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!

Europe Trip - Paris Day 3

Final day in Paris...

Actually the hotel that we stayed has cafeteria and their breakfast was only 5 euro per person (if I'm not mistaken). From the first day we stayed in, we already decided to have the breakfast there one of the morning. So, last day already, gotta be that morning.

Very simple breakfast... all sort of bread (free flow), all sort of jams, butters, cheese, chocolate and tea and coffee
compare to the breakfast that we normally take, ie nasi lemak, noodles, dim sum... obviously, our breakfast have more choices and more interesting!

Then, we decided to go up to Eiffel Tower. Actually the night before we (at least myself) were struggling shall we go to see the beautiful Eiffel Tower with light on again? But end up, we were too exhausted, we ended up in bed instead.

Before leaving this city, we gotta at least say a proper goodbye to Eiffel Tower

The legs of Eiffel Tower
That day was very windy and thick clouds in the sky
While queuing for ticket, I enjoyed seeing the movement of clouds, they were fast!

Although the queue was very long, but in short while, we already in the ticket counter. We were thinking, shall we told the cashier we were students? Ya, we looked young in their eyes.
When we were talking to the cashier, we forgot to mention, then when she collected the money from us, we were thinking, shall we cheat? But ended up, she didn't believe us, so, mission failed. hahaha
We are just not a professional liar...

I'm quite excited about going up and yea, quite scary too although I know the lift should be very very safe.

In seconds, we were already at the waist of the tower. Wow... what a magnificent view from there... Paris is so packed and congested, all the building, houses are very crowded, and I noticed that Paris does not has a lot of tall building and does not has a lot of greenery.

From there, I was trying to locate some famous attractions that we read from books.

A building with gold roof top... anyone know what's this building?
It's actually quite far away from the tower... just that my camera has great zoom power... hehe, so proud of it.

A cruise @ Seine River

Ha, finally found this...
Arc of Triomphe

Bottom: Pont de Lena (the bridge)
Middle: Palais de Chaillot (Trocadero)
Top: I called it another part of the world... with tall buildings
anyone know where's that place?

Me & Qiaoyi before going up to the top

My ticket

There's a chamber at the top of Eiffer Tower
and there are 2 wax figures inside... one of them is Mr. Eiffel and another one is the inventor Thomas Edison
This room was used to a meeting room for Mr. Eiffel to meet some famous people.
So, I was wondering... the lift was build since that time? or they have different way to reach the top?

Champ De Mars (Field of Mars)
A large green area in the city

Seine River
A few bridges linking both side of the city

Toilet up there!
Wonder how is the whole sewage system working?

Lunch time again... we went to Lafayette again because Qiaoyi found out that the Longchamps
that she bought still has the magnetic tag attached to it, so, she needs to go back to the shop to remove the tag.

When we were there the day before, we walked pass this restaurant, selling mixed rice (zhap fan)... So, we decided to bring the parents there and we ate Subways which was opposite this shop.

Variety of dishes, looked yummy, taste... erm, can't compare with what we have in Malaysia

After eating and settling the tag, we went to one of the famous churches in Paris
- Notre Dame Cathedral
Can never miss this...

Remember the cartoon "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame", the cartoon was drawn base on this church

It's Friday... and there were a "service" in the church
I'm not a Christian nor a Catholic... has no idea who are they and what were they doing

The interior of the church is beautiful

The exterior, with a lot of carvings

The statue outside the church

Chasing the pigeon

These 2 girls hugging each other and cry after coming out from the church...
why? felt touch gua...

A mother hanging out with her 2 handsome sons
see, one of them smile to me

There are a lot of ugly creatures on the wall

At the back of the church, there is a garden
A lot of big roses can be found there

The garden

Before leaving the place, we realized we haven't tried any dessert in Paris... how could that happen? So, we picked this which is just next to Notre Dame

Can't miss their Crepe
and this is Chocolate & banana crepe

I think the one that I took in Eurostar is nicer...

Creme brulee

one of the must try dessert in Paris
The burnt caramel top smell so good

Frankly speaking, I don't take strawberry product, for example, strawberry cake, strawberry ice-cream... but this strawberry ice-cream has changed my taste... it tasted so refreshing and cool!
Since then, when I came back to KL, I started trying strawberry cheesecake ice-cream and strawberry sorbet... never thought that I will like it.

A group photo in Paris
I like this photo, everybody looks so good

Love this pic too...
what a serene scenery

This day, we went back to Chinatown again... same restaurant for our dinner
Qiaoyi ordered this Vietnamese Pho Soup noodle the day before and she let use try and we think that the noodle and the soup was nice, so, this day, out of 7 of us, 4 ordered this without second thought. hehe

Have we left of any must-go attractions in Paris?
I told my friend, Paris isn't as romantic as I think, maybe I was there "alone", I mean I didn't go with my love one or what.
If there are really some places that I've missed during this trip... I think, I will be only going back after I've traveled to other countries/ cities of Europe, eg Spain, Protugal, Italy, Germany... or maybe when I have the significant other... :)

I was so looking forward to Amsterdam the next day...
stay tune... for more interesting travel dairies in Amsterdam