Well, this is about a week overdue. but its better posting it now then never!
We left Germany and headed over the border to the incredibly green Netherlands.
We took a quick stop at
Fort Bourtange, an amazing man made 'fortress'. We walked around the area and stopped by the little village for some tasty apple pie and coffee. From the ground, it is filled with beautiful greenery, lakes and cute houses. But check out photos of it from a birds eye view and you ll see why it appears so special.
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Birds eye view of the fort, photo from the net=) |
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We found another kitty while in the village. This time, it was a fat happy black cat. |
Our travels took us next to the capital city of the Netherlands,
Amsterdam. It is a very different world. One of the very first things you notice here (besides the occasional smell of weed) are the mass amount of bikes. They are EVERYWHERE! You need to constantly remind yourself about them when crossing roads or walking on footpaths to avoid being run over.If there is a pole or fence, there are a hundred bikes chained to it.
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This is how every railing looks in Amsterdam |
Besides the ruthless bike riders, the architecture and canals are beautiful.
We went on a free tour with New Europe (Well, its technically free, the tour guides are freelance workers and survive on tips). Our tour guide, Ged, took us around the central area of Amsterdam, the red light district and Jordan and gave us some history lessons on each
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What a bike doesnt occupy, a car does instead |
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The guy in the red is Ged, our awesome tour guide |
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More bikes |
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Some of the many canals |
Fun facts we learnt about Amsterdam!
- Apparently, selling marijuana is actually illegal, contrary to popular belief. However, this law is not enforced heavily and the selling of marijuana in 'coffee shops' is tolerated, as long as they are subtle about it.
- Although selling marijuana is illegal, these 'coffee shops' must apply for a license from the government to sell their special wares.
- There are 3 layers in the canals: water, mud and bikes.12 -1500 bikes are pulled out of the canals each year and are sent off to be recycled.
- With narrow buildings come narrow stairways, making it very difficult to get your shopping or furniture into the upper levels. You will notice many of the buildings are tilted forward and have hooks at the very top of the buildings. The hooks help carry goods from the ground up, the reason for the building being tilted is to avoid the goods smashing the windows on the way up. (Eventually, some genius figured out if you built the hooks sticking out further from the building, then you wouldn't have to tilt the houses)
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Tram lines in Amsterdam |
After some time by the canals, we crossed over the border to the beer brewing and waffle eating country of Belgium. We stayed for a day in
Brugge within the centre, an old, beautiful world heritage listed site.
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Guided tour of Brugge through the canals. Our captain was good fun |
Brendan's turn to write!: Driving past the town first it didn't seem like too much a few spires popping over the top of some trees but once we had driven across a medieval looking drawbridge and drop gate we were gobsmacked to find this amazing little piece of preserved history. Driving down cobbled streets and coming across horse drawn carriages in the streets. We arrived early so our room wasn't yet ready for us. We left our luggage in the car and as we walked into the heart of the town the old churches,castles and trees welcomed us to wander through the streets and explode the many wonderful chocolate shops
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Belgium produces a lot of beer in case you didnt know.A lot of it fruity. |
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Brendan posing in Bruge |
Next up, France!
Since I spent so long talking about the other countries, Ill skim over France with some photos=)
We left Brudge and drove for 6hours to another stunning location,
Mont Saint-Michel. This was a place that gobsmacked us by its historic architecture, views and placement. Anyone going to France's north coast should definitely make an effort to see Mont Saint-Michel.
Did I mentioned that it has crazy fast tides?
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The fortress from a distance when the tide was low |
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Mont Saint-Michel from the sky. Another google pic=) |
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The old streets were packed tightly with old buildings, most of them are now occupied by hotels, restaurants or souvenir shops. |
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A view from Mont Saint-Michel |
Now for some chateaus! There are way too many photos to post, so, have a look at the links to see more on their wiki article=)
We also stopped by
Amboise and
Dijon. Unfortunately, I cant seem to find my photos from Amboise=(
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Downtown Dijon |
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More Dijon! |
France had its beauty, but most of the people we dealt with were pretty forgettable (particularly the ones that didn't like you speaking English). Personally, it felt the least inviting out of all the countries we had been to so far. It still has so much to see, so I hope to be coming back here again soon.