Aaron Poland visits Amsterdam

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Next stop the amazing city of Amsterdam. At first it seemed like I had never left the country, and was back in the U.K. The weather was exactly the same, and the weatherman had predicted it correctly. When we were allowed to disembark the boat, in an instance we were able to book an hour’s long boat tour around Amsterdam. Unfortunately after we boarded the canal boat we discovered that our seats were on the starboard side and at the rear of the boat, a long way from the tour guide, also being next to the engine made any chance of hearing our tour guide hopeless. When the boat accelerated, the noise was too overwhelming. The cost of £50 for all of us, I felt, was definitely good value, although it would have been nice to have heard the tour guide, so I would recommend getting there early to get a seat near the front of the boat.

The first thing I noticed about Amsterdam is that it has many canals. After 10 minutes of wandering around, I couldn't remember the way back, as we had taken so many turns. Good job we had a tour guide! On this tour we saw many restaurants as well as the Mayor’s house and Ann Frank’s house, which is accessible by water. We noted the queue reached out the door, and way off around the corner. Again, you'd do well to get there early. There wasn't time on our trip, but you can also pass by the Heineken beer museum and the Amsterdam sex museum. It was a very relaxing tour and our guide was very knowledgeable about all things Amsterdam.

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After leaving the boat we had 6 hours to do whatever we wanted and so we decided to explore the city. As we set off, we noticed that the traffic lights gave you a countdown of when it would be safe to cross, and played a tune when it was time to cross, which seemed like a very good idea. Once we had crossed the first main road, the real Amsterdam hit us. The souvenir shops, pubs cafes, and coffee shops. We went into a souvenir shop just to look around and within 5 minutes of being in there, the owner was trying to sell me magic mushrooms (much to my amusement), which proves just how much of an open city it is. After my dad had hurried us out the shop, we wandered about and stumbled across a small fairground set up. It looked 100 times better than the ones we have over here! I was also surprised by how happy the atmosphere was, everyone was upbeat and cheerful and it felt like

you had to join in otherwise you were an outsider.

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We had only been here 2 hours and i already wanted to stay here for at least a week.
We carried on walking around and down some alleyways, when all of a sudden
we were in the red light district.
There were prostitutes standing in the window with people walking past as casual as you like,
it was really bizarre to see this in person!
And, the place was littered with sex shops everywhere,
not to mention a coffee shop down every street you went down.
We went into one and the vibe was amazing,
everyone was so friendly and everyone spoke English
which was a bonus.



We also saw 2 off duty, (I hope) police officers in there relaxing, but the most exciting part of the trip was yet to come. It was time for lunch which we were eating in a café, when out of nowhere, a load of superbikes came flying down the path next to the cafe. I went out and watched in amusement as they just kept on coming for 5 minutes, a constant stream of super bike revving their engines and popping their exhausts as loud as they could. It was the most astonishing thing I've witnessed before in my life and I have no idea why they were doing that. Another thing about this city is the amount of bicycles there are. They are everywhere and you really have to watch yourself as they don't stop for pedestrians. They have specific bike parks for them, some being so big they can hold 10,000 bikes! After we had finished, we looked around some more, did some shopping and headed back to the cruise ship. Without a doubt i wouldn't hesitate to come back here and I would strongly suggest it to anyone, there's something here that would suit you no matter what your age!

Happy New Year! 2016
Love Aaron