First day!

First sight of Rotterdam! We (mom, bro and myself) took an overnight cruise from UK to Rotterdam, Netherlands. The sleep was all right although i have to sleep on the top bunk. We were so tired that day by the time we reached UK from Abu Dhabi; especially me who flew there on the same day i arrived Malaysia. Upon arrival, we drove to Rotterdam city. The first thing to tackle was to find a parking space and learn how to pay for the parking ticket!

So, this is their street parking machine without any english instructions. So what happened was my brother asked me to ask a lady about using this machine since it is easier for a woman to talk to another 'woman'. "Fine", I said. Later, we were laughing because she wasn't an actual 'lady' at all, she/he is probably a transvestite. Jokingly, i told my brother that you should have asked him. Hehe! Paid for the ticket and we went for a walk around the city. Coincidentally, there was a parade (soldiers, police, marines...) happening although we are not sure what is it for. Moving on, we drove to Amsterdam (about an hour drive).

 So, this is the typical view of Amsterdam city. Based on the map, the city is surrounded by quite a few canals and the city seems to be arranged in a circular fashion if a satellite picture is taken from above. Most of the buildings are built closely to each other and have about 4-5 levels; typically with a small door and huge windows. I saw a man trying to move a mattress into his unit (upper floor) and saw him using the pulley system to send it up through one of the windows. Interesting!

Another thing that you'll observe in Amsterdam (maybe Netherlands in general?) is that there is probably more cyclists than car drivers. The bicycles are even equipped to carry children! But it seems that it is not their law to wear a safety helmet as i did not see any cyclists wearing one. I can't imagine how they can cycle in such a cold weather. It was about 0-5 C!

Walking around the city, we saw lots of people carrying a cone like shape eating chips! Being curious and greedy as usual, i wanted to try what they were eating. I walked pass this shop 'Manneken-Pis' and saw people queuing up. I just realised that they were buying chips or fries! We bought chips served with mayonnaise. Not bad but quite fatty! I think it was about 4 euros just for the fries. I guess i'm paying more for the experience than a cone of chips! Haha!

Red Light District

In the evening, i told my mom that i wanted to go to Red Light District. I've heard of it before but never been there the last time. It was so difficult for us to find the place. Well, first of all neither my brother nor me dare to ask anyone about its whereabouts. I told my brother it will be normal for him to ask; i was thinking which guy wouldn't want to pay a visit here? Definitely not good for me to ask! From what i can remember, it is quite near the Chinatown. Quite an experience walking along this street... and scary too...

The following day, we went to a village: 'Zaanse Schans'. It is free of charge and you can just walk around the village and surroundings for free.

A wooden shoe workshop (free entrance)

A cheese factory although i think that it is more for a presentation only rather than a real cheese making factory.

In the afternoon, we made our way to Brugge, Belgium.