Today technically begins with last night....
We met a group of seven English boys in our hostel and bonded over a mutual opinion that Justin Bieber is a prick. When we returned from a rainy evening walk along the canal we got to talking with them again and eventually ended up going to the bars sometime around 1 in the morning. It's Amsterdam though, so that's ok. They are all acting students at some prestigious school in London and, as we learned, are incredibly talented. This first became apparent when they randomly started "The Circle of Life." They also made up a musical about how cold and/or warm it is in Canada. We had a blast and were out until almost 3 with them.
The next morning, or I guess at a more reasonable hour that same morning we got up, grabbed breakfast and set out on an epic adventure. We rented some Dutch bikes from a shop, they're like cruisers kind of, they have one speed and no hand brakes. They also don't come with helmets, sorry Mom and Dad. I haven't seen a bicycle or motorcycle or scooter helmet since arriving in the Netherlands. No worries though, we're all still neurologically intact, or at least as much as we were before the bike trip.
We ended up riding our bikes up to Central Station and taking a ferry across the harbour. Then we spent about an hour getting hopelessly lost and eventually finding the Zaanstad windmills. Of course, they closed exactly three minutes before we arrived so we couldn't go inside but we still walked around them. They were neat, I personally enjoyed the bike adventure out there more than the destination but I did get some pretty pictures. Our ride back was a little more successful, we only took one wrong return and had a small detour. I'd guess that the whole trip was around 20km. Some fun things that happened:
- we rode up a high bridge, on fixed speed bikes....
- rode down the hill on the other side with no brakes
- saw some goats
- Steph and I highfived whilst pedalling
After we returned the bikes we grabbed a grocery store diner and some beer and headed back to the hostel. We ended up sharing our beer with the Brits and then went for a wander to the Red Light District with them before eventually going to bed.
Things I ate:
- apple and bacon pannekoeken
- sausage roll
- cheese and meat and bread
Highlight of the day:
- biking through the Dutch countryside. Beautiful.
Thursday, 24 July 2014
Monday, 21 July 2014
Day the Nineteenth
Revision: I am never drinking again until Barcelona, unless it is free or part of a tour.
It turns out our hostel is located in the middle of the bar and partying area of Amsterdam, which I think is actually all of Amsterdam, so needless to say, we didn't sleep well.
We got up this morning and went back to Central Station for a canal cruise. While waiting in line for the cruise we chatted with and American family from Minnesota, they had a week off and decided to fly to Amsterdam for 3 days. I liked that. The cruise was pretty cool, it was a great way to see the city. There was a recording that talked about things we could see, it would say everything in 3 different languages and then in English. Without fail, everytime the English part was playing a kid screamed or we went under a traffic bridge and heard nothing. The American family snuck some food and drink on and shared some of their wine with us though. That was better than knowing anything about Amsterdam.
We split up after the tour, Dani went to the Rembrandt House and Steph and I went to the Heineken Experience. It was absolutely pouring and we had one tiny umbrella to share so we were very excited to get to the gift shop at the end and buy ponchos. Turns out that the rest of it is cool too! Our entry got us wristbands that were good for 2 free drinks and a gift. The experience takes you through the history of Heineken and then through the brewing process. About half way through there is a beer testing. Turns out I've been drinking it wrong forever and it's actually good if you do it properly! I should also mention that this was my first Heineken ever. It continues through some more modern representations of Heineken, namely Champs League sponsorship. At the end we exchanged our tokens for 2 beer each and enjoyed them in a lounge. To get the free gift we had to leave the gift store, this time with ponchos, and walk 15 minutes. Amsterdam is like a labyrinth and tourists never get out, so we got a little lost on the way.
Things I ate:
- banana chocolate muffin, marijuana-free
- pannekoeken with bacon, cheddar, and onions
- coconut curry chicken noodle thing from a place called Wok to Walk
Highlight of the day:
- having a Heineken poncho in the pouring rain after not having one
- the whole Heineken Experience
Day the Eighteenth
Today was not very exciting.
