bill on tour: amsterdam, part 2...
IV. Amsterdam, second stay.
During my second stay in Amsterdam, I did the following:
- Visited Lhun's shop. And bought something. XD
- Had dinner with Lhun at an Uruguayan steak house. OMG, the food was so good. I wish I could have steak every day. :D
- Went on a boat tour through the canals of Amsterdam.
- Walked through the city.
- Had tea with Lhun at a posh café. XD
- Visited Amsterdam Dungeon.
- Visited Mme Tussaud's.
- Watched the Villarreal/Arsenal CL match with Lhun. Also watched the Liverpool match, but I'd rather not talk about that.
- Went to the Amsterdam ArenA, the stadium of Ajax Amsterdam, and watched Ajax train. ♥
- Met up with the lovely mer5. *glomps*
- Had an absolutely fantastic time and didn't want to go back home. *LOL*
This is where the canal tour started. Nice boat, isn't it? Also, the captain was hilarious. When Lhun got on the ship, he complimented her shoes! XD
I love flag chains like that. :D
The inside of our boat.
Sail ho! (Well, almost.)
"Bendtner Church", viewed from the canal.
If I remember correctly, this was the residence of a Dutch prince, one who was very fond of sailing. Therefore, he was called "The Sailor". (I don't think he ever sailed, though. XD) Not quite sure what the building is used for today.
Amsterdam is still short of accomodations for all its citizens, so a lot of people live on houseboats.
A defense tower, I think. The white part of it was added later.
Hee, rainbow flag! :D
I've already said it but I'll say it again: I love Amsterdam's architecture. So many gorgeous buildings!
Bridge post with crown! Don't remember what it means, but I think it looks very cool.
Hello, little seagull!
And there was a duck as well!
If I'm not completely mistaken, this is a statue of St. George killing a dragon. Below the dragon, there's an elephant's head. (Very creative indeed. XD)
I loved those little bridges. This canal takes you to all the side canals, by the way, which is why there are so many bridges here.
Sun curtains!
This restaurant is called "The Admiral" and has a cool figurehead of an admiral above the door. :D
The harbour.
This is the main station for the ferry, which a lot of commuters use to get home from work.
A building thta reminded me a lot of the White Star Line's office in Liverpool.
Nifty ship!
NEMO science centre and the new Amsterdam!
Of course I had to take another photo of her.
The library. If you look closely, you can see the terrace of the restaurant under the roof. :)
Central Station.
Across the street of where the canal tour started, there was this. I didn't go in, though. I'm sure they only show all the boring, innocent stuff anyway. XDD
A fair in honour of the Queen's birthday. Her residence is behind the fair, but Lhun said she's never there for the fair. Understandably. ;)
We decided to be posh and have this for tea. It was so sinful, but so good. :D (And I had grapefruit juice with it, so everything's forgiven. XD)
The fair again, and the Queen's residence behind it.
A war monument. Not quite sure why it's shaped like that, though... ;)
More flags!
The Uruguayan steak house we went to.
The Amsterdam Dungeon. It's a haunted house, basically, with a little ride in it and lots of historical information. There are real actors scaring the crowd and telling stories. For example, we learned about the Plague, the Inquisition, medieval torture, soul merchants (usually owners of pubs that sold customers to owners of ships), the painter Rembrandt and his two wives, etc. I had already visited the Dungeons in York and Hamburg, so I knew more or less what to expect, but it was still a little scary and therefore LOADS of fun.
Mme Tussaud's. Unfortunately, there were so many people in there that I couldn't really enjoy my visit. I had to hurry a lot to take pictures because lots of people wanted to be photographed with the wax figures, and therefore my photos didn't really turn out that great. I'm going to share them nevertheless, just to give you an idea of the people featured at this Mme Tussaud's.
Lenin and Gorbachev. One of the best pictures I managed to take.
Schröder.
Two little doggies. Don't remember who they belonged to, but I thought they looked funny.
Princess Máxima. She's so pretty. I probably spent about 5 minutes staring at her.
Prince Willem-Alexander and Queen Beatrix.
John F. Kennedy.
Pavarotti. He was rather strangely shaped! XD
The Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela.
Gandhi.
Princess Diana.
Elle Macpherson.
David Bowie. The light in this room was horrible for my camera, so all the pics turned out weirdly coloured. :(
Bob Marley. He looked better from the side, but the picture I had taken earlier turned out all blurry because someone pushed me while I pressed the button. And as soon as I had walked past him, there were too many people behind me and I couldn't go back.
Prince formerly known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince... and so on.
Jon Bon Jovi. Though I do believe he looks a lot hotter than this wax figure of him.
Freddie!!
Bono from U2. I was a bit pouty that The Edge wasn't there.
The Spice Girls and some random visitor. It was impossible to get just the five Spice Girls, everyone wanted to be photographed with them, so I gave up after a while.
Lenny Kravitz.
Ronaldinho, the only footballer featured at Mme Tussaud's. I took part in a survey in front of the exit and suggested they'd add Iker Casillas to their collection. ;)
He looks damn realistic, though!
Albert Einstein.
Eddie Murphy.
The one and only James Bond Sean Connery.
Charlie Chaplin.
Marilyn Monroe.
Anthony Hopkins.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
The hottest figure in this exhibition: Johnny Depp, who looks EXACTLY like the original. It felt completely surreal to stand in front of this figure.
Salvador Dalí and his cock. (XD)
And, last but not least, Pablo Picasso.
Pictures of the ArenA and Ajax training will follow. I don't want to kill your computer by posting too many pics. ;)