Today is the start of our adventures to Europe. Neither wenqi nor myself has ever been to Europe, so we were quite rightly excited about it. We met up with the Contiki tour people early in the morning at 6:45am to prepare for our departure. As soon as all that were sorted out, we were ready to go! EUROPE! HERE WE COME!
It was a coach tour all the way through Europe, so we got to see a lot more. We departed London for Port Dover, also where the Dover White Cliffs are, and the coach drove up the ferry heading for Calais, France. It was a long haul drive through France, through Belgium, and finally into Amsterdam, Holland. Thank God for a wonderful mix up that happened to our hotel in Amsterdam. Apparently the hotel we were supposed to go to did not place the reservation for us, and so, we were upgraded to a 4-star hotel in Amsterdam! WHEEE. Not only did we have a nice nice room, we had a super dinner at the hotel that probably cost like 40 euros. Haha.
After dinner, we headed into the city centre of Amsterdam. There wasn’t really very much at night in Amsterdam though. It is a city of vices, most notably their Red Light District. Also, they had a lot of “coffeeshops”. Coffeeshops are places where they sell “magic mushrooms” (aka marijuana). Its drugs that are legalized in Holland. Apparently, they have a way of growing such drugs that are not harmful nor addictive because they don’t add nicotine into the magic mushroom. It is designed to give the “high” of drugs without getting the person addicted. Inside just looks like a normal café.
Instead of paying a bomb to go on a canal cruise, we decided to go for a night walk around Amsterdam. Contrary to stories we heard, Amsterdam is pretty safe actually. It’s not rowdy or drug rampant, I mean drugs are being sold, but it is legal only within the confines of the coffeeshops, so there aren’t druggies running around the streets. After a short walk around the city, it was time to go back and enjoy the nice 4-star hotel. (:
the White Cliffs of Dover
Passing through Belgium. Some quick facts about Belgium: Did you know that the cartoon Smurfs is from belgium? And Tin tin as well! Belgium is a very small country in terms of size (abt 30,000 sq km) with a population of about 10.5 million people. Basically, it is very compact. Belgiums mainly speak german, french and dutch. They are famous for belgian chocolate (yum!) and belgian beer.
AMSTERDAM! famous for the windmills and canals. Holland is a low lying country and the windmills are used to generate the pumps to pump water out of Holland.
Dinner at the hotel... YUM.
A "coffeeshop". Its everywhere in Amsterdam.
the town hall in amsterdam.
At the start of the Red Light District in Amsterdam
One of the their many beautiful canals.
Behind me is Central Station
As you can see, there are many bikes in Amsterdam. it is said that there are about 2-3 times more bikes than people population in Amsterdam. Bikes have their designated paths on the roads.
Our 4-star hotel. what a good mix up! (:
More Amsterdam in the next post!
eugene
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