Europe Trip - Amsterdam Day 2

Hotel lobby & counter

Very elegant right?
The rooms are small and simple, good enough for me to rest
the only complain about the hotel is the staircase, very narrow & steep

This day is the only day we join a local tour (Excursion) throughout the trip.
We joined the trip visiting to countryside

It's a day trip, we need to go to the Diamond Factory to meet the tour guide

Spaghetti breakfast @ the train station
we were afraid we will be late to catch the tram to Diamond Factory, so, we decided to take breakfast near there

The big wooden shoe outside the Diamond Factory

The tour guide met us on time and we traveled by bus. On the way, the guide sort of explained and introduced a lot, somemore speaking in 3 languages, English, Dutch and Spanish... it was quite boring, I fell asleep until we reached Zaanse Schans an hour later.

He said, nowadays in Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans is the only place which still has the working old-fashioned windmill.

Du... those are the windmills

Nice sky, nice bridge, nice girls... hehe

1st, we were led to cheese factor
this lady showing us how Dutch make cheese

The young cheese, the darker the colour, the older the cheese

All sort of cheese, too bad, I'm not a big fan of cheese

The young cashier with traditional Dutch costume
She was new, and when Liang paid for his cheese, her hands shivered while handing the change to him, hehe so cute...

Very cute windmill

Can't have enough snapping of windmill, so classic and vintage, as if I have traveled to the past.

The owner of this windmill
see, he is wearing the traditional wooden shoes, he is very friendly, taking pictures with all of us. he was there because he need to adjust the windmill to the direction of the wind.
We were asking him, is it comfortable in the wooden shoes? he said:" not in 1 day or 1 month." means for him, he has already used to it.
he said averagely, he will need to change a new pair after 3 months, because the base will become thinner as he wear it everyday.

Am I look like a Dutch milk lady?

Yo... this sheep so scary... the head looked like skull

Next station, the tour guide brought us to wooden clog factory...

haha, we were in super big wooden shoes, yellow the the pattern are the traditional design.

The visit was quite short, as there's nothing much to see, mostly for us to buy some souvenir there only.

When we were about to leave, at the entrance there were some local children games
you know how to walk in these?

Then the tour guide brought us to a water village, i can't remember the name of the place already, but all houses are built by small small canals.

A very unique bridge
it is very steep, about 45 degree I think
instead of saying "cross" the bridge, I think it's more appropriate to us "climb" across the bridge

Some shop lots in the water village, but mostly closed, because it was Sunday.

Boats at every back door of the house
one of their frequent used transportation

Next - LUNCH
we were starving already.

We had our lunch @ Volendam - a fishing village

what's good to eat there? Fish n Chips la

After lunch, there's still plenty (actually not a lot) of time for us to walk around, I was hesitating to rent a traditional costume and take picture in one of the shop, but it was really very expensive, some more I'm the only one interested to do, so at the end, just gave up the thought, but rewarding myself a scoop of movenpick ice-cream. hehe

I think only the yellow skin always like to take pictures here and there, because I see other tourists which are white and black, they follow instruction very well. why did I say so? because we nearly miss our boat to another village.
we were too busy with photo taking, the tour guide already told us to be on board at __pm (i forgot what's the time d), so, we got to run to catch the boat.
the amazing part is, the tour guide didn't do head count one, but yet, all of us manage to be on board.

yeah, in the boat d... so crowded @ the deck which is open air, where only a few ppl sitting inside.

Liang's parents and Qiaoyi's mother are one of the few people.
yeah, they enjoy the view too...

A group photo in Amsterdam

We landed in another village, which I have no idea where was it, because the tour guide speak a few language, sometimes, just differentiate which language was he talking at the moment, so, we mostly discover the place by ourselves.

Pink poppy, very beautiful

A ball of roses, so pretty!

After this village, we thought the bus will brought us back to Amsterdam, so, all of us had fallen asleep in the bus while the tour guide kept talking talking... what a good lullaby...

Then, the bus stop, tour guide ask us to get down. What we see is a highway with no end both side, and a thin but not so tall building. we were wondering what can we see there?

Actually, we can climb up this building to see the sea level on both side of the highway
I didn't climb up because was too lazy.
but I think it's still amazing to see both side of the sea have different sea level and the highway which Liang said it was so straight until "your mom also can't recognize you", means straighter than ruler

The highway has a name, but I have forgotten
It was build to avoid floor, because the city is very low, and some places even below sea level, that's why we can see 2 different sea level on both side of the highway
the project is very amazing...

The couple & the highway

A memorial to those who had sacrificed their life in building this highway

ok, it's really a long day, and time to get back
When we reach Amsterdam, sky started drizzling, so, some of us actually planning to go back to hotel to rest but wailoong n his mom wish to do a last minute shopping, yeah, I joined them too...
but in minutes, rain stopped, so, the rest joined us!

