Day 1-3 of the European Sampler

Left Thistle Euston Hotel (London) at about 9am to Dover (Kent), the port that connects UK to Paris. This journey took about 2 hours and the scenery through the country-side was very English. Dover port was very unique as it had cliffs around the port, which made it very beautiful. The ferry that we got on took us to the other side, Calais in France.

Met up with our tour guide from the Cosmos tour, Joost and the journey in Europe started. Our first destination was Amsterdam, which we had to go through France and also Belgium. It was a very scenic journey and we could see windmills, which made everyone excited about The Netherlands.

Arrived the hotel (the best of the tour) in the evening, and everyone crashed to bed to get ready for the whole day the next day. We were brought to the canal cruise the next day and the local tour guide (Suzanne), gave us a very informative commentary. Things about how the houses in Netherlands were tilted due to soft soil, and how the taxes were paid by how wide the house was, so the we saw the most narrow house, which was like a little wider than a meter. Dutch is not a very easy language to learn, all i can say is that if you are sick and have a lot of phlegm, go there and i'm sure you'll get rid of it soon.

After the cruise, we were brought to a Diamond shop, where they showed how they are polished and valued. How diamonds are valued by the 4 C's: carat, colour, clarity and cut. Its crazy how much a piece of tiny stone can cost a person... I guess guys must start saving from now if you wanna propose to your future wife in 20 years time. i better tell my nephew..

We were left in town for the rest of the day and we went to the book market, flower market and around town. walked and walked till we cant walk no more. Amsterdam is a place were prostitution and marijuana is legal, so there is this place called the red light district where you'll have sex shops everywhere, prostitutes calling for you (they pay taxes too) and people smoking pot everywhere. Free right???

The second day that we were there, we went to this village Zannse Schans. It is a typical old style village where we went to see how clogs (those wodden shoes) and cheese were made. we were also able to see working windmill in there. Windmills were used to grind wheat to flour and also control water. We were able to go in to the windmills and see how things work in there.. very impressive for something that was made a long time ago. After this small village, we went to another village called Volendam, a fishing village. The moment we arrived, our tour guide, showed us how to eat their delicacy, raw Herring (a type of fish). it is served whole (backbone removed) and garnished with onions. It is very salty (fisherman salt them to preserve them) but taste a litte like tuna, just a little raw. good experience, at least i've tried it!

After the walk around the fishing village, we made our way to Cologne, Germany....and that will be in another post, so for now, enjoy the pics from Amsterdam (slide show)