Woolly says – It was time for the adventures to begin, leaving Wales we headed back to all things glamping to drop Alfie the Dog off for his holidays with Teddy the Farm Dog before heading to daughters Zoe house so that we would be ready for an early flight the next day. Our trip was actually all down to Zoe as during our travels she was celebrating her 60th burpday ……
….. apologies apparently, she’s going to be 30 but just looks older. Jo, Zoe and I were being joined by Dave and Zoe’s partner Tim and I was really looking forward to having some men in the party for a change so at least we wouldn’t be constantly looking at shops!
Arriving at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, in a light drizzle with grey clouds floating around we headed to our accommodation for the next 3 nights, having checked in we hit the town. The canals looked wonderful under the lights.
As I know that Dave is a huge cheese fan I was delighted to start his trip with a shop full of samples of Dutch gouda, having hoovered up every spare piece of cheese we moved onto one of the main streets where small alleys held thousands of bikes all propped up against each other, I always wonder how when returning from your evening out you would find your own cycle under the mountains that cover the city.
We arrived in Dam Square, the National Monument, a white stone pillar designed by J.J.P. Oud and erected in 1956 to memorialize the victims of World War II caught the eye of the gents in the group taking lots of snaps, as I checked my map and directed my charges towards something that isn’t on the usual tourist list but was something that everyone loved, the Lego shop.
As Woolly wandered around squeaking in delight as he recognised Star War characters and Harry Potter scenes, I took the time to survey the Lego portraits and large windmill.
Woolly says – Having peeked into a few more of the wonderful display cases and having tried to convince Jo that we really needed a Lego Chewbacca to build we headed outside. With everyone tired and the night drawing in we headed towards food and an early night ready for the next day’s adventures.
The morning remained as grey as the previous days, but a bit of light drizzle wouldn’t hurt anyone, I planned to stay snug and dry in Jo’s bag until arriving at places that I felt everyone would enjoy. Dam Square in the morning was just as magnificent and gave us a better chance to admire Madame Tussauds building, as well as the impressive neoclassical Royal Palace, which served as the city hall from 1655 until its conversion to a royal residence in 1808.
We headed along the canals pausing to watch the boats chugging back and forth carrying tourists around the city on the extensive waterways. The traditional Dutch houses stood high above me with the old fashioned hooks still in place on many from the days where goods would have been winched up to the attic space and stored in the properties.
Colourful flower covered cycles stood at many of the bridges just waiting for a mammoth to have his picture taken.
Our first stop after enjoying our time along the water was to the infamous Erotic Museum. Filled with all things phallic it took us through the world’s sexual history from the Mayans, the Egyptians onto the Victorians and the sixties up to current days.
Without embarrassing myself too much I have to say it was rather interesting although I got a little confused as to why Snow Whie and the seven dwarves had a whole room to themselves!
We arrived at a section dedicated to John Lennon and his artwork which looked as though he needed to do some colouring in on his works of art.
Arriving at the end and having allowed the group a break for refreshments I lead the way onwards to learn more about one of the main reasons tourists visit the city in such number, cannabis. Into the Museum of Hemp, Hash and Cannabis we went, it was fascinating learning about all the things that hemp could do and how if used for everything it could be including car bodies, scooters, clothing, instruments and so much more that the worlds resources would last much longer.
One section told us about the different cannabis plants giving us beautiful drawings of how they looked, there were hundreds with some incredible names to take in before arriving in front of display cabinets showing us all manner of ways to smoke the product.
Next came the more cultural side of smoking life looking at the Rastafarian way of living as well as some of the harrowing stories of perfectly normal professional people who had been arrested over the years for having the drug which is illegal in so many places, one gent had bought less than a gram to help with the pain of his arthritis and when caught was sentenced to 97years, 97, it was insane.
With the night upon us and feet worn out from our day of walking we passed through the notorious red light windows and the ladies who were just starting work for the night, we had beds to get to in preparation for the big burpday day on the morrow.