Amsterdam

After our cultural excursion in St. Goar, we headed off to Amsterdam, the city of sex, drugs, and rock and roll! Before we reached Amsterdam, we had a special stopover in Edam. Yes, the home of the cheese.

We were arranged to have a quick bike tour of the village, so we headed off to the rental store. Unfortunately, however, it started to rain as soon as we got out of the coach. Go figure eh? Anyhow, as we walked along, I noticed a group of people wearing what seemed to be old fashioned Dutch cheesemaking garb. I didn't think much of it, assuming that they were probably putting on a play of some sort. As I continued to walk, I noticed another group of people, this time wearing potato burlap sacks as clothing. "Ok, this is weird now," I thought to myself, as we walked again past another group of potato people. One of the members of our group then explained to me that the town of Edam was celebrating its 10 year anniversary, and were thus putting on a parade! Once he said 'parade' it finally clicked, as another stream of cheese-making potato people passed us by. Really, it was quite a sight. Edamites are very proud of their town and their cheese! As well they should be...that cheese is damn delicious.

After a few minutes, we reached the bike rental shop. This bike shop had the best name in the world: "Bike a Dijk," which is essentially what we did. The tour guide took us for a bike ride along the dyke, while she continued to intersperse her commentary with funny, but rather inappropriate sexual innuendos. Oh, but it was great fun. The Dutch are great. Afterwards, we went to a cheese and clog shop to see how cheese and clogs are made. After the demonstration, Joan and I bought a few wheels of Gouda cheese as souvenirs. Yes, we bought Gouda cheese from Edam. What's wrong with that?

After the cheese demo, we hopped back on the coach and drove into Amsterdam! After checking into the hostel, we headed out into town. Now before Joan and I even arrived in Amsterdam, we made a pact that we would, how do you say...immerse ourselves completely in the culture of Amsterdam. We would "do it as the Dutch do it" as they say. Well, nobody ever really said that. Just me.

Anyways, a big thing to do in Amsterdam is to watch 'shows', so we decided to watch one. These 'shows' are strictly for adults only, but people really only go just to have a giggle. What kind of 'show' do you ask? I'm sure you can use your imagination... After the 'show,' we entered into the infamous Red Light District, which will now henceforth be abbreviated as RLD. The RLD is an area which is pretty much owned by the prostitutes of Amsterdam. It is, in fact, its own little community, equipped with its own church and kindergarten! No joke! As we made our way through the narrow cobblestone walkways, on either side of us were large windows with scantily clad women posing suggestively behind them. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw an old Japanese man asking one of the girls how much she would cost. Ah, old creepy Japanese men - always make me so proud.

Once we walked past the RLD, we headed back to our hostel as it was getting to be quite late. We called it a night, as we knew that the next day would be a hectic one. Since we had already seen the seedy/dodgy side of Amsterdam, Joan and I (as well as a couple other girls from our tour) decided to hit up a few museums. Go figure, for a city that's infamous for being 'sinful,' Amsterdam is one of the cities which has the most museums. The first museum we saw was the RIjks museum, which housed a few of Rembrandts paintings, as well as an impressive collection of ancient Dutch artifacts.

After the Rijks, we headed to the Van Gogh museum, which I was extremely impressed with. The museum housed a majority of Van Gogh's most famous paintings, including the Sunflower painting and the Almond blossom paining, which was my personal favourite. Joan and I had not seen everything after perusing the paintings for about an hour, but had to hurry our way back to meet the rest of our group. Disappointingly, we found out later that we had missed the Starry night painting, as it was housed in the uppermost floor, the only floor that we didn't get a chance to visit. Bourns.

After the Rijks and the Van Gogh museums, we headed off to see Anne Frank's house. As we walked along the corridors of the house, snippets of Anne Frank's diary were pasted onto the walls and were put into context with the house, only making her story all the more powerful and tragic.

A short walk from Anne Frank's house took us to Amsterdam's famous tulip district. This outdoor market ran along an entire street and was completely dedicated to tulips! Literally, there were tulips everywhere!

A few hours later, it was time for us to meet the rest of our tour group for our final dinner together. It took place at a Chinese restaurant called the "Sea Palace Restaurant." By this time, both Joan and I were desperately in need of some rice (haha) so we were pretty excited about this restaurant. After we were all seated, we proceeded to receive bowls of (chicken noodle?) soup. Yes, it was quite strange. One of the girls even had a hair in hers! Then, a myriad of dishes were sent to our table - all strange and saucy. How was it you ask? Well, all I can say is that after that experience, I can honestly say that Vancouver has some damn good Chinese food. I miss rice =(

The next morning, we said our final goodbyes to our tour group. We had to then check out of our hotel, and make our way to our next hostel, which would be our new home for the next couple nights. After getting a little lost (of course), we finally made it to our hostel, which is basically a trailer park. Don't laugh. It's a cool trailer park by the lake!

Once we checked in, we headed into town again. We did a little shopping in a little district - I forget the name of it, but it was awesome! I tell you girls, the shopping in Amsterdam is something else. Everything is very cheap! After a couple hours of shopping, Joan and I decided to make our way to the famous "Grasshopper" pub. There, we each had pints of Heineken and enjoyed a nice rest after all that shopping.

Remember when I said that Joan and I made a pact about immersing ourselves completely in the culture? Well, we decided to do just that, and we headed to the nearest "coffee shop." There, we purchased some of their "goods." We brought the "goods" back to the trailer park where we "enjoyed the goods." Remember, "enjoying the goods'" is completely legal in Amsterdam. Are you still following? Good.

The next day, we decided to chill out, so we rented a few bikes and rode to the nearby town, called Ancoubes. What a cute little town! It was very quaint, and had a local supermarket where we picked up a few groceries. We managed to find a local pub, where we had a nice little lunch. After biking around a bit more, we headed back to the campsite. The trailerpark is located right next to a lake, so we decided to check out this lake. We relaxed on the pier, and enjoyed a few moments of rest. Then, we headed back to our trailer and rented a video player and watched movies all night. Go Face/off!!

Tracie