Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a beautiful city. After spending a night in the airport in Rome sleeping on benches made of steel and worn out padding it was nice to arrive in a place that seemed a little closer to home. Let me explain, Amsterdam is still Europe, but moving around via public transport is ten times easier when you can read the the maps and instructions and ask question sin english, which means that getting to the hotel is expedited and the bullshit is cut and I can nap in a real bed quicker.

And what a hotel we had. Really I am going to credit the fond memories I take from this city to the comfortable hotel. It was clean, super helpful staff and you got two fried eggs for breakfast. Really it blew most super eights out of the water. We liked it so much that we stayed for the entire week. That decision was also influenced by our desire not to lug our back packs around anymore, as they are heavy and quite full of god knows what. We enjoyed staying still after being on the move for so long. And as I stated above, Amsterdam is a beautiful city so it was an easy place to stick around.

Cruising European cities is fun. You never seem to be in a car, mostly on foot but in the case of this city you get bikes.

We got our bicycles for a few days and covered a heap of ground. We saw the sites, Vondelpark, the canals, the Van Gogh museum, pubs and coffee shops. It was just a nice and cruisey week to end our trip in Europe. Amsterdam was a shopping mecca, if you had all the cash in the world you could probably get rid of it there in a hurry. We didn't have much money so we just got tipsy at the pubs and watch people inclusive of the good and bad street performers.

We even saw one street performer, a fire dancer, that was so horrible it reminded me of GOB from Arrested Development, he did not get any of my spare Euros.

Once we had enough to drink we would take a walk through the Red Light District and get into some serious people watching. A sleazy, yet heavily controlled so you felt safe, area full of all walks of life. I have seen some different places in my 30 years but this zone of sin again is an eye opener. Our favorite place to have a beer was a pub called the Old Sailor right in the hub of it all.

I'll say it again Amsterdam is a beautiful city but eating out can get a bit out of control once and while...