An Amsterdam Good Time!

Please Note: The following text may have been adapted to fit within Parental Guidance tolerances...

With Stu (aka Mallet) over for a well-deserved holiday, what better bank-holiday destination than Amsterdam to start him off on his European odyssey? We flew out from Bristol along with Amanda and Anthony and met Kath at Schipol Airport for some 6-way Dutch Action!


After finding/fare-evading our way to our well-located hostel, we headed straight for the Heineken Brewery - our Guinness experience had told us that opportunities for freshly-brewed beer should never be missed. There was the usual gleaming brass machinery and hilariously-dated advertising material, but we were very pleasantly surprised to find a Heineken-branded foosball (table football) table, vacant, awaiting our use at no cost! Our entry ticket also included the right to consume not one, not two, but three delicious frosty glasses of Holland's finest. Yum.


Emerging blinking into the sunlight, we boarded a tour boat for a leisurely cruise along the canals. Unfortunately, the warmth of the sunlight conspired with the beer in our bellies and very nearly sent us all to sleep! To revive ourselves we took a spin through the Red Light district, which was not really very rowdy as the sun was still up. After some dinner we headed for a ############# and ####### some ############## but we were pretty tired and crashed out relatively early for a Saturday night in Amsterdam!


Sunday was Bicycle Day - we all wanted to get out of town on the quintessential Dutch transport and get some tulip-and-windmill photos in the bag. Our 3-speed, sit-up-and-beg style MacBikes were perfectly suited to the riverside pathways and despite getting somewhat lost we ended up having an excellent lunch somewhere south of Amsterdam, near the Ajax stadium. We got back on track and notched up some quality windmills on the way back to town, though! We had put over 20km under our wheels and all of us ended up having a bit of a nap back at base!


Relaxed and refreshed, we headed into the centre of town again, this time looking for a ############ which had been highly recommended to ############## for the quality of their ###############. After a bit of searching, we found what seemed to be the place, and nervously ############# the ###############.


Although initially the ############### didn't seem ################ it was after we had moved on to a ############ ########## in the ################### that all of us ############ ########### ############. We had all reluctantly ######### ########## the ############ but with the assistance of ############ and some ############, the ############ became perversely hilarious. What followed was without doubt one of the most #######, ######, yet ########## journeys of our lives as we attempted to find our way back to the hostel ########## ######## ###########, except of course for ########, who apparently could not be trusted to ##########, leading to even more hilarity as a ########### ########## tried to ##########. Finally we made it back, but the ########## was still ##########, especially for ############ who had ########## ######### and could not stop ########### ########### for quite a while!

Ahhh, good times, good times...