Amsterdam weekend

We spent a weekend in one of the craziest cities in the world, at probably the craziest time of the year. There was a huge sailing festival, with thousands of boats around, and an extra 700 000 tourists in town. Add to this a refuse removal strike, and you have a recipe for disaster. The weekend was really fantastic. The group was Jacks, me, Shaun, Robyn, Steve (Badger). On Saturday we did a cycling tour through the city. The bikes were the really old guys, with wide handle bars. We had a good American tour guide (Sean), and learnt a huge amount. The city is amazingly user friendly to cyclists, and before long we were cruising around like locals, only occasionally ringing our bells to clear the road. During the tour we also hopped on a boat, and cruised on the canals for a while. By now we were pretty thirsty, and the bottomless supply of beer was a life saver. After the boat, we hopped back on the bikes, and rode through Vondelpark.

We had a crazy evening celebrating Shaun's birthday, and had a really interesting meal in a French restaurant, that was filled with locals.

The hotel we stayed in was called Hotel de Muncke, and was actually really well positioned, outside of the madness, but within walking distance. The proprieter was a 60 something Dutch Elvis fanatic, who took out his frustrations on his guests. A little bit like Faulty Towers, without Manuel, and with a little bit more agression.

We got out of Amsterdam on Sunday and checked out a few touristy spots. These included a clog maker, a windmill village, a cheese farm, and 2 fishing villages (Marken and Vollendam). Really good to see, but very touristy. On the whole it was a really good weekend. My lasting memory of it will be cycling through Vondel Park, with a beer in one hand, and my camera in the other.