06/04 Amsterdam, The Netherlands

We woke up quite late this morning because today's schedule was not tight. We had another nice breakfast at our boat. Today, we planned to do sightseeing in Amsterdam Central because we just visited outer area. We planned the route to go and we told each other we must pass the dam square to get free waffle again LOL. But today weather was not really good, cloudy and a bit rainy. Luckily, the rain stopped when we tended to go out.

First, we went to a church which was very the main train station. The notice board said no sightseeing but people kept going in and out. So we went inside. This paintings inside were quite colorful. Luckily, there was a baby having Catholicism's baptism accompanied by parents. The priest sang some songs for the baby.

When we were going to the dam square again, we walked into some sourvenir shops. There were a lot of sex things like condom, toys, magnets, clothings or other pornographic decorations. And there was a little room which was like those in the red-light district. I got inside and pretended a prostitute. Of course, I still wore clothes.

Then, we walked towards to the Rijimuseum which Santi wanted to go. But it was 1630 and we suddenly realized museum closed at 1700, not 2200 becasue last time in Van Gogh musuem, it opened till 2200 only on Friday. Poor him. Then, we just went to the museum souvenir shop to look around. Then we finished the remaining tourist spot.

















































































































































































































































We got back to hostel at 2000. Because Santi was going to take the DB train back to Mannheim, and I took the Euroline. He left first and then I left afterward. Because the Euroline bus station was located at Amstel Station but not Amsterdam Central and I did not want to pay the train ticket and took any risk of taking train without buying any tickets, I chose to walk-.-. I walked pass the red-light district and said goodbye to the prostitutes and walked very fast to Amstel station, which finally took 45mins. I was really afraid of getting lost on my way because there was much light on each street and my stupid did not have much battery left. Luckily I made it to Amstel station.

Amsterdam was a beautiful and diversified city. Its geographical characteristics with much of its land lying near sea level and now a lot of canals and dykes to help rebuild the the city, wide range of freedoms offered to citizens, rivers flowing in and out of the whole city, beauty of flowers garden and very nice and friendly people makes it one of the must-go destination for visitors. Amsterdam is really worth to go! Goodbye Amsterdam.

05/04 Amsterdam, The Netherlands

We got up at 0900 and had a very nice breakfast at our boat. There were toasted breads with different jams we could choose from including honey!. There were also hams, milk, yogurt, tomante, chocolate, orangesaft and eggs. I even made some sandwiches for my lunch and afternoon tea too. This was the most richest breakfast I have ever eaten in hostel so far.

Today, we would go to the Keukenhof, which was the biggest flower exhibition in the world showing many different types of flowers. It usually opens for public from the end of March till beginning of May. So, we were able to go there!! We went to Amsterdam Central and took the train from there to leiden station which was not really far away but already costed 18 Euro to go and to return. At Leiden station, we bought a combination ticket including the bus to Keukenhof and the entrance fee which costed 23 Euro. But, later on, I found out we could buy this ticket at 28 Euro from Amsterdam Central to Keukenhof, which was much cheaper!!!!!

The flower garden was extremely beautiful. Although there were quite a lot of people, because the park was really big, it was not really crowded. There were some songs like Disneyland playing at the entrance which made me think this garden was a theme park. As we entered further inside, we heard some happy chorus. They were all old people and they sang many interesting happy songs, which entertained everyone here. We wandered in this extremely wonderful happyland and saw many colorful and fragrant flowers everywhere. There were some rooms or greenhouse displaying some flowers and some information about the plantation process of those flowers. We took a lot of pictures there and later we then saw Anson and her friend also from Polyu. There were a lake inside the park where has a fountain and some decorations.

We then saw a big mill and there were some booths nearby. A lady was distributing some free fish with toothsticks which were tied with the flag of The Netherland and we took 5 to 6 pieces for four of us, which was delicious. Next to the mill, we saw a extremely big and fascinating field of different flowers. There was a river between the mill and field, so that we could not cross it. But, it was the most beautiful flowers' field I have ever seen in my life. You must be wowed by the colorfulness of the flower field.

















































We had spent 4-5 hours there and we really had a lot of fun there. I really loved this garden even I was not a big ban of flowers but this flower garden was really like fairyland. It was almost 7pm. Then we went back to Amsterdam Central and walked to the dam square and had our dinner in Amsterdam. We had a kind of rib buffet costed 10.95 Euro. We ordered rib with potatos or french fries for each and I also ordered 1 more plate of rib. But drinks were required for a meal. So, we ordered a jar of Heinecken, which was made in Amsterdam and tasted nice. I really loved the ribs with BBQ sause.

Then, we went to Red-light District which was near the restaurants. The district was full of people and we saw quite a lot of prostitutes standing next to the window, wearing bras and underwears only. Some even just covered their nipples. They were trying to seduce men with their sex bodies and to have sex with them. Some looked a bit ugly but some were quite beautiful. I tried once too. Just kidding LOL. There were some sex shows along the street too. Becuase photos of the prostitutes were now allowed there, I could not take a closer shoot of them. But Anson just took out her phone and one prosititute thought she tried to take pictures of her. She opened the door quickly and splashed some water to her!! They were over sensitive to camera. We walked along two sides of the street for 15 minutes and we came back to the hostel.