Amsterdam, London, and beyond...

  Marrakech, Morocco
Monday, August 4, 2008

We have been a bit busier in the last couple of weeks. From Paris we caught the fast train to Amsterdam where we stayed at The Crooked House for 4 nights, which actually was crooked!

The Crooked House

The ground in Amsterdam is always shifting with the high water table and it was on a huge lean. Inside nothing was square, and I thought of Dad (Tony) and how it would have been his worst nightmare. Amsterdam is a really nice city and has a really good feel to it. It isnt very big at all and everyone rides old granny bikes around. We hired some and joined in cycing around the city checking out the sights (such as the red light district, which wasnt as crazy as one would imagine).

Red Light District by day, and an Amsterdam canal

We also killed a day on the buses checking out some of the small towns around Amsterdam, including Edam where they make Edam cheese. It wasnt all cool as it seemed and all of the cheesy goodness couldnt stop it from sucking though.

From there we flew to London. We flew with Ryan Air, which is a budget airline from hell, and they flew out of Eindhoven which is an hour and a half out of Amsterdam. Our flight was at 9.20am and there wasnt any budget hostels or hotels there so we decided a good idea to save money would be to go down late that night and hide in the airport until the flight. Well, we turn up at Eindhoven at 11ish and catch the bus out to the airport only to find the whole place is closed, the lights off, and the doors locked. So we go back into town and sit down at the train station to formulate a plan/hold out till morning. Then at 1.30am they kick us out and lock the place up. So Lisa is freaking out and so we go to a couple of hotels but none have any vacancies, so we sit down across the road from the train station which was in the nightlife area of town. Then it started to rain. This was at about 2.30ish and the first bus out to the airport was in 4 hours time, so we found a balcony and sat and waited to get rolled by a homeless person (please dont freak out parents!). It all worked out and we got the hell outa there.

In London we were in a big hostel. The weather was unseasonbly hot, and the hostel even hotter.

In the tardis in London

We checked out the main sights like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment, the British Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and took a ride on the London Eye.

The Thames and London Eye

We then picked up a hire car and drove out to the countyside to a town called Calne near Bath. We stayed at a little B and B which was a really nice change to the hostels. We seen Bath, Stonehenge, the Avebury Circle, and Oxford while we were there. The funny thing about Stonehenge is it costs 3pounds to park there which is refunded when you buy a ticket to get in which is 6.50pounds (double $australian plus a but more). Once your in you have to stay outside of the roped off area which is at its closest about 15m from the stones. Needless to say we parked up the road, walked back and took some photos over the fence...

Stonehenge=disapointing

Now we are in Marrakech in Morocco. And what a culture shock it is (the biggest since we were in Cambodia). We are in the Medina, which is the old city, and it is like a maze of small alleys, market stalls, and butchers selling wierd and wonderfull stuff. We have already been lost, and a really nice guy got us back on track, but not until after taking us through a heap of small streets (where we were waiting to be robbed) and demanded a heap of money!

Marrakech=wow