bill on tour: amsterdam, part 1...
Last night, I returned from my holiday of 13 days which I spent in Amsterdam and Liverpool, and OMG, what a holiday that was. I still can't quite believe that some of the events actually happened. :D Even now, I'm still high on adrenaline and excitement, because it was so awesome. I'm in no state to write a coherent report, so it'll just be a list of events, but I have LOTS of pictures to make up for that. In fact, I have so many pictures that I'll have to split my report in more parts.
I. Amsterdam, first stay.
I. Amsterdam, first stay.
- My trip to Amsterdam didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. First thing upon leaving my flat, a sign at my station said that there was construction so there wouldn't be any trains to central station. Fortunately, I had left early, so I caught the bus that was supposed to replace the train (but took a LOT longer!) and arrived at central station in time. I totally would have missed my connection if I hadn't left 15 minutes before my train was supposed to leave my station. *shudders* Had a 1h-layover in Frankfurt (ah, the happy memories!) and decided to take a couple of pics there. Then, the train from Frankfurt suddenly didn't go to Amsterdam Centraal but to Utrecht (WTF?) and I had to take a train to Amsterdam from there, which delayed my arrival by over 30 minutes.
Hilarious advert for a Longman Spanish - the ad says: "I love Spain. And its conquerors." XD (Yes, I do too.)
Frankfurt Central Station. *feels all nostalgic*
More of the station.
The street where our hotel was. In the distance, you can see the business quarter with the huge bank buildings.
Sign on a platform at Cologne Central Station. I'm apparently 12, so I totally cracked up at the English "translation". XD
- I was totally knackered when I arrived in Amsterdam, but the moment I saw Lhun, it was all forgotten. :D We hugged like mad and then entered Gothingham Palais together. XD OMG, what an awesome flat she has. I instantly felt at home. And she'd made me Asian noodle soup with vegetables and prawns! SO GOOD. Exactly what I needed after my long journey.
Lhun's awesome flat.
Love the poster on the wall especially. :D
"My" room. I wouldn't have thought how comfortable a mattress could be! :D
The view from the living room window.
Poster of Iker on the door. Probably one of the most hilarious things in this flat. We kept cracking jokes about it, saying that he possibly knew about the crazy/pervy discussions that went on in this flat so he opted for not listening and thus keeping his sanity. XDD
- We spent the first day lazing about in Lhun's flat, which was muchly appreciated. I went through some of her football magazines and photographed some pages (prepare for huge picspams as soon as I've sorted through them), and we chatted about everything and nothing (mostly footballers), shared pics and videos and had a great time. Also, I wasn't allowed to help with anything because I was the guest. I felt like a total macho sitting there reading porn football magazines while Lhun was cooking, but she said it was alright. XD And OMG, what yummy food we had! I'm going to put all the food pics here to have them all in one place, so please don't think we ate all that in one day. XDD
Lhun made me breakfast on my first day, OMG. Yep, I was staying at the best hotel ever. :D
Broccoli & blue cheese soup, baguette and garlic/herbs butter. I had never eaten blue cheese before and wasn't sure I'd like it, but it was so yummy.
On March 30th was the birthday of our favourite Sevillian, Sergio Ramos, so we had tapas to celebrate for him. He might not approve of the Catalán sausages, but we definitely enjoyed them. XD
We also had several glasses of sherry. Yum yum yum.
Everything in one pic: Spanish tortilla, Catalán sausages, white bread, olives, garlic/herbs butter, chorizo, cheese and a mediterranean salad. I salivate just thinking about how good that was.
- On the second day, we finally went sightseeing! We had a walk through the awesome quarter Lhun is living in and then went to the Maritime Museum and the harbour. We had lunch in a restaurant on the roof of Amsterdam's library where you could sit on a little terrace and have an awesome view on the city.
Hotel Lhun. XD
The area she lives in is really gorgeous. Very quiet (well, if you deduce the construction workers right outside the bedroom window that made a huge noise every morning XD), and yet near the city centre.
