But we made it, and even though we didn't really look our best, at least we were on our way to Amsterdam!
After sleeping for about 2 hours we were at the white cliffs of Dover (which we couldn't really see because of the fog) to ride a ferry over to France. Then we drove through Calais in France, Belgium and finally into the Netherlands!
It was really weird arriving in the Netherlands because nothing was in English...everywhere else we had traveled to previously were mainly English speaking countries, so we had to get used to the fact that we couldn't read the menu in the restaurant we stopped at on our way to Amsterdam and that the garbage cans at McDonald's said "Dank U" instead of "Thank You"!
Our tour manager Daniel or AmsterDan as he suggested we called him was really young and knew a lot about the area, as did our bus driver Aerl (? I don't know if that's how you spell it). It definitely seemed like that has spent A LOT of time in the area. They used the word 'chill' a lot as well...
But on the first night they took us to the Red Light District, which is one of the reasons that Amsterdam is so famous. It was really strange to see hundreds of windows full of prostitutes and no one was acting like it was weird or anything. For them it was totally normal.
Entering the Red Light District
To get around in the city we couldn't use our coach, instead we had to use their form of public transportation, the tram. I definitely prefer using the tube, the tram made a couple of sketchy stops where everyone would fall into each other. It just wasn't all that smooth of a ride.
Our hotel was really nice though. It was a Best Western, which I thought was really weird. We hardly ever stay at Best Westerns in the States, but I come over to Amsterdam and that's where we stay. Crazy.
On Saturday, we went to a shop that makes cheese and clogs. It reminded me soooo much of Pella. We had a little tour of the facilities where they went through how they make both the cheese and the clogs, with a demonstration of the latter. Then we got to try SAMPLES!!! They had like 10 different kinds of cheeses, there was even one with HAM in it!! There were also some wine samples, so of course we tried everything...and then we had time to look through the huge gift shop. They had tons and tons of different painted clogs in every size imaginable for you to try and buy, but since I already have an amazing pair of my own I could skip that part. I did get a tiny wooden show key chain. It was just too cute!
Sights from inside the cheese and clog shop...
After we left the cheese and clog shop, we took a little tour of the city in our coach. It was amazing how Aerl could fit that huge bus down the tiniest side streets. I know that I would never have felt comfortable doing it...but they showed us the main attractions including several canals (there are 5000 in the city) and Anne Frank's house among other things.
Just some of the 5000 canals in the city
Once the main tour was done we also took another tour on a canal boat. AmsterDan told us it was a much better way to see the city and I believed him, especially after the bus squeezed through some of the smaller streets in the city. The tour took about an hour and gave you the views from the canals. On the canals themselves many people have parked their boats and there are also a lot of people living in houseboats along the water. I thought that was pretty cool, since they are facing a housing shortage, more and more people are choosing to live on the water. We ended the tour by going out on the bigger river and seeing the port. It was really pretty, I just wish it wouldn't have rained all day...my pictures would have been a little better.
Pictures from the canal tour
The rest of the day we spent walking around the city in the rain (which was sometimes pouring!!!). We took a bunch more pictures, but hardly any of their museums were free, unlike in London, so we didn't opt to go into too many places. And when we were finally soaked enough we took the tram back to our hotel to nap and warm up.
The last day of our tour was spent in Belgium! We went to Brugge, where we had a couple of hours to walk around and discover the city by ourselves. The city was small enough that we got a good sense of it from our short time there. We took a bunch more pictures and visited a couple churches...one of them even had an original Michelangelo statue. And of course the trip wouldn't have been complete if we didn't have a Belgium waffle, so we did.
Brugge!
Before we starting heading back to London, our guides to us to a cheap place where we could buy different chocolates. I didn't end up buying anything but I definitely had enough free samples to make up for that!
Right now we don't have anymore trips planned, but I hope to change that soon. I'm not sure where we are going to go next but these weekend trips are always so fun. It is nice to get out of London for a bit and enjoy another culture for awhile. I can't wait for my mom to get here! We are planning to go to Italy and Paris, and I am so excited for both of those places!!
I also got some good news today...I am finally starting my internship at HSBC tomorrow. I only had to wait for a month, go through a background check and sign a bunch of papers, but I am really excited and nervous about starting. I really hope it gives me some good experience for possible employment after I graduate this year. And I'm sure it will!! Its a huge company over here and all over the world, being a major bank. I can't wait!
Emily
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