Netherlands

The Netherlands informally Holland, a country in northwestern Europe, is known for flat landscape of canals, tulip fields, windmills and cycling routes. Amsterdam, the capital, is home to a lot of beautiful historic buildings and is also famous for the red light district, their freespiritness and tons of coffeeshops or just random shops that sell cannabis.

My Trip

• 2004 April 10 to 11 (2 Days): While I was in Brussels, Belgium, spent a night and day in the cities of Utrecht and Amsterdam in Netherlands with my friends on our way to Germany from Brussels.

Visited Places/Attractions

• Utrecht (Wind mills, canals)
• Amsterdam (City tour, De Wallen, Dam Square)

Travelogue

Below is an account of a night and day in the cities of Utrecht and Amsterdam in Netherlands with my friends on our way to Germany from Brussels on 2004 April 10, while I was working and living in Brussels, Belgium.

When we started our trip to Holland from Brussels in my friend's car, it was very hard for us to get out of the city to the motorways. Finally found the motorway to Antwerp and now it was easy to navigate. Our destination was Uttrecht, a city in Holland near Amsterdam, where my friend's Dutch friend lives. After almost 2 hours, we reached there by night. I was really excited to land in the fourth country in Europe and the nineth foreign country am visiting. My friend and him took us to his home. It was already full. He has rented two rooms for two Chinese girls. And he is a single parent of a 16 year old girl and a younger boy. We met all of them and spent a nice time there. Later went out looking for coffee shops. But all of them were closed and Claudius showed us some pubs which were underground and had openings to the water canals. Enjoyed lamb showerma as dinner from a cafe and slept very late.

Next day, woke up a bit late. Then waited for others to get ready. The Dutch guy was so tired last night but had to wake up for us. He took us to some interesting places in Uttrecht. I sat in his car while others followed us in their car. There was one place where hookers do their business in boats anchored in a canal. Even on this Easter Sunday morning, there were some for the business. Then we went to a picturesque castle on a beautiful canal side. After that went to see the real landmarks of Holland. Wind mills. I was really excited to see two big and beautiful wind mills near a canal. Unfortunately it was not working. Took lots of photos.

After that, we said good bye to him and went to Amsterdam. Since taking car to the city was not a good idea, we parked the car near a metro station before city. Then took the metro train to the city. There was a sunday market and I bought some souvenirs like small models of Wind mill and wooden clogs. After that another metro trip to the central of Amsterdam. The city was colorful and attractive. Blue and white stripped sleek trams and hundreds and thousands of bicycles were the first thing I noticed. Amsterdam is known for the use of cycles called bikes and the city have special parking places and riding tracks all over.

While walking through the city I met an old Malayalee friend as well. Now he is working in a German company and came here for a trip. It's amazing... meeting a friend accidently in Amsterdam! No wonder they says mallus are every where in this world!

The most visited place in the city is the red light district. It is the headquarter of world in that matter. The whole city and especially this area was crowded with tourists. The district was set on canal sides and there was all kinds of shops and entermaint centres related to this business. Amsterdam was known for its openness in this thing. It was really so open!
We had our lunch from a Chinese restaurant as buffet for 7.5 Euros. But I didn't eat much as I got easily tired of the oily food. I tried to eat with chop sticks, but wasn't easy. Also visited a Chinese temple there.

Spent a lot of time walking through the city seeing canals and the boats passing through them.
Netherlands is the only place where drugs are legal. There were numerous 'Coffee Shops' selling soft drugs. You can enter one of them and order or roll your own and can be smoked from there or can take out.

All of us were so tired of walking and roaming around for the past two days. So decided to return when it was getting late as we need to drive to Germany to reach my friend's home. So we went to the place where we parked our car, by metro and then started the long ride to Germany. This time I was in the back seats trying to get some sleep. After around 3 hours and driving about 200 kms, we reached his home in Duisburg, a small city in Western Germany where he is living and working. Visit to my fifth country in Europe and tenth in the global list! I have all reasons to be happy.