We left Brussels early in the morning and moved our stuff to the Antwerp train station with the intention of spending the day exploring Antwerp. When we arrived though, we learned it was:
a) Sunday
and,
b) Belgian independence day
This meant that everything was closed. It turns out that there's not a lot to do in Antwerp anyways, so we walked down to the river. We found a plaque celebrating the Canadian Army that opened their harbour up in WWII. That was pretty neat.
Eventually we got on a train and made it to Amsterdam in the rain! I can promise that no human has ever been as happy to see rain as we were after the heat in Belgium.
We didn't arrive until late but we did manage to fit in one activity and went to the red light district after dinner. It was... weird? but in a totally different way than I had anticipated. You walk through these streets packed with bachelor parties and 18th birthday bashes and in each window is a scantily clad woman. Don't make eye contact, unless you want to buy some time with one, then you should probably do that.
Things I ate:
- chocolate twist, banana yogurt
- club sandwich, much better than the one in Paris
- worst lasagna of my life
Highlight of the day:
- arriving in Amsterdam, it's beautiful
We left Brussels early in the morning and moved our stuff to the Antwerp train station with the intention of spending the day exploring Antwerp. When we arrived though, we learned it was:
a) Sunday
and,
b) Belgian independence day
This meant that everything was closed. It turns out that there's not a lot to do in Antwerp anyways, so we walked down to the river. We found a plaque celebrating the Canadian Army that opened their harbour up in WWII. That was pretty neat.
Eventually we got on a train and made it to Amsterdam in the rain! I can promise that no human has ever been as happy to see rain as we were after the heat in Belgium.
We didn't arrive until late but we did manage to fit in one activity and went to the red light district after dinner. It was... weird? but in a totally different way than I had anticipated. You walk through these streets packed with bachelor parties and 18th birthday bashes and in each window is a scantily clad woman. Don't make eye contact, unless you want to buy some time with one, then you should probably do that.
Things I ate:
- chocolate twist, banana yogurt
- club sandwich, much better than the one in Paris
- worst lasagna of my life
Highlight of the day:
- arriving in Amsterdam, it's beautiful
Saturday, 19 July 2014
Day the Seventeenth
After surviving yesterday I had a new lease on life and was excited to go explore Bruges. Unfortunately for us, Belgium is located in the centre of the sun and is a fiery inferno. Steph and Dani will verify that this is not an exaggeration as one of them is currently emailing her mother in her underwear and the other has a wet towel wrapped around her head and is "sweating buckets of balls." So it's a little hot.
We visited a monastery first, huge challenge for Steph because she had to be quiet for about ten consecutive minutes. There was an old church from the 1280s which was pretty cool but not a lot else going on. We continued through the streets to the cathedral and then to the town square. When we got to the town square we had a nice lunch and then decided to climb the Bruge Belfry (that means bell tower). The tower had 366 steps in a nice, narrow, steep, spiral staircase and it was approximately 800 degrees the whole way up. Totally worth the hell fire though, when we got to the top there was an incredible 360 view of Bruges and a cool breeze!!!!! We climbed back down, much harder than climbing up, and walked back to a nice little park where Steph and I ate waffles, Dani ate chocolate covered oranges, and I regaled them with fun-loving stories of Nazis and WWII fire storms. Things are always sunshine and rainbows when I'm around.
Our little trip to Bruges ended with a packed train straight into the pits of hell. Also, not an exaggeration. The air was not working and it was so hot that you could actually watch the sweat running down arms, legs, faces, and backs. The chocolate in my bag melted immediately, I'm pretty sure if I had anything dry and not drenched in sweat it would have instantly burst into flames. Thankfully it was only a 50 minute train ride and we all managed to sleep for most of it, mostly because that was our only hope of survival. We got off the train into 31 degree weather and it felt cold after the torture we had just experienced. In all seriousness, that train car was well over 40 degrees and so full people were standing at the doors. Brutal.
