Venice of the North

This past weekend I went to Amsterdam with Roehampton's Student Union. The journey began at about 11:30 PM. We boarded the coaches and drove off to Dover where we would catch our ferry to Calais, France. By the time we arrived in Calais it was nearly 5AM and was as foggy as a typical day in Hamilton, New Zealand. I fell asleep and woke up nearly five hours later as to what I believed was Belgium. Belgian number plates, as well as several Dutch ones, filled the car park and I was convinced I was in Belgium, though the language on the signs was neither French nor German, but Dutch. Not knowing any Dutch, I wondered how I'd manage to order my breakfast. Lucky for me, my friend Ginny leant me her Dutch dictionary and I was good to go. The coach stopped at a rest stop of sorts, one like you'd find on the Ohio Turnpike, just about an hour or two outside of Amsterdam. To confirm my location I turned on my phone, which sent me a text welcoming me to the Netherlands. My phone always does this when I enter a different country, except for the United States. It doesn't seem to like America very much. Vodafone notified me that for £2 they will give me 5MB of data so I can continue to use my BlackBerry, but then they decided that 5MB wasn't enough so they would give me an additional 20MB for the same price. The £2 were deducted from my (prepaid) account, so no credit or debit card was required. I thought that was very thoughtful of them. Because of this, I was able to stay in touch with my friends back home. Considering what Verizon charges you for roaming ($1.29 per minute, $65 for data and then some roaming charges-just ask my mother), I felt that Vodafone was quite generous and would recommend their services to all.

After breakfast in the middle-of-nowhere Holland, I dozed off and woke up in Amsterdam. Our rooms weren't ready and so I put my belongings into the storage room. My friends and I set off into the city after we purchased our Iamsterdam Cards, which I highly recommend. The price depends upon how many days you'll be staying in the city. Since we had 48 hours, we opted for the 48 hour card. It was €49 for the card and with it came a travel card, vouchers, and a guide as to where the card can be used (plus great maps). With it, we got entrance into all museums (with the exception of Anne Frank's house) and a canal cruise. Some of the vouchers included were 25% various restaurants and shops across Amsterdam as well as free gifts from places like Heineken. If travelling to Amsterdam, I highly recommend this card.

Some sites that were visited include Anne Frank's house, Rijksmuseum, and the Van Gogh Museum. Anne Frank's house has quite a queue to get in, no matter the time of day or the weather. We were told the wait would be an hour and twenty minutes, but we were queuing for no more than 40, at most. The wait is well-worth it, trust me. The outside doesn't look like her house at all, but what is behind this modern structure is the secret annex where Anne Frank and her family hid for two years whilst the Netherlands were occupied by the Nazis. Below is an image of the outside of the Anne Frank house:

This is the diary of Anne Frank:

Photography was not permitted, so I had to be sneaky about this image. I pretended like I was texting with camera, because you know, that's how people communicate these days. If had really forgotten my camera like what I had thought when I first came to the UK, I would've purchased a fancy Canon one that would have been obvious (Sorry, mom, but that was what I was going to get until I found my camera). What I noticed about Anne Frank's house was that she had some proper steep stairs to climb. I do just fine with climbing stairs (especially those in cathedrals from the Renaissance and before) these were a bit chilling. I couldn't imagine people go up and down these stairs every single day and not getting hurt. Like I mentioned before, photography was forbidden and so I found an image on Google of the stairs:

The museum is quite emotional, so do be prepared for that.

One of the best meals I have ever had was in Amsterdam. It was at a restaurant on Spuistraat (not Spui) called Haesje Claes and was recommended by a shopkeeper. 

You can find traditional Dutch meals at reasonable prices. My meal was roughly €20 and consisted of a glass of white wine, beef with mashed potatoes and red cabbage, and 'Grandma's style semolina pudding with red berry sauce.' The atmosphere and staff were great and this is something that everyone needs to experience. 

Amsterdam is nicknamed 'Venice of the North' and I can see why with all of its canals. There is much more I would like to learn about Dutch culture, but with the short amount of time spent in the Netherlands, that will have to wait.  Though the trip to Amsterdam was brief, it was still very much worth it and hopefully I will have the opportunity to return there in the future. 

On our journey back we drove through Belgium and France where we took a ferry back to England. Here are some of the photos of the final leg in our journey:

The sun obviously disappeared when we arrived back in England.