THE NETHERLANDS - DAY 3

We left Rotterdam and travelled by train into Amsterdam. The trains over here are beautiful. We got to sit in first class with lush leather seats, lots of leg room and closed off from other passengers. They colour code their classes, blue is second class and red is first class.

While travelling we contacted the appartment where we were staying and found out that we were staying 30 kilometres outside of Amsterdam. We had to hussle as we had a city and Anne Frank House tour at 2:30 and it was an hour round trip to Zandvoort the seaside town we were staying in.

We arrived in Zandvoort and walked at a rather brisk pace to find the apartment. We dropped all our luggage and rushed back to the train station clambered aboard and headed back into Amsterdam.

Madness and maham. People everywhere. We found the tour bus and climbed aboard with five minutes to spare. Then we waited for 15 minutes before we left. We were nice and warm after our mad dash to make it in time.

We travelled around Amsterdam while the tour guide pointed out various buildings and other points of interest. Then we came to our first stop, the diamond factory. We were shown the process of how diamonds are cut and polished before we were locked into a little room where they showed us some lovely diamonds. The largest would have set us back a miniscule 85000 euros, small change really. Pasqual wouldn't buy me one so we wandered around the shop before heading outside to catch the bus.

The bus was gone! Pasqual went back inside and was informed that it was around the corner. We ran off after the bus. Comical really with Pasqual and Ellexis in the lead, Angelique and I half a block behind and Grandad trailing up the rear.

Pasqual rounded the corner and was gone. Ellexis stayed on the corner jumping up and down as we reached her. She then informed us that Daddy was on the bus and it has travelling down the road. We continued to pursue the bus and at the other end of the road it stopped and they released Pasqual. We caught up and staggered on.

Totally exhausted after this much exercise but we calmed down and headed for the Anne Frank House.

This was brilliant. We spent several hours just wandering around this place. It was the building where they hid for two years before being betrayed by someone. Fascinating stuff. Angelique was delighted to find out that Anne's birthday was the same as hers. They even had her actual diaries she wrote in.

We left and slowly made our way back to the train station. We got to the appartment after 8:00 and staggered off to bed.