We went for dinner and back to Delirium Cafe where I enjoyed a nice Canada Dry ginger ale because I am never drinking again until Barcelona.
Tomorrow we leave Brussels, spend the day in Antwerp and then move on to Amsterdam. Belgium has been great and we all loved it, it just really needs to cool it on this whole 1 million degrees Celsius thing.
Things I ate:
- fresh squeezed orange juice and chocolate twist (also, like a pain au chocolate, just twisty)
- Moules et frites, mussels and fries
- Belgian waffle with bananas, Nutella, and chantilly
- Chinese-ish food
Highlight of the day:
- feeling a cool breeze at the top of the tower
- when Dani told the guy at the hotel "we're Canadian and we just can't do it" so he went and found us a fan for our room
We visited a monastery first, huge challenge for Steph because she had to be quiet for about ten consecutive minutes. There was an old church from the 1280s which was pretty cool but not a lot else going on. We continued through the streets to the cathedral and then to the town square. When we got to the town square we had a nice lunch and then decided to climb the Bruge Belfry (that means bell tower). The tower had 366 steps in a nice, narrow, steep, spiral staircase and it was approximately 800 degrees the whole way up. Totally worth the hell fire though, when we got to the top there was an incredible 360 view of Bruges and a cool breeze!!!!! We climbed back down, much harder than climbing up, and walked back to a nice little park where Steph and I ate waffles, Dani ate chocolate covered oranges, and I regaled them with fun-loving stories of Nazis and WWII fire storms. Things are always sunshine and rainbows when I'm around.
Our little trip to Bruges ended with a packed train straight into the pits of hell. Also, not an exaggeration. The air was not working and it was so hot that you could actually watch the sweat running down arms, legs, faces, and backs. The chocolate in my bag melted immediately, I'm pretty sure if I had anything dry and not drenched in sweat it would have instantly burst into flames. Thankfully it was only a 50 minute train ride and we all managed to sleep for most of it, mostly because that was our only hope of survival. We got off the train into 31 degree weather and it felt cold after the torture we had just experienced. In all seriousness, that train car was well over 40 degrees and so full people were standing at the doors. Brutal.
We went for dinner and back to Delirium Cafe where I enjoyed a nice Canada Dry ginger ale because I am never drinking again until Barcelona.
Tomorrow we leave Brussels, spend the day in Antwerp and then move on to Amsterdam. Belgium has been great and we all loved it, it just really needs to cool it on this whole 1 million degrees Celsius thing.
Things I ate:
- fresh squeezed orange juice and chocolate twist (also, like a pain au chocolate, just twisty)
- Moules et frites, mussels and fries
- Belgian waffle with bananas, Nutella, and chantilly
- Chinese-ish food
Highlight of the day:
- feeling a cool breeze at the top of the tower
- when Dani told the guy at the hotel "we're Canadian and we just can't do it" so he went and found us a fan for our room
Day the Sixteenth
AKA: worst hangover of my life.
Belgian bars are fun the night before, not so much the next morning. A combination of 40 degrees and a very busy 2 weeks prior meant that somebody was in bed until 2:00 this afternoon. It was touch and go for a bit but thanks to some red sport drink and a pain au chocolat I was able to get moving.
We were supposed to go to Ypres today but couldn't get a return train late enough at night so we opted to stay in Brussels and sweat it out in this inhumane heat.
We made our way to the Atomium, a giant atom shaped building that was made for expo '58 and never came down. It has a series of stairs and escalators that take you into spheres. The top one has a great view of all of Brussels. It was really cool. But the escalators felt as though they were bringing you through the seven levels of hell.
It's hot in Belgium.
Things I ate:
- not a lot
- eventually some Vietnamese food for dinner
- not a drop of beer. Never again.
