Netherlands, Amsterdam.

Amsterdam. I'm not sure. I had pictured pretty little cobbled streets, flowers, quaint cafes, bikes, canals with boats and little bridges crossing them. It is all of that but with frenetic busyness that I wasn't expecting. It's also pretty grubby with lots piles of garbage and litter everywhere. I don't want to be too harsh, that was first impressions on our first day....we wandered around a bit ourselves this morning and visited the main Dam Square with its palace. We had a 3 hour walking tour this arvo. The tour was quite good, an Amsterdam local lead us around to the main sights and explained some of the history to us. She stopped us for a sandwich at a little out of the way local cafe without tourists (we are everywhere and make up a huge proportion of the crowds in Amsterdam). The food was great and we spent a bit of time talking to her about Australia. Of course you can't visit here without wandering through the red light district. Have seen it now, no big deal, a little cheap and tacky. Last night we went on a boat cruise through the canals, that was really good and we got to see a lot of the city that we probably won't get to it the couple of days that we have. We have bought a selection of museum tickets so plan on doing that today.Les mer