Terri's Place

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Europe and England

Amsterdam

In September last year my daughter and I went on holiday for 5 weeks. Our first stop was Amsterdam for 36 hours as a stopover on our way to London.

Amsterdam canal.

We flew into Schipol Airport at 5.30am, too early to book into our hotel, so after dropping off our luggage, we went in search of breakfast which we enjoyed while watching the traffic. Weekday peak hour traffic in Amsterdam is a thing to behold. The amount of cars are less than a lazy Sunday afternoon in most capital cities I have visited. It is the bikes that make up the majority of the traffic. They have their own lane next to the pedestrian footpath and their own traffic lights. It is easy to forget that there are bikes bearing down on you and as you walk across the bike path, which looks exactly like the footpath, you get vigourously 'belled' by oncoming traffic. :)

8am Friday - from the breakfast bar.


Peak hour traffic ;)

More cities should implement this.

In the afternoon, after finally getting into our hotel at about midday, and being able to have a shower, I wanted to do a canal trip to have a look around the city the easy way. So we went to Starbucks for a coffee, and then I took notice of my daughter's suggestion of the direction we should head off in, and off we went. Note to self: when in strange city 1) do not listen to daughter; 2) buy a map. 2 hours later we were still walking the streets trying to find our way back to the city centre. Now, don't get me wrong, it was certainly a novel and educational way to see the city and we certainly saw some sights we would never have seen from a boat, but I could have done without the exercise after a long haul flight and 30+ hours of virtually no sleep, and she could have done without the blisters. In spite of all that though, we had some great laughs and some great mother daughter bonding time.