Amsterdam.....very interesting place

Hello all

Well here we are in Amsterdam! It is a most interesting place with a lot of strange happenings! But let me start from the beginning:

Yesterday morning we attempted to leave Paris for our long drive up to Holland - what is supposed to be a 10 minute drive took us 45 minutes because of that stupid traffic. Mike is now of the same opinion as myself....we won't be going back there in a hurry. The drive itself was very uneventful except for the fog...that bloody fog - we didn't get to see any of the country side as we passed through France, Belgium and going into Holland. It would have taken us 4 hours to drive it but we decided (in our stupid wisdom) to go via Brussels which is rather out of the way of the main highway, adding on a further 1 hour. Nevertheless we made it in one piece. We found our hotel very easily and the drivers here are normal and sane.

The hotel is actually very nice (apart from the 2 single beds - which aren't really conducive to a honeymoon!) and the breakfast is actually really nice and this time includes hot foods so Mikey is a happy camper.

Last night we decided to go on a guided tour of the red light district. Now that is not as seedy as it sounds - it was a very intersting tour on how prostitution is legalised and the history of it. We started the tour at the Prostitution Information Centre (only in Amsterdam would they have such a place). After going through the tour you really understand why it is legalised - it is extremely regulated and safe and Holland has the lowest std transmission rate in the sex industry anywhere in the world. Now the lesson is over down to the nitty gritty. Street walking and pimping is against the law so they have windows where girls will stand in their underwear under red lights. If someone wanted to use their services they open the door and the curtains are drawn - very civilised, until we saw the fattest chick on earth sitting in a window wearing white! Eewww!! Probably the most entertaining (if not extremely annoying) part of the tour was this American family from Texas and this fat guy from New York. Sorry to say but these people fit the typical stereotype of annoying yanks - everything is about them, and they asked the most stupidest questions known to man. The guy from New York was only on the tour (we think) to get free porn and did nothing but complain when he found out what it was actually all about. Thankfully these people wandered off about a quarter of the way through and we couldn't find them again, but unfortunately they took with them a south african couple and a really strange couple from Spain (where the guy could easily have been the chick's grandfather!) who actually shoplifted from the Prostitute Information Centre (so we found out later). The tour guide was so upset that she was going to get fired for losing them that this Australian couple on the tour organised a petition with the remaining few of us to help her out. All in all it was a very entertaining night.

After the tour we went to this cool bar getting absolutely hammered on cocktails - well actually mikey only got hammered on one so had to go home!!!!!

Today we went shopping - the centre of town is huge and in the three hours of shopping we didn't even cover a quarter of the shops! Hows this - we went to McDonalds for a quick lunch before shopping and needed to use the bathroom, but you have to pay for the privilege - approx 50cents. Thats right, you read correctly - they charge for the use of the Maccas toilets!!! Unbelievable!

We are having another quiet night tonight as we can't be bothered walking all that way to go to a bar which serves bourbon and coke for 9 euros ($18) each. Thats right folks it is 6 euros for the bourbon and 3 euros if you want coke with it! Absolutely ridiculous!! It was actually cheaper to buy cocktails. Plus we really can't afford it if we want to make the most of the UK over the next couple of weeks.

There are so many pot cafes here the whole place practically stinks of the stuff, but the government wanted to try these cafes out before thinking about legalising marijuana, a good idea as soft drug use here is really under control - actually not many people do it as it isn't forbidden fruit anymore (if that makes sense).

There are also more sex shops than souvenir shops by more than double and they are not covered windows so I am also getting a very good education while I am here!

Tomorrow we head back off to Calais to catch the ferry back to Dover. We are then hiring another car to go to Salisbury on the south west coast of England (near Stonehenge). It is now my turn to drive but that is fine considering I will be on the correct side of the car and road and the english drivers are totally different (aka totally better) than european drivers.

We will try and make contact again in Salisbury, but considering it is only a small place we don't know if they will have an internet cafe. But hopefully we will - we want to keep you all updated!

Take care and luv you all

Karen & Mikey