Arriving in Amsterdam at 6am, I had to ask, are we here? The bus dropped us off just inside the city limits, but no where recognizable. Luckily we were next to the metro station. It still took us a while to figure out where we were and how to get to where we wanted.
First order of business, find a hostel and get some local currency. I had no luck finding us a pad with Couchsurfing.com. Who knew, it was gay pride weekend and like a zillion people were in town! It did make it a bit difficult, and expensive, but we finally found a hostel with a 2nd floor room overlooking a very busy street pretty much in the middle of the action, again.
We were here for 2 days and 1 night. Right, so off we went to explore. First up, the Van Gough museum. 3 hours later, our brains fried and we were artistically and culturally maxed out. So, we jumped on a canal trip boat. It was excellent! The canals are immense and Amsterdam is just beautiful.
The famous dancing buildings
On the canal tour Using the good book, I pick us a vegetarian restaurant to eat at. Yum! It was in front of a building that was 60 inches wide! On the way back to the hostel we decide to take a quick walk through the red light district. What an eye opener, but fun.
The next day was the big gay pride parade down the princeg...something canal. I think the pictures will speak for themselves. Oh, but I did walk into a coffee shop to get my morning latte, when I was met with the curt reply, "we don't have coffee here, go next door". What!!? Stunned, Brian dragged me out of there laughing, and then I remembered that "coffee shops" sell pot. Laughing, but still wanting my latte, we headed out to a restaurant to procure one.
So many people they were in the light posts!
Having enough of a sea of people, we decide to go to the "Heineken Experience". And what an experience it was. I never thought a brewery tour, and self guided at that, would/could be so much fun! For those of you who saw the video, you can vouch for us.
So off to our next destination - Paris. Getting to the bus station at 9 pm, we present our pass and request our seats, 30 minutes before the bus departed. Apparently, we needed to make reservations. Luckily there was room and the kind man at the ticket booth got us on the bus. Paris here we come. Oh, again with no Couchsurfing pad or hostel reservation. Okay, so this could be a little expensive......
