Day 50 - Amsterdam, Netherlands

Today we leave Belgium and head for the Netherlands. We catch the train from Bruges to Antwerp Central station then catch a Thalys fast train to Amsterdam, first though I had to tackle bringing the bags down three flights of narrow and steep stairs (not as bad as Cinque Terre but close when rounding the corners)
Once down we got to the station and off we went, all was going good until Antwerp Central when the train was running late but least we were in the right spot!

We got into Amsterdam and trained to our accomodation and checked in. Of course tour guide Matt didn’t want to waste a minute so off to central we went to Amsterdam Central to go on a walking tour. We had Sergio taking us around Amsterdam, now lets put him this way, nice guy, A LOT of Jazz hands! Now Katie and I were a little bit tired so this was a bit much for us for nearly 3 hours but we made it through.
Sergio took us to near central station explaining how Amsterdam came to be, how the canals were dug and windmills set up to move the water so they could take land back to build Amsterdam. Amsterdam buildings are much like Venice, all built on Piles, but the reason the buildings are so narrow are because locals used to get taxed on house frontage not the size of the house, so skinny and long was the best!
We moved towards the East Canals seeing the outside of the building with a church that can fit 200 people on the top two floors as Amsterdam used to only allow people to preach in their own homes, so this was made so people didn’t get in trouble and didn’t look like a church on the outside. We then went to De Ouse Kerk which is the cities oldest building that used to be like a tafe of sorts and the old city gates. We went through the Jewish Ghetto, his facts about this area was questionable after being to Auschwitz & Poland. We also find that every walking tour we go to, they say they were the richest European city and made trading a thing, very weird but hey *Jazz Hands*.
We ended the tour at Dam Square which used to be full of water until they built the canals and windmills, this also has Koninklijk Paleis which is a golden age palace and a royal venue. The royals don’t live in Amsterdam though, but the weddings are held in the church next door and they do the balcony waves from the Palace.

After the tour Katie and I grabbed a bite to eat, as we hadn’t done enough walking we decided seeing we were next to the Red Light District we’d just pop past for a look… As you do. I think Katie was a bit shocked at the site of some of the women in the windows - one comment being ‘Is she actually a woman’ 😂. We decided to find some dinner, seeing we didn’t know what we wanted I thought Foodhallen was a good option, much like Little High in Christchurch but bigger obviously! We trammed out and found that they were shut from 5pm for a staff party… Google maps did say it was shut, but their website said 7 days a week… Go Google.

So we looked at Sergio’s suggestions, we ended up at Cafe Sonneveld which has some local Netherlands dishes. I got the Ribs (Amazing! Slide right off the bone!) & Katie had the local sausage and veggies (veggies turned out be mash!) I also had to taste a local beer, of course I went a fruity one, Brouwerij ‘T Ij Ljwit was suggested by the host and it was pretty good. After this had to have a local Heineken and Katie had a sip and enjoyed it - it’s always better closer to the factory!

We had a walk around the area near the cafe, grabbed some supplies from the local Jumbo supermarket (really cheap lollies!) and trammed back to the accomodation and watched some Netflix.Read more