The Netherlands, Holland, Amsterdam

14th September 2008

The Netherlands is the country, Holland is the district and Amsterdam is the capital city, in case you didn't know, I didn't. We arrived here a day earlier than expected and had a total of four days here. I think I was still in Berlin as the first day was just spent wondering around. Actually of the four days I can't quite remember exactly what we did, the time just went. We had planned to go biking, didn't happen, we also planned to walk/bike around the big green park right next to the hostel, again, didn't happen. The smell of weed was everywhere and after being in Japan for three years it was a little bit of a shock being somewhere quite so liberal but nice at the same time, one must have their eyes opened now and again. 

We took a little trip out to the fake windmill village of Zaans Schans, very pretty windmills with very flat land dotted with cows and sheep. Took another day trip out to Dem Haag, The Hague, where all the government stuff happens to go the Mauritshuis where The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer is housed. Having seen the film it was great seeing the real thing.

It was quite rainy while we were there so we spent one day going to the Van Gogh Museum and saw his sunflowers and iris pictures among others. The pictures they had in the museum were in chronological order so we could see how his style developed. Some of the writings about Van Gogh's life I could identify with, especially this.

'..Van Gogh at 26 and at a complete loss...' Van Gogh began painting with no experience of drawing/painting, he didn't get famous till after his death but he did something he liked to do and tried to make it successful in his lifetime, which I guess is all anyone can do.

One the same day we went across town to the Anne Frank House, which was a nice round up of our WW2 history in context tour Hannah and I were kind of on since Poland. It's extremely sad to see the house and where she lived for two years and at the same time makes everything more real in that it puts a few faces to some of thousands who lived like Anne and were taken to the concentration camps.

Took the free city tour, not as good as Berlin, but informative none the less. One interesting thing our guide told us was that because of pressure from the EU, The Netherlands aren't giving any more permits to open the coffee shops for smoking weed and within the red light district. As a result, our guide thinks that the coffee shops and the red light district would slowly start to disappear. 

On the last day of my train trip I crossed boarders between four countries, took three trains, a tram and a tube to arrive in Milton Keynes Central in time for my Mum's home cooked lasagna. It was the longest way home, but it was well worth it.

P.S

The day after I got back to UK there was a fire in the Chunnel so I was lucky to be travelling on the 10th as I would have been stranded in France until the trains were back up and running.

The beach trip I was planning to take was called off the day before I was supposed to be flying due to the company, XL.com, going bankrupt. XL.com was the third largest tour company in the UK so for it to go bust there must be serious troubles going on.