Highlight of the day:
- surviving the morning
- the atomium
Belgian bars are fun the night before, not so much the next morning. A combination of 40 degrees and a very busy 2 weeks prior meant that somebody was in bed until 2:00 this afternoon. It was touch and go for a bit but thanks to some red sport drink and a pain au chocolat I was able to get moving.
We were supposed to go to Ypres today but couldn't get a return train late enough at night so we opted to stay in Brussels and sweat it out in this inhumane heat.
We made our way to the Atomium, a giant atom shaped building that was made for expo '58 and never came down. It has a series of stairs and escalators that take you into spheres. The top one has a great view of all of Brussels. It was really cool. But the escalators felt as though they were bringing you through the seven levels of hell.
It's hot in Belgium.
Things I ate:
- not a lot
- eventually some Vietnamese food for dinner
- not a drop of beer. Never again.
Highlight of the day:
- surviving the morning
- the atomium
Day the Fifteenth
Most of our day today was spent training from Caen to Paris and then from Paris to Brussels.
We got to our hotel, dropped bags, and went off to explore Brussels a bit. We ended up walking through the town square and up to the cathedral but then took a wrong turn on our way to the palace and went to find dinner instead.
After dinner we went to Delirium Cafe, it's a bar that serves over 3000 beers. We had a good time sampling the selection and drank mostly for free because our bartender was great, and she loved us. We met a group of German boys who asked where we were from, we said "Canada" and they erupted into "Oh Canada...."
Not a busy day, but fun.
Things I ate:
- hotel breakfast again, croissant and Nutella
- ham and cheese baguette with macarons for dessert
- deep friend fish, or something, and frites
Highlight of the day:
- the German rendition of Oh Canada
We got to our hotel, dropped bags, and went off to explore Brussels a bit. We ended up walking through the town square and up to the cathedral but then took a wrong turn on our way to the palace and went to find dinner instead.
After dinner we went to Delirium Cafe, it's a bar that serves over 3000 beers. We had a good time sampling the selection and drank mostly for free because our bartender was great, and she loved us. We met a group of German boys who asked where we were from, we said "Canada" and they erupted into "Oh Canada...."
Not a busy day, but fun.
Things I ate:
- hotel breakfast again, croissant and Nutella
- ham and cheese baguette with macarons for dessert
- deep friend fish, or something, and frites
Highlight of the day:
- the German rendition of Oh Canada
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Day the Fourteenth
Everything's coming up Milhouse.
Steph and I started by watching our bus fly past us this morning on our walk to try to find the bus stop. We had to get from Caen to Courseulles-sur-Mer where the Juno Beach centre is. We eventually caught our bus at the train station and made it out to the beach. When we left this morning it was cloudy and cool, in the hour it took to drive to the coast it had become sunny and was around 30 degrees all day. That went over well with our Canadian complexions.
We spent about an hour and a half in the Juno Beach Centre. There is a really great museum that takes you through pre-war politics, Canada in the 30s, the appeasement policy, declaration of war, the different theatres, and finally right up to the D-day landings. The whole thing started with a video where you're made to feel as though you are in a landing craft and then finishes with a very moving tribute to the Canadians who fought in Normandy. I loved it.
It was also the first time in two weeks that I was surrounded by Canadians. Very apologetic and friendly.
After the museum, we had about an hour before our tour of the beach so we went to a bakery for lunch and bought macarons that were literally the size of my fist for dessert.
The tour was awesome. We got to go into the old German tunnels and surveillance fortifications. The beach has changed quite a bit since the raid but you can find bits of bunker all over the place if you're looking for it.
The beach is now used as a beach. Shocker. But actually quite alarming as a Canadian walking through it. There are monuments and flags everywhere, I'm sure the maple leaf is flying more throughout Normandy than it is in Calgary, and in the midst are thousands of tanned French people catching some rays and playing in the water. It seemed surreal that the same beaches stormed on D-day are used for relaxing now. We spent about an hour laying in the sun, when in Rome....
