XXX

We finally visited Amsterdam!!!

Now, the title of the post is 'XXX' because this is kind of a symbol that can be seen all over Amsterdam. I've just Wiki-ed it, and apparently, the flag of Amsterdam has these very same three crosses!

The main city square in Amsterdam, check out the grey skies

With this view of Amsterdam, it did feel pretty much like an old and tired city. Maybe it's cos of the weather, maybe it's because we were there early and there weren't many people. Still, I wouldn't call it a vibrant city..... more historical, certainly.

The Madam Tussaud building in Amsterdam (we didn't visit, tho)







On a bridge across one of the many canals in Amsterdam

This is sort of the typical street in Amsterdam, rows & rows of two to three-storyed houses that look like that. The flavour of Amsterdam is very distinct. I haven't yet been to any other European countries, so maybe that's why I feel this way. Not sure if other countries have that many canals, either.

A typically Dutch dish! Hutspot! It's something like mashed potatoes in gravy, with a slab of meat (beef!)

Celebrity endorsement for Hutspot!

Maggie & I loved the dish! Extremely filling (for hours) and delicious (though Dutchman Gwylim doesn't like it) :) It's actually a winter dish so it probably has the winter kind of calories too (sigh). After lunch, we proceeded to the famous red light district of Amsterdam!

Within the streets of the red light district

Can you see the windows with the red curtains on the right? Wherever the red curtains are, there you'll be able to find the women. We were there in the day so the red lights weren't on but a couple of hardworking ladies had already started work!

We saw a few ladies sitting behind the glass windows when we walked through a few streets... It would be too tedious trying to describe what it was like... so here's a picture I found on the web!

Focus on the window!

Yep, the ladies in lingerie (only!) do sit or stand behind the window panes waiting for people to walk past & decide if they want their services. The only misrepresentation the photo might give is that... well, not all the ladies we saw looked like that. Hmm... most of those we saw were either quite old, or quite big. We saw only one HOT lady, perhaps out of ten that whole day.

Being neither very artistically, musically or theatrically inclined, amongst all the nice, old musuems Amsterdam had to offer, we went to this....

Entrace to the museum, which was 5 storeys high!

In the musuem were exhibits that were obviously in some way, all related to sex. There's a huge variety, I must say, though I shall not post many pictures up (although you may ask to see them if you meet me) . We also watched some cartoons that were ermmm.... X-rated. Interesting at first but gets repetitive and boring after awhile.

The first ever .... ( use your own imagination here)

(use your own imagination here too :) )

Only pictures of machines here, no erotic pictures here....... Hahahahahahha. Well, there is actually one.

Hot hot hot!!!! (The elephant in the centre looks like Sharity, doesn't it!)

After the red light district, the next most exciting thing is to experience being in the vicinity of coffeeshops! (hurhurhurhur... as if)

There are plenty of coffeeshops in Amsterdam! In these shops, you can buy weed or hash (these are the only two things I know, so it's not exhaustive) legally (? : I'm not sure if it's legal, or if the law is just non-enforced here) . It's okay to use weed/hash within the shops but not on the streets.

Photo of a coffeeshop

I'd expected a coffeeshop to be somewhat, dark, shady, perhaps even sleazy. But no, they seem to be just like cafes (at least the ones we encountered). So there, time to discard those notions that drug use = crime. It's not always true.

Well, I-am-sterdam

The red-light district & coffeeshops. Boy, am I presenting Amsterdam to you in a very wrong light. It's strange how that in the many souvenir shops we visited, so many of these merchandise focus of the hemp leaf, weed-smoking, sex bla blah blah, with the word "AMSTERDAM" somewhere on the shirt, mugs or whatever.

A tee-shirt with a slogan that aptly describes what I'm talking about read, "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to Amsterdam."

Well, maybe. But bad girls go to Amsterdam to do the bad girl things. Amsterdam is more than just that. I am intrigued by this side of the city because it's just unthinkable to have something like that in Singapore. Bottomline is, Amsterdam is more than what you've seen in this short post and in the souvenir shops. Discover it the way you like best!

