Bastion Amsterdam-Centrum

... the next train to Amsterdam without me having had anything to eat since breakfast and the train had a cafe cart without any sandwiches.

The trip to Amsterdam was very scenic- very flat, bike tracks everywhere through the farmland and of course windmills and dykes. We caught the tram to our hotel which is a typical city hotel. The first thing you notice about Amsterdam, other than the canals and old buildings is that everyone rides bikes even mothers with 2 children manage ...

... constantly battling to keep people from standing at the bar in front of Witek, so before the first bounce we decided that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em and we went and stood at the bar ourselves and relinquished our armchairs. It turned out ok as we were next to a fellow Bomber supporter and a guy from Adelaide who supported the Crows.

The bar was packed, I couldn’t believe how many people were there! It was a fantastic atmosphere with a rowdy ...

... had a few options. In the end we picked the *******e and decided to walked up the 553 stairs of the Cathedral. The walk was well worth it, the Cathedral is quite dirty though and of course there was scaffolding as they were cleaning parts of the Church.
We raced off and had lunch of Bratwurst and pizza bread sharing both. A quick walk up and down, with photos of the Cathedral and a cool fountain, and we were back to the bus to hop back on and head on to Amsterdam. We got to ...

... to eat and enjoyed our last meal in Amsterdam. It was really expensive, like everything here, but worth our time and money.

Final thoughts on the Amsterdam experience: This place deserves a return visit. There is far more to see and do here than one could ever hope to accomplish in just a day. On the other hand, we could start giving tours to strangers tomorrow. Want to go? Give one of us a call and book an extra plane ticket ...

... was hinged to hide the fact stairs are behind it. Steep stairs you climb as its one of many pinch myself moments.

Frank Otto gave Anne this diary when she turned 13. She recorded their lives in hiding.I remember reading about her hearing the bells ring in the distance. As we were in the attic, the bells chimed and my heart skipped a beat.
I am here. This is not a ...

... Saturday night, I thought that would be the best time to visit the renowned red light district. So armed with the map provided to me at the hotel I set off to see what it was all about wondering how seedy it would be. I was actually pleasantly surprised. Yes, there are near naked girls standing in glass doorways soliciting business from the passing men, but for some reason it just didn't feel seedy. Everything is clean and, as it was Saturday night ...

... disturbing. Many of the photos had to do with spanking, oral sex or menage au trois, but one in particular had children in it---obviously made for pedophiles. Sad. I guess that has been going on longer than my brain wanted to admit. The ticket was only five euro and that is about all the tour was worth. I had tea at the Waag, which is historically the 15th century city gate. It is a large castle-like building that used to be the only way in and out of the city before ...

... through all of the 6 continents. And hopefully, finally back to The Hague, The Netherlands. That is why this project is called Travel 2.0. It is called Travel 2.0 because it is a user generated way of travelling. We travellers together make up this great and fantastic tour with this blog as evidence of our journey. In this blog, we can read eachother's stories, and we know that we were part of it too! So here it goes: I am the first traveller ...

... 40 minutes with one train stop over. We had a bit of a walk around and tried the patate frites - dutch version. By the time we get home we are going to be oversized frites experts I'm sure. So far Belguim is looking ahead in the frites department. We then went out for lunch at a steak house restaurant and went for the Amsterdam version of the free tour (same company as in Paris). It was a really good tour. We learnt a lot about Netherlands history, about the miracle of ...

... the Drumbo Brown Blues Band with Mark Ritsema, the Detroit Cobras, Dell Stewart, Charlie Parker, the Coasters, Connie Allen with Todd Rhodes & His Toddlers, Archibald, Dr. John, and a Mardi Gras Tune Feature produced by David Kunian & Bill Taylor. Playlist #124 [01] Opening Music: Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Blackbird Special [02] Intro, ID, Comments & Opening Tokes by John Sinclair [03] Dinah Washington: Fast Movin' Mama [04] Alma Mondy: Baby Get ...