Citadel Amsterdam

... pretty city with a few cool bridges and lots of cobblestone streets, before heading back into Amsterdam for the evening. We ate dinner out and had one last look around before calling it a night and heading back to Haarlem.
Unfortunately we had to keep moving to fit in a few major cities in the last few weeks so wesaid goodbye and after a quiet room, great food and fantastic hosts we resolved ourselves to sleeping in hostels ...

... after taking on a job as an Amsterdam alley-cat, a bicycle messenger on a mad rush speeded up by Mary-Jane, cold cans of Heineken stolen from clients`s fridges during deliveries, and the cackling voice from my portophone always reminding me off my haste but the 8.50 Dutch guilder an hour making long backpack trips in a farawayistan country somewhere in Southeast Asia pretty much an eutopia...

I cycled down ...

... a couple of beers fo helping them out at the check in. Given our previous encounter with weed in the Dam, we were a lot less keen, but went along anyway to keep them company. After a while we parted ways with the Italian lads and headed back the Amsterdam Centraal to join one of the guided tours through the red light dirstrict of town. We hadn’t even realised our hostel was in the red light district! We walked right past it on the tour. After the tour, we stayed on in a pub for ...

... is short lived for some, others get caught up in it for a long time. It is a beautiful city, I'd like to return when i have the funds to take the canal tour, stay in a nicer hotel and get into the art museums...

camera update: battery and charger mailed Thurs, should take 5 days.

this weekend: hopefully Prague, maybe Switzerland.

Tuesday: we travel to Wolfs burg to tour the Volkswagen Factory, should be cool.

... I saw a guy roll a joint on the seat of his motorcycle while our tour guide was talking to us ... Crazy! Afterward, we headed back to Leiden. The dutch are known for their pancakes, so decided to stop for sustenance. The pancakes are somewhere in between crepes and American pancakes in thickness, but are the size of a platter. They're not sweet, and they put just ...

... along the Prinsenrgracht canal south to Rozengracht , east almost to Dam Square then back north to Tower Bridge where the namesake of our hotel has a statue, through the pedestrian ...

... to explain so I have included this link so that you can get an idea of the city. http://images.worldres.com/search/lang1 /map_amsterdam.png Everyone - and I mean everyone - rides bikes. Its madness. You really have to look where you're going ...

... District while the coach returned to the hotel. About half the coach got out at the stop. Several of us started out to the RLD - the family with the 3 boys, Nora, Amanda & Bryan, us, and another couple. Saw some seedy stuff and Nora and the family turned back. That left just the 3 couples who decided to stick it out. The other couple was Bruce and Suzanne from Sydney, Australia. Beautiful ...

... perfectly still actors who suddenly came to live when you walked passed them. There was also a karaoke corner and some other interactive games as well as a gift shop. Next stop: coffee shops...what else? We chose the Bulldog Coffee Shop chain and I believe we did good. Coffee shops are nothing like what I expected them to be. I guess I was expecting dirty places full of zombies that spend their day chasing the dragon on the same chair. I couldn't be further from ...