European Vacation Day 14 - Berlin to Amsterdam

There were a lot of hungover people on the bus today. It was the nightlife tour of Berlin last night, and we had an early 7.30 start to our trip to Amsterdam. A lot of them were very chipper as we left, but they crashed very quickly and the bus was full of sleeping people for the first few hours. Had a great vege burger (the Garden Burger) at Burger King, wish they had them in the UK.

At about 6pm we arrived at a cheese and clog factory where we found out how these were made (sadly no clog shaped cheeses) by a very eccentric guy, who speaks very good mandarin.

crazy cheese/clog guy

so many clogs

After this we carried on into Amsterdam to our hotel, which is a frickin’ boat! Our Botel is parked on the north side of the harbour and it is a 10 minutes free ferry ride to Centraal Station.

I can’t stand boats and get seasick very easily. So far it is OK and I’ll be sleeping for most of the time we are on it, but it is very weird. Particularly as there is a submarine called Psycho Cowboy parked about 30 metres outside our window.

the good ship Psycho Cowboy

We got the ferry into town and walked with the others to the Red Light District where they were all going to a sex show (one of the few optional we didn’t go for). We left them and went to get some dinner. We went to our favourite restaurant from the last time we were here in 1999, Le Bolhoed (the Bowler Hat). I made a tactical error by suggesting we check out another restaurant nearby, which turned out to be a 10 minute walk away. By the time we got to it it was 9pm and J was starving so we just decided to eat there. The food was not great but edible. Hoping we will make it to the Bolhoed for lunch tomorrow. It was the first non-UK vege restaurant we ever went to and we have great memories of it.

canals and bikes, that's Amsterdam!

We walked back to the ferry terminal where we met some of the Aussie guys who were at the show. They said it was mostly ugly girls dancing badly, and then taking their clothes off. They did say it was funny though, hopefully intentionally.

evening at the Botel

Amsterdam is the only place we have been to before on this trip, and it doesn’t seem to have changed too much in the 11 years since we were last here. Back then the Heineken Brewery Tour was closed, so hopefully we’ll get to see that tomorrow. [we didn’t go in the end.]

We’ve got a cycling tour tomorrow morning and I hate bikes almost as much as I hate boats, so that should be interesting.

Oh, and I learned today that if you look at a 7-segment LCD display and eat a crisp, the display appears to ripple! Apparently J has known this for years, but it seems to have escaped me until now. What an amazing world we live in!