I really really love having Mum here! Second morning, second delivered breakfast and cup of tea in bed! Keep it up! The first thing, after consuming my breakfast in bed, that I did this morning was download a flight tracker to track Daniel's epic flight from Dubai direct to Melbourne. I'm not sure why, but it makes me feel connected to him a bit for some reason, knowing where he is in his flight! As this was my last day before heading off into the great unknown tomorrow (otherwise known as Munich), today was going to be relatively relaxing, enjoying the company with Mum and Dad, and getting ready for tomorrow. Once we were ready for the day, we jumped on a tram and rode towards the city centre. Depending on the line, we were considering going to Anne Frank House, but once we got off the tram and saw its length, we quickly changed plans and went shopping. Yay. Clearly the woman's influence. I'm not a good shopper, although I am getting better, but I feel at this stage of the trip I'm just destined to fail at it regardless, because I will be coming back to Amsterdam at the end of my trip. It seems a bit silly for me to go shopping now and then having to cart everything across Europe on my own for the next month, when I can do it all at the end! I could be called an improving shopper, but a better straightforward thinker! But not all was lost; I looked at things, and successfully found wifi at some stores! Plus, we went into heaps of cheese stores, and I ate a heap of samples! Yum. We made our way through a lot of the bigger shopping districts in Amsterdam, all the while not buying anything, but looking. It really wasn't that successful actually. But we did find a power adaptor for me for tomorrow! Dad has this fascination that they'll always be in chemists, so we went into one and sure enough he found one. I'm still not sure how it's a chemist type good, but I appreciate I'll have power moving forward! While still on the hunt for one before this, we went into a little supermarket to search. While we didn't find one, I still struck gold - I found a sign with both my last name, and the Dutch word for cheese. Wow! I had to take a photo, for which I was told off. Woman, I didn't see the Dutch words for 'no photos' in store, but admittedly I probably wouldn't have deciphered it if I did. Oh well, I got the photo anyway. I hope she sees it and flips. The morning was fading away, and as we only had a little breakfast, so were we. So we decided to find a café for some lunch. And wifi, to check the progress of Daniel's flight (and say hi to people. Mostly to say hi to people). This motherly influence must really have been getting to me, because I had a coffee, and not beer, with my meal. Wow. I also discovered I really needed to get out of Amsterdam as quickly as I could, judging by the conversation at lunch! Dad: "I've got something to show you Claire" Mum: "No Johnny not here" Dad: "No not that; my camera! You can see that later" I think I spewed a little in my mouth. After lunch we continued our shopping failure / easy stroll around the city. Mum's good influence didn't last long when she inferred that we have a beer. Maybe that's an even better influence! We also saw an old bloke riding his bike in just his underwear there. Only in Amsterdam! It got worse with Mum and Dad too, when Dad suggested we go for a stroll through Fondle Park. What the **** am I still doing here? I want out, now! In reality, it was actually called Vondel Park, but the suggestive delivery from Dad was still disgusting. Despite this, it was a very pretty park, and given the gorgeous day, absolutely packed with people making the most of it. Moving on from here, it conveniently linked to the museum district of Amsterdam, including the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. While we weren't going in them, on such a nice day the surrounds were really good to soak up, and we got to see the big I AM-STERDAM sign. That's probably not all that notable really, but a sort've clever play on words. And it adds words (of ********) to this blog. With a fair bit of strolling accomplished, we decided to start heading back to the apartment. Or at least in that general direction, because on the way we found another little pub along a canal to indulge in a refreshment. Mum's choice. Alco. She paid too though. Yay! We also saw what appeared to be a festival a little further up the canal, and again our inquisitive minds took us over to have a look! I saw the most ridiculous public toilet, taking 'public' to a whole completely new level, there, and I also saw Dad go all penguin yet again for the raw fish stand. That was Mum's first experience seeing that look of joy sweep over his face since she's been here, as he guzzled down the fish, pickle and raw onions. I think she wanted to reconsider sharing a bed with him. Who wouldn't. There was traditional Dutch singing at the festival, and it was really obvious how harsh a language it sounds. I think the best thing about it is the accent it gives the Dutch when they speak English. But maybe I've just got sour grapes because Dad never taught it to us growing up (don't worry Dad, I'm joking, but that struck a chord didn't it? Serves you right for taking so long to start reading my blog!). Finally we headed for home, and a low key relaxing afternoon in the apartment. We bought some cheeses, meats and snacks on the way there, and some beer, and had a bit of an antipasto plate as our late arvo, early evening dinner. It was nice just to relax, help Mum and Dad with some planning of their trip, and make sure I was all ready to go for tomorrow, after I successfully washed all my stuff these last couple of days. Thanks Mum (jokes, I did it myself, I am capable!) After completing another entry in my blog to keep those at home off my back (it's ok though, I like them being on my back), I headed off to bed to get some sleep! I hope...!