Today has been a day of mostly travel. So far we have been through 3 countries and it is 4:30pm. We left London this morning at 9:00am and headed to the train station. Where we took the Euro train @ 190km London through the top of France and got off in Brussels, Belgium.
After getting off the train in Belgium and changing our dollar over to the Euro, we boarded our coach that we would be in for the remainder of our travels. Here in Europe, our dollar is 30 cents less than the Euro. So for every Euro that we spend, we are spending $1.30 in US money. Losing 30 cents is better than in London, where we spent $2.00 in US money for every 1 Pound spent. Ouch!
Our tour group, which is only 23 people, thank heavens. I guess when the tours are full, you can have 40 or more on your tour. We were able to spread out on the bus. The average age on our tour was in the 40's. We all seemed to get along and have a good time. Which is good since we are on the bus today for 3 hours to our destination Amsterdam, Holland.
We stopped at the border of Belgium and the Netherlands (or Holland) to have lunch and take a potty break. Elzo, our tour director, informed us that from this point until we reach Switzerland, we will have to pay to use the toilet. WHAT???? At this location, we spent 60 cents to use the toilet. Along our drive through the beautiful countryside, we saw the famous Holland windmills. They were amazing. I was hoping to see Tulips, but I guess we were a couple of weeks early for the bloom. Which is a bummer.
From Scott:
We got to Amsterdam and went on a glass boat tour through the canals of the city. Many people lived on houseboats because it was cheaper than renting or buying. Some houseboats were nice, others just junky. They had kitchens, bedrooms, and even satellite TV. The main form of transportation in Amsterdam is bicycles. I have never seen so many bicycles in one area. Thousands of them parked in bike racks. The streets had tons of people and bikes. We passed this one location that was a task on the Amazing Race 12 a few seasons back. The teams had to go to a bike garage and find two bikes in a garage of thousands that had the same color pattern that they were given in their clue. Once they got the bikes, the teams had to ride five miles.
I was amazed of how many bikes were in this bike garage.
So Amsterdam is known for drugs and prostitution. A majority of our group made their way down to the red light district. Cindi and I had no interest to go, so we walked around town and went to a souvenir shop. This souvenir shop sold everything from traditional souvenirs to bongs, and candy bars made with marijuana. It is amazing the liberalism in Europe. The streets here are a little scary by day, but even more so at night. It was nice to visit, but glad to be moving on tomorrow.
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