From Bruges, I took the train stopping shortly at Antwerp and reached Amsterdam just before 11am, I had a tour starting at 12pm, so I hurried to leave my bag at my “hotel” to head for the tour.
Antwerp station is a masterpiece of historical design.
Well actually from this angle, all train stations in Europe look like this. 😂
Antwerp station comprises of three layers of train tracks, an ingenious design so you don’t have to walk that far to get to your platform.
On the other hand, Amsterdam is a more modern open kind of station surrounded by canals.
The “hotel”which I’ll be staying at is a boat! So instead of streets numbers, they have pier numbers!
Thar she is, ain’t she a beauty!
Dropped of my bag and headed back to the city center with plenty of time to spare for photographs. Look, a Chinese restaurant (which I will NOT be eating at).
The center of Amsterdam.
Amsterdam Central Station.
Kids in Europe gets to go all sorts of places for excursion, and what did I get, an excursion to the coal mines. 😒😒😒
Sex Museum, I did not go in but I saw two Asians at the door sussly looking around before going in. 😂
Arrived at the tour counter at 11:30 and the tour started at 12, so I went to grab myself some Dutch pancakes. I don’t even know if he gave me crepes instead or it’s supposed to look like this. And I got some Dutch syrup on it which is really nothing special, just sweet.
So I came back at 11:55, and the guy told me the tour has left already!? I was so annoyed! If the tour was going to leave earlier than 12, why didn’t they just say the tour started at 11:45 instead!? And the lady had underlined 12:00 so I thought she said come back at 12pm. Then they put me on a later tour at 14:45 but it’s shorter and cheaper but they won’t refund me the difference, so lame. I could’ve made a big deal and complained but the tour had left already and yelling at them would only dampen my mood further, so I just let it be… Then I’ll publicly announce their jerkiness when I get home. 😈
Anyway, so had time to kill around Amsterdam while waiting for my tour, don’t ask me where these places are, I’m just a passerby. 😂
Oh I know where this is, this is the red light district! It doesn’t look to red lighty in the day but if you turn into one of the alleys, you still see 90% naked girls luring you in the shop windows. And they are actually hot! (I was under the impression many of them were middle aged and fat. 😂)
Amsterdam canal view #1.
Westerkerk, couldn’t find an entrance so gave up on going in.
Anne Frank’s House. Unfortunately there was a huge line so I gave up on that too.
Went in a random food shop and ate cheese soufflé, which is just a fried crust with a cheese sauce inside. I don’t even know if it’s a Dutch food, but it’s my duty to try all things cheesy, big and small.
A cheese shop that sells nothing but cheese. I WANT TO BUY EVERYTHING. 😭
We all know what they sell in here. *hint hint wink wink nudge nudge* No, I did not buy any because I’m very prone to random swab tests (because I’m an Asian single traveller) and I don’t watch to get caught with and positive readings of drugs of any kind. ☝😗
Amsterdam canal view #2.
Amsterdam street view #1.
Amsterdam street view #2.
After a while of aimless wandering, I headed back to the tour place well before 14:45 for the tour. At 14:30, several tour guides turned up to lead the massive group of people (at least 100 people!) to a nearby area to get on the tour bus. The process was completely chaotic, and I actually waited until 15:00 (well after the tour starting time) before I even managed to get on one of the double decker buses (I was on the second double decker bus and it was packed, that’s how many people there were). This really annoyes me because obviously the tour bus hadn’t left until well after the actual tour time, if the people had just bothered to point me in the direction of where the tour buses stopped, I could’ve made the first tour well on time. Totally lame.
After about an hour’s drive, we reach Zaanse for the famous Dutch windmills! It was actually quite stunning and even made my mood a little brighter! 😀
The green one on the right looks like it has a face, haha.
Then we got to tour the inside of a windmill and this guy showed us how peanut oil is made, apparently it takes one year for a windmill to make the amount a large factory takes 10mins to make! That’s why the windmills are only kept around for tourist purposes I guess.
Windmills view #1.
Windmills view #2.
Windmills view #3.
Apparently it’s a Chinese “thing” now to get married at the windmills and invite all your family and friends. But they still kept the red ribbons guests wear at Chinese weddings, it feels so out of place. 😟
What animal are these!? Black sheep???
The next stop: Village of Volendam!
And you know the most important thing here in this village? 😂
Cheese making machina.
The lady explaining about cheese making claims she is 70 years old and drinks a cup of whey everyday to keep looking young! 😮
You know if my bookshelves aren’t filled with manga they’d be filled with cheese like here.
Recklessly bought a lot of cheese… Now I have to carry it around, damn!
Volendam is actually a seaside port town.
And here we are on our “meal break”, I don’t even know why the tour needs a meal break, it’s from 3pm to like 8pm. They give us a whole hour meal break and yet we have to rush through everything else!? What a rip off. And btw this Kipling and chips were “recommended” at the restaurant “recommended” by the tour guide and it wasn’t even that good, pfft.
Took at boat at Volendam to Marken. Not this boat, our boat was uneventful and lame, so I took a picture of this one instead.
Here we are at Marken, look at that flock of birds!
Marken is a neat little seaside port town as well.
Marina.
Walking across the Village of Marken, guess where we are going?
Does this give you a clue?
Well, this should.
I guess this screams: YOU MOTHERF*CKERS ARE IN A F*CKING CLOG FACTORY!!!
Showing how a clog is made by a machine.
Different regions of the Netherlands have different types of clogs.
When you see all those clogs hanging from the ceiling, it’s quite scary actually, like hundreds of feet stuck on the ceiling.
And if that wasn’t creepy enough, here’s a tree made of feet.
Which machine do they use to make this one?
C’mon, Honkies, it’s your favourite holiday past time: dressing up in that country’s national clothing. 😀
And that was the end of that crappy tour. The tour was chaotic, there were way too many people, everything was super rushed, even walking from one place to another required power walking, we listened to recorded narration on the bus, the tour guides did nothing except tell us the time to meet and where, I don’t understand how they can even THINK they deserve a tip. I advise everyone to NOT go on tours, especially this one.
Walking back to my boathouse! 😚🎶 Btw that green building is a science museum called Nemo I think.
Gaaah! The love lock plague has spread to here!!
Me hearty awaiting me return.
My cabin, small but adequate. But I had to put my own duvet into the duvet cover, what is this, a hostel???
Beautiful sunset view from the deck.
The full picture.
The sunset is interesting because I’m JUST at that angle where the sun sets into an unfinished building and I cam just see the sun peeking through the skeletal structure of the building.
Final moments.
The night is as well of course.
Goodnight Amsterdam! 👋
Around ½ of The World in 80 Days 