Netherlands
Maarssen

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    • Day 103

      Munster, Germany —> Amsterdam

      June 28, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      After a 4am wake up, we got to the train station and caught our 5am train en route to Amsterdam. Of course, because we had woken up at 4am, all the trains were on time and there were no issues with the connections!

      We arrived in Amsterdam around 9am and walked to our hostel in the North of Amsterdam (which luckily is very easy to get to with a free ferry which goes every 5 minutes and only takes a couple of minutes!) There, we had a late breakfast and chilled out for a bit.

      We then walked back to the centre in the afternoon and went on a walking tour of Amsterdam, learning interesting facts along the way as we explored the streets and canals:
      - Amsterdam was named because there literally used to be a ‘dam of amstel’ in 1300, when the city was named.
      - The red light distinct is called the vollen by locals. It started because there were lots of sailors coming into Amsterdam and so there was a lot of prostitution which kept the sailors away from local ladies. The church which is right next to the red light district used to be busy with people repenting for their sins and then eventually the church sold "passes" to people before they visited the red light district to absolve them of their sins in advance.
      - The structures next to the canals are sinking (which is pretty evident by some of the lopsided buildings!) There is a 20 year maintenance plan in place so there is a bit of construction going on to allow them to fix up the foundations of these properties.
      - The buildings used to be taxed in width so there is lots of narrow buildings along the canals! There are winches on top of buildings to get large items into the buildings which are still used by people today.
      - Officially, coffee houses are able to sell 5 grams per person per day of weed. The government has implemented programs of slowly trying to limit the use by tourists. Many locals are taught about weed when they are young and are not so interested in using it.
      - We visited a spinning house for women where women were forced to work at one stage when they were found guilty of prostitution (at a time when it was illegal - it has bounced between being legal and illegal at various times in history).
      - In the Netherlands, there are more bikes (21 million) than people (17 million). You can definitely see this by looking at any street (and even more so when you tried to cross the street!)
      - We also visited an area of the city which used to be mostly occupied by a Jewish population prior to WWII. The architecture there is quite different and it is because the area was largely reconstructed after the war. Most of these people were removed from their home when Amsterdam was occupied but then in 1945, there was a particularly cold and difficult weather for the people remaining in Amsterdam so people stole furniture for burning fires and destroyed part of the buildings for materials for fires and to survive as they were all unoccupied.

      We finished the walking tour by trying some stroopwaffles which were very delicious!

      After the tour, we walked the red light district to do some ‘window shopping’ followed by doing some actual grocery shopping (and a quick visit to the LEGO shop) before heading back to the hostel for a much needed early night!
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    • Day 19

      Njenrode University and off to Amsterdam

      August 15, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      This was a relaxing day, we said a “see you soon” to Paul and Myra as we knew we’d be back in Eindhoven on Friday evening and then Tom drove us to Amsterdam where we would be staying at his apartment with his roommates. On the way he took us on a tour through the original Breukelen campus of his prestigious university where he studied his Masters. We got a full guided tour from Tom around the library, the buildings, the castle (with moat and drawbridge) plus the beautiful canals and green lands where some deer and wildlife roamed too. We enjoyed the rest of the short drive to Tom’s apartment in the South West of Amsterdam right near groceries, pharmacies, tram lines - everything we needed within a 5min walk. We did a quick run the the supermarket to get food, as Tom had been away on holiday so the fridge was empty - then had some homemade sandwiches and chilled out for a while. While Tom worked for the afternoon, V and I cooked a roast chicken meal for dinner and shared this with Tom and Nout which made it feel really homely for us. We planned out some things to do the next day as Tom had some free days in his schedule to share with us, and then hit the hay. (Tom let us stay in his bed while he crashed on the couch downstairs for which we were very grateful for ❤️)Read more

    • Day 6

      Jachthaven Marnemoende

      August 29, 2019 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Also da ist es wirklich sehr schnuckelig. Beim Anlegen kommt gleich der Marinero und hilft mit. Es gibt superschöne Duschen und WCs, einen kleinen Shop hauptsächlich mit Schiffszubehör und ein paar Getränken. Das Restaurant ist riesig und die Speisen schauen recht gut aus - viele Leute sind aber nicht hier.
      Die Liegegebühren inkl. Strom sind mit 18€ auch durchaus in Ordnung.
      Der Marina angeschlossen ist ein kleiner "Campingplatz" - wir würden ihn eher als WoMo-Stellplatz bezeichnen (6 geschotterte Stellplätze am Parkplatz).

      Jedenfalls liegen wir relativ nahe bei Utrecht und das ist gut so.
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    • Day 2

      Day freaking 1

      October 26, 2017 in the Netherlands ⋅ 🌫 13 °C

      So there it is, my first day of traveling away from the country where I grew up. It is the first time I'll be away for more than just a couple of weeks and damn I suck at preparing myself. I was up until freaking 02:30 to say goodbye to my friends, finishing up my room and packing the last things to eventually be kicked in the face by my alarm two hours later. All sleep deprived and shit I was brought to the airport by my dad with my girlfriend, really having the Tim of my life. We came there and my mom and brother and Timon's family were there to wave us goodbye, at 5:30 in the morning.. They're nuts. To make my morning even better, in the row for the check-in I found out I didn't complete the holy triple S morning cycle, Shit, Shower, Shave. Since I did take a shower and remembered that I don't ever shave, it was my colon that was bugging me. So we checked in, had a nice goodbye moment with everybody, punched my brother in the nuts and went off to find the shitter (and gate). Arriving at the toilet it was all disappointment, it was just sad.. I produced a single bean, nothing more! But I was letting that behind me because a little while later Timon and I boarded the plane. Oh My Granny, our trip has officially begun.Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Maarssen, MSS, مارسین

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