrance to a Sex Show . Bolstered by liquid courage, we decided to expand our horizons and give it a go. I'll say it was worth it just for the sheer novelty... other than that, the theater was cramped and creepy , the patrons seedy and sleazy and the show was , well the show was live sex on a stage . Some of it was interesting, but the show is actually six different scenes that repeat themselves over and over again.

We noticed first hand that the real Amsterdam's mainstream culture is sex and marijuana . Prostitution is legal there and so the prostitutes have to register with the government. It is common for prostitutes to stand behind the window to lure potential customers as though it's window-shopping. The average coffee shop in Amsterdam sells marijuana, because it's legalized there. Of course, no one can smoke marijuana on the street but restricted to the coffee shop. That was real life in Amsterdam.