Anno 1685 Amsterdam

... I am pretty sure she'll do it, and pull it off". :D

It has taken numerous emails to arrange our tailor made holiday... we've had near fights with Rwandair Express after they tried to rip us off (emails ending in "I'm more than happy to speak to your supervisor if need be" were sent). Echalotte quit calling me Tournesol and instead went for The General at one point. We had breakfast meetings where we discussed our "top 3 for the Kilimanjaro area" and assigned tasks on who ...

today we toured Amsterdam city by foot and also by canal boat. I don't think vthis city is a nice as Paris.....still have to be careful ...lots of pick pockets around.

Our boat met us again in a town called UTRECHT.

WE ENJOYED A GREAT EVENINGS ENTERTAINMENT ON BOARD AFTER DINNER

a 3 piece string concert by LA strada....they were excellent.

also had our evacuation drill this afternoon.

... the songs!!! That certainly made the 4 1/2 hour ride less painful. Only one more day where we're on the bus, like, forever...and that is when we go from Bruges to Paris.

Tomorrow, we go to see a cheese making factory and we're gonna see how they make clogs! (Diana!!!) Then, we're going to the Anne Frank house where she hid from the Nazis. Awesome. After that, we ...

... where we could buy our Strip Ticket for the trams. This was also a little complex and probably would have been worth the extra few euros to buy individual tickets, but I was pretty proud of us for navigating the system and getting on the right tram to Leidseplein.

Lugging our suitcases on the tram was no fun, but it was a short trip and we were listening intensely to the stops called out and reading the ...

... Museum/house is well worth a visit - it contains the real diary as an exhibit and a number of short films explaining Amsterdam in WW2 and the Frank Family. Otto Frank discovered the diary post war and subsequently had it published. We made some purchases at the Museum Gift Shop and all agreed it was a great visit. We walked about the city for a couple of hours and checked out some shops. We got lost in the Blue Zone of town and also ...

... in Haarlem" http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-en tries/pwong/belgium_2007/1177407720/tpo d.html?tweb_UID=pwong ) The moment wasn't the same this time, but still beautiful, nonetheless. It was simply too loud ... but still worth a try! The bread's crust was too crisp, and seemed to shatter in my mouth. This is the first time that I can describe bread as being something that could do that! The flavour was still great, and especially good with ...

... at the train station so we could do some real site seeing in Holland. Our first stop was the Anne Frank House. This was by far my favorite museum of my European trip-mostly because I knew how real it was and I knew about the story before I set foot in the building. We got to see the bookcase that moved to reveal the hidden attic and walk through all the rooms that Anne herself stayed in for 2 years during the war. It was a really touching experience and a quote at the end of ...

... and always being in fear of being caught and killed for 3 years. in the end, they were caught, ratted out by a Dutchman working with the Germans and Ann Frank died in Auschwitz only 1 month before the war ended. only Otto Frank, the dad, survived and once he realized the rest of his family was dead, a lady that helped hide them gave him Ann Frank's diary that she had found. in her diary, Ann Frank says she wants to be a journalist and ...

... drinking holiday than a spotting holiday to me! Anyway, we had dinner at the panoramic restaurant and then went back to our etap hotel, where I was given the bunk bed and my dad got the ...

... just to i thought make the day more funny. I decide to get the strong reefers, the white widows. Got a 4 pack. Lit it up. It was nice tasting. Had 2 and i was feeling strange. Thought id better go up and buy more while i was still sane. Could not walk. But somehow bought extra and sat back down. By the time i had 4 i was tripping. I got the idea to write stuff down but the writing was coming out of the page. My mind was thing 2000 thoughts at once and i couldnt ...