Hotel Golfzang Egmond aan Zee

... not only a good friend, but also a force of nature. He talks pretty much non-stop, which saves anyone else the trouble of doing so. We had planned a trip round the bulb-land area, followed by a visit to Linnaeushof, the largest children's playground in Europe. Unfortunately, the weather was worsening, if anything and the grey drizzle looked distinctly unappealing. We had a cup of tea and considered our options. A quick search on the ...

... trolleys, thus I have decided that biking in Amsterdam isn't for the faint of heart. Anyways, while my friends were on the canal ride, I took a bike ride through Vondel Park and the Lieder Square. I met up with them after their tour and followed them around the city on my bike. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner because Victoria is obsessed with them and insists that we go to them in each city we visit, it was very good. After dinner we went out to a pub ...

Coldest day yet on our trip today. Whew. I realized it about 2 mins into our walk along the canal. The wind was biting into our faces, poor Ben said his legs were cold through his pants. (His dirty sweats that were the last pair that were even wearable...laundry was due to be delivered at noon!) But we pushed on and made it to the Museumplein, where the huge Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum reside among some smaller art ...

... had been taken out (this was the dance floor) and the DJ sat on the alter and rocked the house.....ummm... I mean rocked the "church"! lol It was a little eerie in a way, since the stained glass windows and old balconies were still intact....so the coloured strobe lights were below the stained glass windows and everyone was dancing up a storm.... I mean come'on where else but in Amsterdam can you party it up in a ...

... bar was so good I partied there on two consecutive evenings until the wee hours. Drinks were cheap, the tunes were as good as anywhere I'd been on this entire trip and the staff was a lot of fun. For some reason on Friday night they were in the mood to party and I wasn't complaining. I took my place up at the small bar and enjoyed many a complimentary shot of Bols (I thought I was in for a major hangover but came out unscathed.) and several ...

... in the middle and yell these are human beings not objects, but I didn't. After wandering for a few hours we headed back to the small bar (The Gaeper) we started in and sampled some more local beers (La Chouffe), with the guide and some locals. We really didn't have enough time in Amsterdam to do much more. Chuong: I enjoyed what I saw of Amsterdam. Its streets are amazing and 3 blocks from the red light district, it was perfectly quiet. Daan too us along this road home and it was ...

Today was a long trip to the South East corner of the Netherlands. First stop was Hoensbroek Castle, a 17th Century castle with rooms set out with furniture etc as was 300 years ago and quite beautiful with Christmas decorations etc too. Afterwards it was a short drive to Drielandpunt. A point where the borders of the 3 countries meet, The Netherlands, Germany & Belgium. This is also the highest point in the Netherlands.

... the girls we had spent the previous evening with. We walked through the centre of Amsterdam, and down the Amstel canal (presumably the canal that Amsterdam is named after), and headed to the Van Gogh museum. We do like a bit of culture every now and again, and this museum certainly fitted the bill. It was really cool - this is the museum that holds the most pieces of Van Gogh's pieces, and also gives an extensive account of his life ...

... Netherland's. We crossed the Belgium border like we were crosing the street, no border checks, not even a sign! We kept asking ourselves if we really were in Belgium until we saw the bars that said "300 Belgium Beers" on the windows. Bryan is on a quest to try every single one of them, while I am swimming in the dreamy world of Godiva chocolate. We have been staying in hostels, camping and staying with ...

Click Here to see all our photos on our smugmug site. Once we stepped off the train in Amsterdam we knew that this wasn't the same kind of city we have been visiting so far. This town was a little more seedy with a whole different type of tourist. I had to smile when some Americans got on our train at the airport and started talking in their stoner/frat boy lingo, dropping the f-bomb every third word. One even had dreadlocks and a grateful dead tattoo on his calf. Come on ...