Just a random light/shadow shot to show you how awesome my camera is. XDD
The bath house for men. XDD *nudges all the Queer as Folk watchers*
I love the architecture of Amsterdam.
This is actually the first thing I saw of the city: the clock tower of Central Station. ;)
The second thing I saw when I first left Central Station was the Church of St. Nicholas, which I instantly renamed "Bendtner Church" because I'm silly.
"Bendtner Church" wasn't only a major orientation point for sailors in history but also turned out to be a major orientation point for me because the bus I had to take to Lhun's flat left directly in front of this church.
Of course I had to take a pic of a windmill. ;)
I almost squeed when I saw this building of the Dutch Royal Navy. *is a geek*
Unfortunately, the Maritime Museum was closed for maintenance/renovation and won't be open again before 2010, but it's definitely a pretty building.
Well, I'll just have to come back in 2010, won't I? ;)
Berthed ships!
The science centre NEMO! (What a cool name for a science centre!)
Our lunch in the roof restaurant of Amsterdam Library. It wasn't exactly cheap, but it was excellent.
The view from the restaurant terrace. Innit gorgeous? :D
NEMO and the new Amsterdam!
- Near the Maritime Museum, berthing in front of NEMO, there's a replica of the Amsterdam, a 18th century cargo ship of the Dutch East India Company. I had already seen her from the train during my journey to Amsterdam, and as I'm a huge Age of Sail geek, I had to visit her, of course. And take lots of pics.
The bow of the Amsterdam. The figurehead is a lion that looks as if it's just escaped from a cartoon. XD
And the stern.
That's where you start your tour around the vessel.
Another pic of the bow.
The main deck.
A view of the quarterdeck.
The masts as seen from the poop deck.
The obligatory rigging/fighting top shot. :D
Bowsprit!
This is where the sailors stayed in their free time.
And had their food. Sorry for the weird angle, I don't know what happened there. Maybe I was trying to make this modern art. ;)
These stairs lead down to the hold.
Cannon! :D
I especially loved these neat movable cannons on the poop deck.
The capstan, used for heaving-in or veering ropes, cables, and hawsers.
This is the last cannon pic, I swear.
The galley, where the ship's cook prepared food for 300 (!) sailors and officers.
Food!
A week's menu for the ship's crew. The officers got better stuff, of course.
Yay, rifles!
And pistols! (Ah, how I'd love to own one of these.)
The surgeon's cabin.
Passenger cabin.
The captain's bed. It was TINY! I can't believe a grown man slept in that! Also, the ceiling was very very low. I'm not a tall person, but I had to bend my back to be able to walk in this room!
More of the captain's cabin.
The captain's desk and birdcage... XD
Lots of dishes in the cupboard of the Great Cabin.
The officers' dining table.
Yum!
The captain's main desk. In the cupboard, there were lots of maps and even a sextant! I squeed. :D
The hold.
You could climb that little rope ladder in the background here and look into the storage rooms for food and arms.
Boxes of the Dutch East India Company.
The main export goods from East India: coffee and spices.
The ship's bell. Unfortunately, one couldn't strike it. ;)
The view from the poop deck of the Amsterdam. The building on the right is actually a Chinese restaurant built on water.
- We also visited the Red Light District, which was totally awesome. People are a lot less open about sex in Germany, let me tell you! XD It felt a bit weird at first to walk past all those nightclubs, sex shops and strip bars, and I'm sure I stared quite a lot, but it was FUN! The most surprising part of my visit to this district was probably the half-naked girls in shop windows, brushing their hair, fixing their make-up, or just posing to get customers. It's not allowed to take pics of them, so there aren't any, but there's one rather hilarious surprise...
Don't you just LOVE these pillows on the chairs? :D
Some of the houses in Amsterdam are actually built on the water.
Probably one of the pics that scream "Amsterdam" the loudest: the amount of bikes in this city is just amazing. There's an extra lane for cyclists parallel to the car lanes, and you have to pay really good attention so you don't get run over by one. XD
Not quite sure if this is Danny Jones' or Danny Agger's, but it amused me to no end. XD We actually went in there to look for leather caps. :D