Amsterdam

Photos can be found at http://www.globalregulators.com/gallery/amsterdamJan2006
We arrived on the Fri night. After checking out the hotel room we headed off for a quick drink. As we walked through the streets and passed the coffeeshops we could see and smell clouds of marijuana (not that I would know what that smells like Mum, Al told me that is what it was).

Saturday morning we were up early-ish to head to the Anne Frank museum. They have converted the house her and her family hid in to a museum. It was really interesting. I did not realise she was only 16 when she was killed in one of the Nazi camps. Her stories certainly portray her to be a much older person. If you have time, an interesting website is http://www.annefranktree.com/



Al and I then walked to the Rijksmuseum to see works by Rembrandt and other artists. His most well known piece of work, The Night Watchmen is here.

Amsterdam is a pretty city with all of its canals and lack of inhibitions. Any government that thinks chaos will explode if they legalise prostitution and low grade drugs should visit Amsterdam. I felt it was a very calm city and did not feel in danger at any time.

On the Saturday night we found a funky restaurant in the middle of town. I had been told that the Dutch are not known for their food so don't expect too much but we chose well and the food was very modern European and very nice. The wine menu was in Dutch so I had to just choose one within our price range and happened to choose one of the only Australian bottles of wine on the list.

After dinner we walked through the red light district to see the women in the windows. I'm not sure what I expected but it was actually a bit sad. I felt sorry for the ladies because they weren't classy (how could you be if you were selling yourself in a shop window I guess).

The next day we jumped on a train out of town to visit Zaanse Schans. This is where we were told we would see windmills and they were right. In this region alone there were once hundreds of windmills but today there onlt 16 left standing. Between the windmills was a little village and most houses had been converted to shop fronts selling cheese, souvenirs, chocolates, clogs and more souvenirs.

We finished off our weekend with a visit to the Van Gogh museum. I must say that although his work has to be some of the most recognisable pieces in the world I do not understand the fuss about most of it.

We had a great time in Amsterdam but I think we were lacking energy after being away for 4 weekends in a row.