Temptation Island

If you thought New Zealand was liberal then think again!!!!

Julie and I arrived in Amsterdam late at night after catching a cheap 40 minute flight across the English Channel. A train and then tram ride later and we were in our hotel room. The temperature was about -4 degrees outside so we spent the first night catching up on sleep.

The morning bought sun but it was still extremely cold. We set out on foot to explore the huge amount of tourist destinations. First was the Van Gough Museum. Although we managed to get in and out in under 30 minutes it was worth every penny of the steep 10 Euro entrance fee. Next was the Heineken Musuem. I have always liked Heineken whether it is brewed and bottled in Auckland or in its origin Holland. Unfortunately I was devastated as it was closed for renovations. The only way to get over this disaster was to run to the nearest watering hole for a sample. When you ask for a pint in Amsterdam they give you a glass everytime, the cheeky scammers, but being a cost saving kiwi I made sure I got the big boy glass...

The next museum on our tourist map was the famous sex museum. It was cheap to get into but extremely entertaining and educational, however it is not somewhere I would suggest going if you don't have an open mind. Some of the things we saw on historical photos in the museum were pretty full on!!! Julie thought she would try one of the moves out on the street...

It was getting dark and we hadn't yet been to a coffee shop for a look. As I am sure you already know Holland is extremely liberal regarding sex and drugs. The coffee shops are the places you can buy over the counter marajuana of all differnet types. Like a typical resturant there is a menu. Be careful what cake you order though as you may be in for a big surprise. That goes for anything with mushrooms in it as well.

We left the coffee shop and headed for the other vice Amsterdam is famous for "The Red Light District", an eye opener to say the least. It was all I had ever imagined and more. We walked around small cobblestone streets doing some window shopping along with all the other interested people, including people with young families of all things, but mostly with loud groups of guys on stag dos. I usually hate any kind of shopping but this wasn't to bad at all. The consumer goods on offer came in all shapes and sizes from the larger than life Ford F250 to the smaller more stream line Porshe 911 turbo. All you had to do to find the porshe was to follow the crowds of English louts.

Amsterdam is bike mad. The next day we were going to find out first hand just how bike mad it was when we embarked on a bike tour to the country. We met up with Richard and Annete who we had met on the Inca Trail. We mounted up and made our way to a windmill, cheese factory and wooden shoe factory. Amsterdam has millions of bikes. None of them are very nice due to the high theft rate but they are all used. An average road in the center has two walking lanes, two bike lanes, two car lanes and a tram line through the middle. All this traffic also travels in the wrong direction. I fell of my bike once and almost went over the handle bars twice!!!!

That night after a hilarious comedy show at Boom Chicago, Annette and Richard drove to us to their house in Puttershoek which is a small town in the countryside. Holland is built on a huge swamp and in order to manage the water there are canals and dykes everywhere. Today the water is managed with pumps and dykes but in the past it was windmills. We saw lots of windmills and lots of water. Even the castle we visited called Loevestein was completely unaccesible when water levels were high. Also luckily for us the Dutch are are very friendly nation and we were treated to a personal tour of a working windmill in Woudrichem and even had homemade bread made from some of the flour produced at the windmill the next day.

After an eventful day of windmill visiting, castle perusing and keeping out of the cold as much as possible, a wonderful traditional dutch meal was prepared for us that evening. We had Hutspot (carrots, onions and meatballs) and Boerenkool (green vegetables with sausage), good winter food! I have to say though that the baked treats were definitely a favourite of Julie's, if ever she stepped away from my side I would find her hunting down stroop waffels (caramel waffle biscuits) for purchase and consumption at an alarming rate...mind you I wasn't too unhappy when she suggested getting some of the plentiful street treats of frits and mayo (chips with mayonnaise...or chips with satay sauce, or any sauce you can think of!!)

We had one day left and decided to spend it in Rotterdam. Unlike Amsterdam it is reasonably modern as it was flatened in the second world war. Although it was a nice city (with interesting architecture such as below)...I have to say I enjoyed Amsterdam more!

In the Neighbourhood and the Isle of Sh...White

Well we always said we would try our best to make the most of our time here in London and get out and about and see things. Considering we live on the doorstep of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London we thought it would be rude not to visit these places. Well at £16 each to get into the Tower of London we decided it was pretty enough from the outside for now and have put it on our "to do list" for when we are feeling flush with cash...

Tower Bridge is also a stunner and we love being able to walk 5 mins out our door and be walking across it admiring its beauty (might I add it isnt such a beautiful thing walking across it when a cold winter wind is blowing...I thought a Wellington southerly was bad!!)

Amongst the things that are right in our face and outside our door to do, we have ventured a little further in search of scenery and some of the English countryside we have heard of (and to try and prove it isnt a myth that it exists...). So off we toddled one weekend up North of London after Chris' boss recommended a lovely walk along a "river". River was a bit of an overstatement, it was actually a canal but was quite pretty with canal boats all along it and your token swans and ducks.

Seeing as the things closest to London weren't up to our spoiled NZ standards we thought we would try and find a beach to rate instead. We looked on the map and saw that there was an Island off the South Coast of England that didnt take too long to get to on a bus and that we could do on a Sunday - The Isle of White. Apparently this place is popular for family beach holidays in the summer with lots of caravan parks and plenty of opportunities for kiddies to make sand castles, there was even a zoo - now this time our hopes were high!

First impressions...well the first shop that greeted us when we walked off the ferry wharf was "The Codfather" and their motto was "we will batter anything". After a few moments contemplating how far they would honour this motto, especially when a fat tasty looking duck waddled by, we headed to the beach. Fortunately for us we had a glorious sunny day so we decided to bus to one side of the island and walk back along the beach as the waterfront wasnt the nicest with slimy seaweed everywhere.

Apart from the fact we felt like we had been transported back to an 80's beach holiday camp with the outdated looking beach shops, piers, novelty rides and ice cream parlours, it was quite a nice way to spend a Sunday...see look how excited we are!

So all in all it was a lovely day out, although we dont think we will be revisiting it in the summer to make castles and spend time comtemplating what to batter, although staying in one of these beach side boatsheds was a tempting thought...