amsterdam - the netherlands

after hearing the term 'amsterdamage' a significant number of times on our busabout journey from brugge, we had high expectations. these were generally realised and as such there are not too many appropriate pictures for the blog..

one day we hired bicycles and rode to a cheese factory. after an hour or so of riding we stopped to ask some (very friendly) locals where the hell we were. they confided in us that we were no where near the cheese factory and it was still a ridiculous distance away, and that it was never riding distance from the city anyway.... however such is the netherlands that we came across a cheese and wooden clog factory on our way home. here we tagged along for a factory tour with two buses full of elderly germans... so that´s how we ended up where we didn´t want to go on a german language tour of a dutch cheese factory. here is ramsey with some smoked cheese and clogs.

conversley, we were extremely moved after a visit to the wartime hiding spot of anne frank and her family. perhaps more moved than the american who drawled that it was much smaller than she expected, although, she guessed, they couldn't really go outside.

brugge - belgium

in paris we joined the busabout crew (more contiki than we initially expected) and set off on our continental europe adventures. first stop was brugge, belgium (see above and below), which has lots of medieval architecture and bicycles.

belgium is infamous for: beer, chocolate and....tintin (also lace, which is generally ignored in this entry due to the importance of the previous three and my slight disinterest in lace stein holders). after a much anticipated trip to the tintin shop (which has the most uncompetitive prices imaginable) we moved onto the beer and chocolate. we visited a bar which serves 300 types of beer, all of which must be consumed from a very specific and unique glass (a far cry from cracking open tinnies on the balcony at beverley). please note that this creates much (unnecessary) washing up.

we visited a local brugge brewery 'brugse zot', where we marvelled at heat exchangers (left) and other wonderous beer making equipment.

we also found on our walks a playground that looks like a castle. i had slightly more fun than ramsey, who is sulking because of a head injury sustained in climbing to the top of the playground fort (see below). despite all the beer and chocolate and tintin, our favourite part was hanging out with the locals at the fresh produce markets (below). here we sampled an array of fresh fruits. due to the rain, notice that ramsey has quite stylishly and practically, and in the spirit of tintin's pantaloons, rolled up her pants.
another canal shot...

bone fete maman!

paris

after another brief stint in london town we set off for continental europe. for some reason it had not occurred to us that the 10 hour bus trip from london to paris would involve a ferry journey across the channel. this would have been less of a surprise if we had consulted a map. to the left is a self portrait in a surprisingly strong sea breeze on a ferry with the cliffs of dover in the background.

upon arriving in paris it then occurred to us we may have benefited from a french refresher course. this may have allowed us to compliment the extensive range of phrases we did know, (largely including bonjour and merci), with anything that would be remotely helpful in attempting to communicate. we compromised by speaking english with a french accent.

first stop in paris was the lourve (free on the first sunday of every month!), where we experienced the rush of heavy tourist traffic on the mona lisa/venus de milo express route. being serious arty cultural buffs, ramsey and i quickly abandoned the crowds in order to truly appreciate the exhibits (see below).
one blustery evening we packed a picnic (wine and chocolate), stole a rug from the hostel and went with our new friends from dorm 106 (very excellent french canadians) to the bottom of the eiffel tower, where we witnessed the very exciting light spectacle. we noted that cheap wine is bad in most countries. and a here is picture of our friends from dorm 106 below... we learnt from them that the question 'are you allergic to fun?' is not a successful pick up line, contrary to the belief of an enthusiastic american gentleman.
musee d'orsay was a definite highlight for us (we were starting to tire of the renaissance). again, as in every city, we walked a lot and stumbled across interesting things, pausing every now and again to eat baguettes with cheese (left). see below for some funtimes shots.

another highlight was visiting dad's friend michael kennedy at his canadian bar, the moosehead. here we drank tasty canadian beer and ate tasty canadian bar snacks, and even received complimentary t-shirts! yayyy! here is me being a moose. quite a likeness.