Campanile Hotel Amsterdam

... Europe to pay for the toilet but it’s rare to pay when you are a customer!

We were both a bit tired after this so we headed back to our hotel and hit the sack.

Sunday 27th September – Day 3 – It was a pretty late night last night and we needed a sleep in. We decided to skip breakfast in favour of more sleep, only to be woken by the girls next to us again! They started their racket at about 9am and by 11:30am we gave up and got out of bed.
Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands kimmykak

... it. You must go one by one and read their stories. Reading the pages of Anne’s diary, though I have before, reminded me that she was just a girl with the same hopes and dreams and fears as any of us. She was not a part of the masses. None of them were. They were all scared as hell to die and every lost one hurt the same as any loved one any of us lose. And you think, what if I were just carted off one day and gassed to death? It’s a pretty scary ...

... off and watch.
16) Break dancing is still boring, get back on the bus and head north again. Gonna be late for dinner.
17) making good time, decide to get off again and walk the city. Huge mistake, my path to central station takes me through the high end shopping district. Just my luck, my last walk and I have to dodge shoppers walking with huge bags of clothes.
18) Finally make Central at 8:05, get Andy on the cell phone and get ...

... communicator of course and USD 150 000 expense account for Ghanaian clothes (Palin will never live that down except that she cannot see Ghana from her window!). I now understand how exhausted Obama must have been on the campaign trail I tell you  But I have the spiel down to 5 minutes so bring it on - Ms Wadz the next candidate - YES WE CAN - just kidding there's no drinking time - NO WE CAN'T - all this having to remain compos mentis rubbish I like hazy.   

... gets 'like' used in 'like' every possible sentence. Good bye little blue bus, we like really had a great time, 'like whatever'!! We arrived in Amsterdam in the worst weather we had had for the entire three months in Europe. We were told that this was not unusual since the Netherlands has approximately 300 rainy days a year. This just meant that we had to drag our bags through about six or seven block to our accommodation in the pouring rain. The apartment ...

Well, not much to report here. Holland America did their usual excellent job of getting people from the ship to the airport and we boarded our plane back to LAX without incident. We again sat in the upper area of the plane on the KLM flight and had very attentive service. Got another ...

... he shared enthusiatically. He told me of the sub-sea-level areas and what used to be the sea. He told me of the engineering marvels of the Dutch, that ONESCA is considering adding the canals of Amsterdam as the 8th wonder of the world (compairing the engineering to the Great Wall and the Pyramids.) I could have talked all night with Osam. He catches me offguard with his generousity and helpfulness. I keep thinking there is something ulterior going on...can the Dutch really be this kind?

... canals and bridges (there boats and long...) is awesome! sometimes we were within 10 inches of the canal walls! After the quick shopping detour...I headed back to the hostel..where I had a friend, Nadir waiting (medical student from Libya). Nadir and me had decided to meet at 7.00 PM and then explore the night life of the city together...We headed towards the central, older parts of the city and also passed by the infamous red light district...the red light ...

... window in their bathing suits. That's it. It's actually very strange, but it's cleaner than Vegas! The government oversees the entire industry, and the girls have strict rules regarding their behavior, safety, medical testing, etc. etc. Oh yes, and they have to pay taxes! Most of the girls were not so attractive, so Jose and I had a good time wondering how they got any business! There were a few girls thought that looked barely 18.....and you had ...

... it was a bit chilly!

On our last day we enjoyed the popular "Body Worlds" exhibit, which was in Amsterdam for another few weeks. When I first heard of this endeavor, in which real bodies are preserved and used for anatomical models in a art exhibit, I was pretty freaked out! However, after seeing it for myself I would recommend everyone to check it out. It is not scary, but on the contrary fascinating and incredible how they have done their ...