Monday, 29 September 2008

29 September 2008 - 1 October 2008

Can you see me?

29 September 2008 - 1 October 2008
Rhine Valley, Germany to Amsterdam, Netherlands

29 September 2008
Rhine Valley (St Goar), Germany to Amsterdam, Netherlands

Before we headed off to Amsterdam, we stopped off in St Goar for a beer stein and cuckoo clock demonstration. Left is the largest free standing cuckoo clock in the world.

And then once in the Netherlands we stopped off for a cheese and traditional clog making demonstration where we got to sample the cheese and purchase souvenirs (I love souvenirs!!)

Once checked into our hostel it was time to head into the "red light district" to see the "Moulin Rouge" sex show. What can I say ... it was interesting and entertaining and a bit uncomfortable. After that we had a walk around "skinny alley" which is pretty girls standing in shop windows waiting to be ... brought ... is that the right word? Once that was over and done with we headed to St Christopher's Inn where we spent the night drinking cheap two for ones!!

30 September 2008
Amsterdam, Netherlands
This morning we were supposed to get up bright and early and head out on a bike tour of the city, unfortunately it was pouring (and I was getting sick AGAIN!! and maybe a little worse for wear after the night before) so decided to can it and have a lie in. Once awake and out of bed we headed off to the Anne Frank Museum - Anne Frank gained fame posthumously following the publication of
her diary which documents her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Anne and her family moved to Amsterdam in 1933 after the Nazis gained power in Germany, and were trapped by the occupation of the Netherlands, which began in 1940. As persecutions against the Jewish population increased, the family went into hiding in July 1942 in hidden rooms in her father Otto Frank's office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Seven months after her arrest, Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, within days of the death of her sister, Margot Frank. Her father Otto, the only survivor of the group, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that her diary had been saved, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl.

This museum was sad but nice to go and see, I have become somewhat fascinated with the Holocaust since my trip away.

After the museum we spent the next couple of hours looking around and having pictures taken and then went back to the hostel to pack, for the last time (weep weep) and then headed off to the floating Chinese restaurant for dinner.

After dinner we had booked a (booze) cruise on the river. We had a great time on the boat drinking to our hearts content and then headed into another bar in Amsterdam where we danced until we got booted out and ... had to pay 50 cents to use the toilet! Ripped!!

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