Bonjour Madame et Monsuir, ca va?

Tonight we pulled into Paris, France via Thalys train after spending 4 hours in Brussels.

After saying good-bye to Dan yesterday evening (or very early this morning depending on how you classify 1:30 am) we woke up around 8 am this morning, grabbed a hearty breakfast (granola cereal, bread, honey, tea, and orange juice} and headed out on a long walk towards the edge of Amsterdam to see one of the last remaining windmills within the city.

It was smaller than I had expected and looked nothing like the giant stone ones you see in postcards. In fact this one was made of wood and has been overtaken by a cafe but it is a windmill in Holland none the less.

Our weekend in Amsterdam came at the perfect time as Saturday the Netherlands played in the World Cup. Orange (color of the Dutch team) was everywhere, on people, on banners, on flags and streamers strung across the streets.

On my next trip to Holland I will certainly be renting a bicycle. I had no idea how many people in Amsterdam rode bikes - they are even given their own 'tram way' parallel (or sometimes in place of) the road.

We found a lot of bicyclists in Brugge as well. In Amsterdam, however, it was often times a sea of parked bikes, especially in Leidse Square.

Trevor and I both agreed that were we to live in Amsterdam we would certainly need a boat in order to motor through the canals, blasting our techno trance music and pumping both hands in the air.

With Dan as our pseudo guide we must have walked every inch of the city (mostly because Dan had only been there once before) but it was a great way to see Amsterdam and burn off the calories we'd eaten in falafel (YUM!), and cheese. They seem to really like their cheese and bread in Amsterdam (Edam was invented in the area). Trevor is a convert to the Dutch way of making an omelet and tells me the Dutch really know their ham.


We met some friendly Canadians at our hostel who invited us to play a Canadian drinking game with them. They were headed to Istanbul after having taught in Ghana for a few months as part of a school study experience.

The only museum we went to in Amsterdam was the Van Gough museum, although we did see the Anne Frank house from the outside (and pictures of the inside).

Brussels :

We were not able to spend long in Brussels and I am unsure of whether it was simply the area we were in (around Brussels Midi) or what but the city seems a tad seedy and quite frankly dirty for being the capital of Europe.

We did see the Museum of Royal Art, which is housed in what looks like a castle straight from the Rapunzel fairytale.

Paris:

It was late when we got here and having read numerous things about the dangerous reputation of the area around the Guarde d'Nord train station and Anvers Metro station after dark we decided to take a taxi to our hotel (yes I said hotel - no hostel for us in Paris) for only about 7 euros.

Now i am off to get a much needed backrub to ease my aching muscles. Today was my turn carrying Trevor's backpack and it offers less support than mine (thus the turns).

Au revoir!