Day 16 - Tuesday
27 Sept Amsterdam 20 degrees
Today we are in Amsterdam. After breakfast
we have a canal tour and a trip to the flower market. After the beautiful towns
of Prague, Hungary, Austria and Germany, Amsterdam feels dirty, cheap and
overcrowded. As we cruise along the canal we pass bicycle parking stations which house 100s of bikes. When walking along the streets you need eyes everywhere to avoid the bikes! The flower market is particularly sleazy. It reminds us of
Swanston Street. We do find some nicer and trendier shops on our walk back to
the bus. After lunch Ann and I walk back into the city for a bit of exercise.
It is a short walk back and we end up in the red light district and see some of
the early shift. Not a pretty sight. After dinner we head back again into town
and pick up a few other travellers who weren’t sure of the way. A lovely night
but still crowded. The smell of marijuana fills the air. There are plenty of
red lights and girls of all sizes and ages, all wearing fluro bras and
knickers, sitting or standing in small glass fronted rooms advertising their wares. When engaged they retire to a back room to you know what. Gets boring after a while and we head back to the ship for last
drinks.
1 comment:
Sad to believe our first river cruise experience is nearing an end. Agree with John that Amsterdam first impressions were not great. There were cigarette butts and litter everywhere. The weather being overcast didn’t help, it all seemed a bit grey. The canal tour was informative, but the barge was not one you would write home about, half seats faced backwards and no glass roof, so necks got a bit strained, this aside, we saw heaps. Saw Anne Frank house and other houses that seem to lean into the streets with their hooks used to lift items into the houses second levels. When we went onto the harbour proper, it was a bit scary as there were very large ships and tankers moving into the harbour versus our little canal boat. Streets seem narrow and crowded, the light rail is very close to bike lanes and pedestrian areas. Our bus did a U-turn and had a slight accident which delayed us a little bit. The flower market was a bit of a disappointment as the things that were interesting, you could not bring back into Australia. Back on the Pearl, we have lunch and start to pack. After dinner, we walk back into city to see the Red Light district. We happen across Miss Piggy and co (cheese platter/mini skirt Miss Piggy) We all ventured into the district of lovely (?????) ladies, and nothing to write home about, but at least we can say we saw it (and there were lots of “it’s”)
Lots of comments and laughs as we head back for our final nightcap on board.
Just another guuuuuuuuuuuuud day. (Copyright Yvonne)
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