Amsterdam and Halloween

        

 

Hello Everyone,                           

I want to wish you all a very Happy Halloween even though I haven`t prepared a special entry for it apart from some seasonal graphics. I will however, be telling all about our trip to Amsterdam and I hope you like the photos I took there.  More of which will follow in my next entry.

      

 

 

We had a nice easy flight there without any delays.  When we reached Schipol airport we were advised to take the train into the city where it was only a five minute walk to out hotel.  The public transport systenm there is second to none, with trains, trams and buses all running at 10 minute intervals.  They certainly put us to shame.  We checked in to our hotel quickly but we were disappointed with our room.  The hotel is an old ferry that has been refurbished into a `Botel`, a good idea but they should have done somethiung about the beds, ours were hard as rock and very narrow.  I nearly fell out one night and Jim has a bad back, also there was no coffee making facilities either, we were not impressed.

       

Amsterdam is a wonderful place which more than made up for out uncomfortable sleeping arrangements.  The city is full of canals and winding streets, a mixture of very old and very modern, but like nothing we have here at home.  It`s a hustling, bustling place where everyone is in a hurry and woe betide if you get in their way, we soon learned to jump to one side or get knocked over!  There are bicycles everywhere, they have there own cycle lanes and they don`t stop for anyone, another reason to be quite nimble on your feet.  There are so many bars and restaurants that you are spoiled for choice as to where you eat.  We found a lovely little place that did the best Dutch sirloin steak in mushroom sauce, it must be the best steak I`ve ever eaten, absolutely delicious.

We explored the streets on Friday afternoon until we got our bearings.  On Saturday we walked across the city to the Anne Frank Museum and we found it a tremendously moving experience.  We were shown the original diaries that she wrote while she was hiding from the Germans along with her family and the Van Pels family.  We saw film fottage about Auswitz and Bergen Belson where Anne herself died just a few weeks before liberation.  Jim and I had tears in our eyes as we climbed into the Franks hiding place behind the movable bookcase.  The living quarters were so cramped, it seems beyond belief that two families lived there for over three years until they were betrayed by persons unknown.  After that we walked back down town to buy some trainers, our feet were very sore as we didn`t realise that we would have been doing quite so much walking!  In the afternoon we took a trip on a canal boat to see more of the city in comfort while we snapped photo after photo.  We enjoyed every minute of Saturday, if you can bear it you can hear all about Sunday in my next entry...lol!

          

Have a lovely evening and watch out for spooks, witches and werewolves...lol!

 

Cheerio for now  :o)