Oh my! Amsterdam....

So here we are in Amsterdam.

I have SO much to write about this place that I could spend days merrily typing away.

It's the strangest, most different city I have ever been to. God, where to begin!? Ok, let's start with something easy. The bicycle / road / pedestrian system!! How confusing is that!? Both myself and Neil have nearly been run over 3 times each by mad cyclists and moped-ers. The thing is, it's mostly, if not totally, our faults. You see they have this system where the bikes pretty much have their own roads. Add to this tram lanes and sometimes when you're crossing the roads you have to contend with 6 streams of traffic, all moving at varying speeds. It might sound easy but you just come and try it. Especially after a few sherberts!

We obviously haven't frequented the coffee shops to get stoned as that would be just wrong. In fact we've just sampled several varieties of coffee in the various establishments. They're absolutley as cool as you can imagine. A totally new experience for me.

The red light district. Again, only visited for anthropological reasons. I feel a bit sorry for these girls. Yes, they're attractive, but you wonder. As I've been wondering the streets I've been pondering whether visiting one would make me cooler or less cool. I guess it would depend on who you're talking to. And did I visit one.... Ha....I couldn't possibly comment.

The city has a feel and coolness about it that makes me desperate to return. I can't believe it's so close and I've never been. It's almost Victorian in a lot of it's ways. It's a difficult one to explain, and is something that I'll have to try and talk people through face to face.

Oh and one other thing about Amsterdam. It's SO easy to get lost. I've been lost a couple of times and I like to think I'm quite good at reading maps. But not in Amsterdam!!!

Hope everyone is good and I'll try and post from Paris tomorrow.