Cruising the world

After a discussion with a few mates from NZ, it was decided (by James) that a group trip to Amsterdam for the next person in line for a birthday (Julie) would be a good idea. So we organised a group and booked flights and accommodation and headed for Amsterdam the last weekend in October. Friday night was spent travelling over with Hayley and Kirk. Although the flight was quick (approximately two hours long) the taxiing along the runway was a good 10 minutes just to get to our terminal! We arrived at our hotel after a little confusion about what direction the trams were heading in-with one driver not answering James’ question saying ‘just jump in’…so he got out! Subsequently that tram was heading the opposite direction, so it was a good thing. We managed to find our hotel and check in, greeting Alan and Greg before heading to bed. Saturday we meet up with Jayne, Alan and Greg at breakfast and then headed for a meeting spot beside a canal to meet up with a friend from Rotterdam, Arjan. James got quite excited to see some tulips, telling me all about it and making sure my photo was taken with some…with the local florist rolling his eyes as if to say ‘tourists!’ We spent the day catching up at a coffee house and then on a wee pub crawl to pass the hours. We managed to wander through the red light district in the afternoon, which was quite surprising to see girls standing in these small rooms with big glass windows wearing as little as possible, smiling and trying to entice the men in. And such a variety of women, young and older, in all shapes and sizes. Quite a different scene to the red light district of Thailand! After this we headed for an irish bar where we were early for a couple more drinks. We then decided it was time to eat so we headed to this yummy restaurant down the road from our hotel where they had the best spare ribs! We then wandered back through the red light district to see it at night - again fascinating! On Sunday a late start after breakfast we walked to the Heineken factory where we toured through it and got two free Heinekens. They have done this very well and it is very interactive and a cool place to visit! Then it was off to the airport for us all except Greg and Alan who stayed on for another day. We definitely plan to go back to Amsterdam and have proper look around, do the tourist thing. This time around was about the greenery and the cake.