You know, trip to Amsterdam won't be complete if you didn't visit to their sex museum, Liang and Wailoong went in before, and we don't think that those parents like this idea, so, me and Qiaoyi have decided to left those parents to the guys and we both visit to sex museum.

Frankly speaking, although the entrance ticket isn't very expensive (only 3 euro per pax), but the museum is very disappointing. It has a lot of porn pictures inside and some sculpture, that's it. Sigh... we are science students, of course we have seen all these...

In just 30 minutes, we have already seen everything and joined back the group

Silly us in silly glasses
is there any meaning behind for these glasses? why every souvenir stores are selling these?

That's the end of our Amsterdam trip... the next day we will be in London again.

Amsterdam, I'll be back...

Europe Trip - Amsterdam Day 1

Has not update this blog for quite some time... let's continue with my Europe Tour diary...

After Paris, we were going to Amsterdam. The reason I choose Amsterdam is because, since young, I mean in my high school time, I was told, Amsterdam is the lowest city in the world, and, if global warming continue, this city will soon emerge in water. So, before this day happen, I always wanted to go there. Another reason is, I love tulip, but before we go, I have checked, tulip season has over, too bad...

Before leaving for Amsterdam, let's take a photo with the hotel that we stayed in Paris

Part of our luggage, some we left @ Glasgow

me @ Gare du Nord,
train station connecting London, Amsterdam, Belgium...

Train that we were taking to Amsterdam was booked from Rail Europe, if not mistaken the train is called Thalys.

Although Thalys is not as best as Eurostar (I think), but overall, the journey was still a pleasant one. The train stopped quite a number of time, for passenger to get down to various station, including couple of stations in Belgium.

Finally... finally, we touched down in Amsterdam... as I have limited information about Amsterdam, we didn't quite sure where were our hotel, and were not quite sure what are we going to do in Amsterdam, but, Amsterdam do have many ready-made day tour, so, we decided to book one for the next day, as that's the only full day we will be in Amsterdam, we couldn't afford to waste any minute :)

Our hotel is few roads from the train station, no public transportation needed, we just walked. Although all the street name are not easy to understand and remember, but the Dutch speak English very well... at least we still can ask...

We put down our luggage and that's time for lunch

My first lunch in Amsterdam - bacon burger

After lunch, we decided to walk around, Heineken factory & Hard Rock are in our list

The tram @ Amsterdam

Then we saw this shop... guess what is it?
It's burgers/ sandwishes dispensary machine!

Visited to the tourism centre to book our trip to see windmill the next day
Everything is online, actually we can also pre-book it in KL, because we already have some idea in mind, so, the process was very smooth and fast

Elmo... my favorite character in Sesame Street!

Street performer
what a strange instrument

Environmental friendly taxi
it's bicycle actually

Nice back street with graffifi

Bus stop... is the grey thing a chair for passenger?

Bicycle everywhere...
Next time, I mean if I got the chance again, will definately choose this as my transportation

Tourist bus

A lot of ppl chilling out by the canal

We too... chilled out there

Watching different boats (small, medium, big) passerby

Restaurant by the canal

Big one

Small one

This guy is good looking right?
He was browsing the old records @ this second hand shop (I think)

Not sure if this is the factory, but we were there, in a shop full of Heineken!

Camwhoring myself infront of a green mirror

Camwhoring in one of the gaming room in the shop

This wall is amazing...
It is using refrigerator concept, condense the vapor in the air and form this logo. The ice will only melt if they turn off the electricity... cool!

Agree!

Me & Liang's punya Heineken

Both of us like this pizza very much... value for money...

Wow... the strawberries are bigger than our noses

Something is on... we are not that busy body, so, we didn't go to find out what

While on the way to Hard Rock, we saw this - Public toilet for men ONLY.... in the middle of the road
guys, dare to try out?

photo with lizard...
not that daring la me, they are just cement statue

First dinner @ Amsterdam
Chinese food again

The restaurant was very nice to ladies, whoever walk out from the restaurant, ahem, ladies only, the waiter/ waitress will hand a rose to her... so sweet... at least from this gesture, I think, Amsterdam is more romantic than Paris...

After sending Qiaoyi & Liang's parents back to hotel, we, the young one, decided to explore the red-light district
A bit scary at the beginning, because I didn't know what will happen but after walking few streets in that area, it's actually quite interesting and safe... as long as you didn't do "funny" things or kacau them la.

Me @ one of the street in red light district

Me & Qiaoyi were quite tired after the visit to red light, so we decided to head back to hotel straight while the guys didn't want to miss any opportunity to get cheap beer

Heineken Extra Cold
The guys tried this, and I tried it the next day!

The beer was so cold until you see? a thin layer of ice form on top of the beer...

woo hoo... so looking forward to the next day... wind mill, here we come!