We are now relaxing in the cute little town of Sailsbury for
two nights before heading to Bristol, but I will venture back to Amsterdam to
fill you in on the final leg of our trip.
We arrived early afternoon where the weather was a chilling shock after
spending so much time in shorts and t-shirt we all quickly changed into long
sleeve tops and jeans. A quick bite to
eat, noodle box style and man the broccoli was a refreshing change, before
hitting the town to see the red light district.
While a little disturbing at times, it was not as tacky as I expected
and a short visit was enough before heading home in preparation for our bike
ride in the morning.
Amsterdam is well known as a cycling city and if you don’t
have a bike, you are not a local. Every
bike looks the same (except the bell!) and there are bikes lining the streets, chained
to anything possible and people ringing their bells for pedestrians to move
constantly. I was unaware of how much of
Amsterdam was surrounded by water before visiting. Similar to Venice, the city is surrounded by
canals but unlike Venice has bike tracks, some narrow roads for small cars and
trams through the city. We had the
opportunity to blend in with the locals and go on a bike tour around the city
and all I can say is wow...I fell in love with Amsterdam. I think this was probably the highlight of my
trip as I love a casual bike ride (I may also have fallen in love with my
amazing old school owl bell that went off every bump I went over) but the views
were magnificent and I found it such a relaxing way to see what the city has to
offer including some amazing lush green parks, the oldest windmill still
standing and a number of amazing canals.
After our ride, it was time to recharge and have some lunch
in the town square where I opted for a ceaser salad as I knew what sugar hit
was going to come afterwards, the famous Holland waffles. There are so many options to have with your
waffles including nutella, berries and all kinds of choc or syrups but I opted
for white chocolate flakes and caramel sauce. It was heaven in my mouth, the
waffle was hot out off the press and had just the right amount of sweetness to
mix with the crisp dough. I don’t think
I can ever have another waffle from any other country as nothing will ever meet
the expectation I have now set for this sugary treat. Before spending the afternoon shopping (which
by the way to add to its already amazing appeal, the shopping in Amsterdam was
fantastic), I had to stop into a little take away shop to check out the world
famous vending machines. The locals got
sick of dealing with people who have the munchies, so they invented vending
machines with hot food so they didn’t have to serve them. I could not believe how large they were and
they literally took up an entire wall in the shop. An amazing invention which I am surprised has
not spread to other part of the world, even though the food did look a little
old and I would not be trusting what was dispensed out of that thing!
As our final night of tour approached we headed to a
floating restaurant on a canal for our final meal together. As the restaurant is surrounded by water, which
apparently has amazing seafood swimming around down there, I was expecting to
sample some fish but to my surprise we arrived at a Chinese restaurant where we
had a buffet type meal. The food was
tasty but much like all Chinese cuisine was extremely filling. Time to head for a canal cruise to say
goodbye to the crew before joining the locals to celebrate after Holland played
in the Euro cup. As the munchies set in
on our way home, there was one last opportunity to sample another of
Amsterdam’s well known snacks, Vlaamse frites. A paper cone
shape filled with chips and covered with any sauce you can imagine. I opted for
curry and sweet chilli, a surprisingly tasty combination. The curry sauce was a similar taste to curry
powder mixed with either cream or sour cream and was so much better than I
expected, something I might try mixing up myself the next time I am making some
chips with some spare curry powder to use up!
After limited sleep, some vegemite on bread (as the crazy
Europeans apparently do not believe in toast in the morning, I think this was
about the 5th backpackers we visited that did not have a toaster)
and a 7am departure, we were back on the bus heading ‘home’ to London. We dragged the trip out as much as possible
and had a stopover in Belgium to try out some famous Belgium chocolate as it
was some Belgians that invented filling chocolate with anything and everything
you can think of. I purchased a mix bag
as I had no idea what to try and so far the majority of them have been smooth
and delicious, however I do not think it is as good as the Swiss chocolate.
We have now had five days in London where we have spent a
lot of time eating salads, yoghurt and fruit while catching up with both friends
and sleep. We did however manage to fit
in an Australian and New Zealand musical festival called Homelanz on Saturday
where we spent the day relaxing on the grass listening to some tunes. It was a lot of fun and we took the
opportunity to devour some pizza shapes and gosh we didn’t realise how much we
missed them until we ate the box in about 5 minutes flat!
I am now sitting on a couch in Sailsbury after having my
first opportunity to cook a dinner myself, where we opted for steamed vegies
and chicken, watching Croatia V Spain (with a bunch of high school Spanish
exchange students so it’s a little crazy you can imagine) in the Euro cup. Tomorrow we are getting back into the
sightseeing and heading to Stonehenge for the day. We have now been out of the country for over
a month and reflecting on the things we have already seen and done is a little
mind boggling, but after some much needed r&r we will be back on the road
sampling some more of Europe’s cuisine, more than likely Spanish tapas, to
tempt your tastebuds into coming over and visiting me xx
Sad to see the tour's over Chlo, it's been great hearing about the food unique to each country - you're so brave trying it all! Looking forward to hearing more about England's food tho and any tasty meals you cook along the way!
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