The Hague!!!

The first day of our second weekend in the Netherlands was spent at The Hague! The Hague is where all the governmental offices are, like the buildings of the various ministries. Certainly not as tourist-y as Amsterdam, which we visited on day two (more on that, next time...) !

Our "tour guide" for the day is none other than Gwylim! As some of you may remember, Gwylim was in Singapore for SEP one year ago! It was really strange to finally see him again --- only this time our meeting place was in the Netherlands!

We saw many impressive and tall buildings but didn't take any pictures of them simply because tall buildings aren't that intriguing to us. We like nice gardens, greenery and not-more-than-three-storyed-houses :)

Maggie & Gwylim in front of a church

A pity we could not enter the church because there was some sort of event going to take place afterwards but oh well, no matter.

The cafe where we had our lunch

My lunch - a ham and cheese bagel :)

Maggie's sandwich (very thinly sliced beef)

View from the table we were sitting at

Wherever there's good weather, we always dine outdoors! It's really a pity to dine indoors when the weather is nice! I used to not be able to understand why Caucasians adore sunshine so much and love sun-bathing or picking the sunniest spot. But from those few gloomy, rainy days we had here, I think I know better now.


After lunch, we proceeded to Madurodam! It's a miniature city of all the important places in the Netherlands!

(Gwylim: Help! What is this building called?)

The Dom Tower in Utrecht, minituarized!

And again!

Yup, I'm sure you get the idea what Madurodam is all about. The thing I really liked was that everything built there is pretty detailed. Close up, you can really see all the fine workmanship of these miniatures.

After Madurodam, we took another tram to Scheveningen beach!

We tried something typically Dutch --- HARING! Haring is raw fish but not like Japanese sashimi. We weren't brave enough to try haring on its own, so we opted for the haring in bread with onions!

Maggie with a mouthful of haring and bread!

The close-up picture I took of it turned out blur, so here's the best picture I can find from the internet of what haring looks like :

A small fish, unlike the salmon sashimi

Maggie was the brave one! I ate only one mouthful and decided it was enough. Maggie finished the rest!!!!! +three claps for Maggie!+ But we both agreed we would not get a second helping for a long, long while. Heehee.

Just people sitting around near the pier

The beach!

The sand was pretty fine..... Slightly coarser than those of Siloso beach but lots of broken shells. In any case, much better than East Coast Park......

Maggie's new love interest - Not Gwylim but Miffy, the bunny on top

For those who recognised Miffy, I bet you didn't know Miffy's creator was Dutch! Miffy has a Dutch name - also probably the original - Nijnje!

Beer in the breeze on the beach!!!!! Gosh, how much better can it get!

Looking really cool only when you can't see most of my face :)

Maggie looking absolutely content, again!

View of the pier from the beach

Took a train back to Utrecht, where Gwylim stays in an apartment on campus, which we spent the night at ! Here's his student room!

Nice for a student room huh? But well, most of the stuff, including the flooring was fitted in by Gwylim himself so yeah, you could do that to your hostel room too :)

Okays that's about it for Day One of the previous weekend (behind time, again!) Blog on Amsterdam the next time!

A New Messageboard!

As you can see, I've added a new tagboard to the right! I've heard that it's difficult to post comments on blogspot (don't know why), so hopefully the board makes it easier.


(Gwylim & Remco, please fill free to add in any details you wish....)


However, any requests for food items or whatever, please continue to post comments at blogspot because the tagboard comments are not permanent - once they are gone I won't see them & I may forget them!



Here are all my replies to the comments so far....:

Yilynn: I just found and read your comments yesterday... Didn't know where you posted them! Do remember to get back the money for the present from me when I get back! And.. take care :)
Yiting: Maggie loves Miffy as much as you do, probably even more. We'll get one back for you.

Liyun: I know you miss me, you always did. KTV KTV KTV KTV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shuhui: HEY!!! Enjoy the last bit of your holidays, I know you've been working real hard!

Huixian: I've been very guai here... Fun, but guai fun. You know what I mean...

