Amsterdam, not what I expected

We stayed in Amsterdam for 4 days and managed to avoid most of the 'tourist' attractions.

After an overnight bus from Berlin, we stumbled into our hostel to be told our room wasn't ready. Not exactly the end of the world but we were meeting our friends in Utrecht and we would have rathered a few hours sleep!

We met Ruud and Margot during Nepali New Year celebrations in Bhaktapur. We all got on brilliantly and they suggested we come and visit them while we were on our tour of Europe. Little did they know we would actually take them up on the offer!

We had a wonderful day with them, we didn't see many sights of Utrecht, there was too much to talk about! We did however play many board games and ate lots of traditional Dutch food. An excellent day!

Spurred on by being cycled round Utrecht, the following day we rented bikes and cycled round Amsterdam. We kidded ourselves we looked like locals, but Martyn gave the game away when he nearly went through a red light and had a mini argument with a bus! Nonetheless, we had fun seeing sights we wouldn't necessarily seen sticking to the guide book. We got thoroughly lost and just took in the beauty of the city (oh, and as you know I've converted to bikes...).

After the seriousness of Poland and Germany it was nice to relax in our ignorance of The Netherlands' history. We avoided all museums and just strolled through the Christmas market and around town to see what we could find.

We weren't disappointed; we walked towards the sound of trumpets and found a man in a tiny boat with an organ and a trumpet driving in circles playing the Amelie theme tune. There was no further explanation...

Of course, eventually we ended up in The Red Light district but only for a quick 20 minute walk, it was a bit early so there weren't many hookers (the Dutch's term, not mine) out in the windows. One lady even had a cup of coffee and a dressing gown as there wasn't much footfall yet. It was all a bit surreal, and I just walked round giggling, not quite knowing if it's ok to make eye contact.

In Berlin we met Rhiannon who was also travelling round Europe. We got talking and it turns out we both like the Hunger Games. She persuaded me to go the cinema, but Martyn wasn't keen. Luckily The Hobbit had also been released so we did what any normal couple would do. We went to see our two seperate films at the same time. Slight drawback, they were in two seperate cinemas! A slightly odd time, but we both got to see the film we wanted and I didn't have to sit through a film j didn't want to see! :)

In the end I was pleasantly surprised by Amsterdam. Through avoiding stag dos, brothels and drunkeness I think we had a lovely time. I'd like to come back and are what else there is to offer...