Amsterdam: Did somebody say cheese?

It was a nice, short 2 hour Train ride from Brussels to Amsterdam on the rather luxurious Thalys high speed train. We were greeted by hordes of tourists as far as the eye could see, fortunately our hotel was only stones throw away!

First order of business was to hunt for a supermarket to satisfy our rumbling tummies, which wasn't the easiest job we've had. Amsterdam is well supplied with souvenir shops, 'cafes' and fast food joints but not a Tesco in sight. When we eventually stumbled across one a couple of hours later we were confronted with its the tough decision of what to eat when our accommodation has no facilities to cook anything. Charlotte had a light bulb moment, cold beans on bread with salami. I know what you're thinking, Genius!! With that decided we headed back to feast and get an early night to head to Alkmaar for the cheese market the next morning. The one thing we didn't think off was that nobody else in Amsterdam fancied an early night.

After what was a broken nights sleep we stumbled to the train station to catch our train to Alkmaar. When we arrived, at 8am there wasn't much going on, with a few commuters pedalling their way to work. After a stroll to the town square and watching an Asian man take 1000 photos of the same thing 10am soon came around and the reenactment of the historic cheese market began. It was a very interesting and entertaining experience to see, from manufacture to retail. The whole show lasted 2 and a half hours, we didn't stick around for the entire thing but instead headed to the market stalls flanking the square to divulge our tastebuds in a bit of cheese tasting. Our favourite was the green pesto flavour. We broke off from the clamour to explore the rest of the town, which was beautiful, all canals and bridges, like Amsterdam but much quieter and calmer.

We got back to Amsterdam that afternoon and went out and about for our first real taste of the city. We forced our way through the crowds and the smells of the red light district and into the hustle and bustle of Dam Square. We treated ourselves to a cooked meal in the form of Burger King but that may be the last time as it didn't agree with Charlotte. That night we learnt from our mistakes and used the ear plugs that our hotel provided.

They didn't really make a difference. So after a deserved lie in we hit the streets again, this time in blazing heat. We headed for Vondelpark, which provided a nice area of calm and quiet away from the noise of the city. After a nice long stroll we were collared by an elderly Australian couple who asked us for an escape route from the park, which we gave them. This led to them shadowing our every move and even stopping and waiting for us when we paused to look at a cafe menu. Our hunt for food led us to stumble across the famous I Amsterdam sign, situated infront of the impressive National Museum. We tried to obtain a photo but the huge crowds prevented us. We lunched upon those famous Dutch staples of Burger and Chips and Fish and Chips. The rest of our day was spent walking the quieter, outside canals and admiring their scenery.

Our final day in Amsterdam was kicked off with a Starbucks, we didn't fancy risking one of those 'cafes' I mentioned earlier (I know, how boring!!). The rest of our day was spent wrestling with the Internet to upload some photos and update this blog. Maybe one stroll through the streets tonight just incase we missed anything.

We also we made our first attempt at using the portable washing machine but after 32 hours our underwear is still drying on our string washing line.

Looking forward to hamburgers in Hamburg

James and Charlotte