Pee: Don't read too much into "the best part"! You're not missing anything here though you always do. Remember to help me bid for German!

Khu: Why am I not surprised that you're the first to request for food! Hurhurhurhur. If your journal gets published I'll buy you one pack okay, if not just ONE waffle for you.

David: Hello noob blogger. Is Qiushen anything like Khu? You must be having so much fun with Khu............... Hurhurhur.

Think you've seen a nice house?

Tessa brought us to her parents house two weekends ago. I shan't even try to describe the house to you, please see for yourself.......... .... ....

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Big, pretty house with a thatched roof!

The thatched roof sure looks good but it has to replaced every 40 years. What's more, it's expensive to replace and home insurance also becomes more expensive because thatched roofs catch fire easily. So, beauty does come at a price!

Maggie with the de Vos family!

(Back row: Carels, Elsbeth, Tessa, Maggie. Front Row: Elsa, Svea / Svea, Elsa)

The guest house ( Would be content just to have a house like this next time!)

Somewhere to sit at tea overlooking the garden

We had yummilicious Danish cookies (from IKEA!) for tea & tiny pears that fell from the trees in their very own garden. It's kind of a pity that we only took pictures within the house when it got darker so the next few pictures are all kind of dark.

Absolute pity that a cosy living room should look so dark & gloomy :(

The kitchen

Ah. Warm & nice with the lights.

Now, wait till you see what comes with the house.

A hugggggge garden!!!

Big part of the garden

No fences mark the boundaries of the garden. There's just this little ermm... stream of water (covered with moss) that lie behind the two trees you see, and then it's a maize plantation!

One of the few times in my life I voluntarily WANT to sit on the grass

Flowers in another part of the garden that I couldn't capture in the other picture. The black thing Maggie's patting is not me. It's Svea. It's really amazing how Elsbeth & Carel can manage such a big garden all by themselves!

Everything in this picture is so pretty....

(Tessa, can we have pasta one more time? :) )

Elsbeth & Carel prepared a barbeque for us! I haven't actually had a barbeque within someone's house as far as I can remember! It's either at East Coast Park or at someone's condo bla bla bla.

Cold Tomato-y (Spanish) Soup to begin the meal

No more pictures with food. We were too busy eating :) Heeehee. Just imagine nice, barbequed hamburger patties, sausages, satay (meat on sticks) kindda thing ok? Except they're done perfectly, not charred, not still red & raw or too oily :) Carel did all the BBQ-ing & Elsbeth prepared most of the other things like the soup, the salad, bread etc. We just ate. Hehehe.

They ate me up for dinner so I'm no longer in the picture

Everything in the picture, the tables, chairs, umbrella and people were not there initially! Everything was moved out from somewhere just so we could have a nice bbq overlooking the garden... I guess it would be totally worth the trouble ( I'm just guessing cos it was Tessa's parents who prepared everything, not me) though so few people in Singapore would do it. (of course, we don't have a garden to overlook in the first place....... ... ...)

The sunset at about 9plus after dinner

Really glad that we came during summer. The days are long - the sun rises at 4plus in the morning and doesn't disappear completely till half past ten. It's not humid, the weather's cooling, though a little too cold when windy sometimes. Just like Singapore, the sky rains whenever it feels like but well, it's ok, we're used to carrying an umbrella around.

Anywayyyyyy, apart from the eating and lounging around at the house, we did something healthy too! We went for a walk at some sort of a nature reserve nearby the house in the afternoon!

The dogs at the back of the car.... really close







Elsbeth with Siamese twins!












Purple riding hood in the enchanted forest

Purple riding hood on the bridge crossing over to the dark woods

Big bad wolf in the dark woods

Purple riding hood - GONE











Big bad wolf below the observatory tower with a round tummy :)

Looking out from the tower for new prey

Scanning the fields.... Nothing to be found :(

The way down from the tower

Purple riding hood resurrected!

Yet another relaxing, enjoying - but to us a completely new way - of spending a Sunday. We wish very much to thank Elsbeth & Carel for being such great hosts for the day. Tessa too, of course but there's so much to thank for as well.