Day 3 - Amsterdam to Rhine ValleyAuthor: jawapro
Date: Thu 22/01/2009 06:54 AM
Unlike yesterday, we actually got a chance to do something today. We were dropped off in the centre of Amsterdam and left to fend for ourselves for the morning. Amsterdam is a very interesting city, full of canals, trams, and bikes. Millions of bikes.
Including some unusual ones.
The Canals are quite pretty, lined with the typical Amsterdam houses.
Including this one (number 7) which is apparently the smallest house in the world.
Other people live on the water. Check out this guys floating back yard!
More canals.
More bikes.
We went to the library (called a Bibliotheek) to use the net, but weren’t able to use our USB drive, so we couldn’t post any pictures or our pre-written posts.
We took a stroll through the Tulip Market (another thing Holland/Netherlands is famous for). By the way, Holland is a region inside the Netherlands. I didn’t know that before!
We had little Dutch pancakes for lunch. Unfortunately, over half the tour had the same idea, and the lady running the shop was in a real panic with so many people trying to get pancakes before the bus arrived.
After this, we left Amsterdam, and drove out of the country, and into Germany! Sadly, all my attempts at taking photos from the bus failed miserably.
Once in Germany, the countryside appeared to get greener, and the road got bumpier. For a while the bus was really buzzing with the constant corrugations - but it improved as we went on.
On our pitstop we were able to photograph a ‘Barry’ in his natural environment.
It was actually not very cold here at all. I didn’t need a jumper or anything. So much for Europe being freezing. We did pass some partially frozen rivers (only broken sheets of ice) later though, so either it was colder there, or I’ve just gotten used to it and don’t feel like. I love the cold - but I hate the heat.
The first part of Germany was like the rest of the countries we’d driven though, and dead flat. At dusk, we started going through some much more interesting countryside, with rivers, hills, and valleys. The road went over lots of bridges over valleys, and we could often see villages in the valleys, but it was too dark for my camera to be able to take a photo on the move.
We eventually arrived in the little village of St Goars. We’re staying in a rather nice old local hotel here. It’s apparently not far from the Black Forest, so we had Black Forest cake for tea. In the morning we’re doing some local shopping, and then heading on to Munich.
Stay tuned...
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