On the way back we watched our bus drive past us while we waited at the wrong stop on the other side of the road. We have 4 university degrees between us but can't figure out a regional bus route in France. Not to worry though, we spent the next hour drinking cider on a patio overlooking the beach.
Then a miracle happened! I realized about 2 minutes before the bus came that somewhere between the patio and the bus stop my ticket had fallen out of my pocket. I told Steph to wait and I would just go see if it was nearby. I got down to the path we had taken from the beach and my bus ticket blew across the sidewalk I front of me! I told you, everything's coming up Milhouse.
We went back to our favourite creperie for dinner after a solid hour nap on the bus and missing our stop in Caen.
Today was our last day in France, we have a travel day to Brussels tomorrow to start the Belgium leg of the tour!
Things I ate:
- a croissant with Nutella, almost pain au chocolat
- lobster meat sandwich and a strawberry macaron as big as my fist
- salted caramel and dark chocolate ice cream
- Camembert and bacon crepe and a shared apricot chocolate grand mariner flambé crepe for dessert
- cider. obviously
Highlight of the day:
- stoked on being Canadian, we're a seriously rad country and did good things over here
Steph and I started by watching our bus fly past us this morning on our walk to try to find the bus stop. We had to get from Caen to Courseulles-sur-Mer where the Juno Beach centre is. We eventually caught our bus at the train station and made it out to the beach. When we left this morning it was cloudy and cool, in the hour it took to drive to the coast it had become sunny and was around 30 degrees all day. That went over well with our Canadian complexions.
We spent about an hour and a half in the Juno Beach Centre. There is a really great museum that takes you through pre-war politics, Canada in the 30s, the appeasement policy, declaration of war, the different theatres, and finally right up to the D-day landings. The whole thing started with a video where you're made to feel as though you are in a landing craft and then finishes with a very moving tribute to the Canadians who fought in Normandy. I loved it.
It was also the first time in two weeks that I was surrounded by Canadians. Very apologetic and friendly.
After the museum, we had about an hour before our tour of the beach so we went to a bakery for lunch and bought macarons that were literally the size of my fist for dessert.
The tour was awesome. We got to go into the old German tunnels and surveillance fortifications. The beach has changed quite a bit since the raid but you can find bits of bunker all over the place if you're looking for it.
The beach is now used as a beach. Shocker. But actually quite alarming as a Canadian walking through it. There are monuments and flags everywhere, I'm sure the maple leaf is flying more throughout Normandy than it is in Calgary, and in the midst are thousands of tanned French people catching some rays and playing in the water. It seemed surreal that the same beaches stormed on D-day are used for relaxing now. We spent about an hour laying in the sun, when in Rome....
On the way back we watched our bus drive past us while we waited at the wrong stop on the other side of the road. We have 4 university degrees between us but can't figure out a regional bus route in France. Not to worry though, we spent the next hour drinking cider on a patio overlooking the beach.
Then a miracle happened! I realized about 2 minutes before the bus came that somewhere between the patio and the bus stop my ticket had fallen out of my pocket. I told Steph to wait and I would just go see if it was nearby. I got down to the path we had taken from the beach and my bus ticket blew across the sidewalk I front of me! I told you, everything's coming up Milhouse.
We went back to our favourite creperie for dinner after a solid hour nap on the bus and missing our stop in Caen.
Today was our last day in France, we have a travel day to Brussels tomorrow to start the Belgium leg of the tour!
Things I ate:
- a croissant with Nutella, almost pain au chocolat
- lobster meat sandwich and a strawberry macaron as big as my fist
- salted caramel and dark chocolate ice cream
- Camembert and bacon crepe and a shared apricot chocolate grand mariner flambé crepe for dessert
- cider. obviously
Highlight of the day:
- stoked on being Canadian, we're a seriously rad country and did good things over here
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