We pulled into the main station on Wednesday 21 November just as the sun was rising over a bright but chilly Amsterdam. We were fortunate to be staying with another CouchSurfing host, but since we were only meeting them later that evening, we stashed our bags in the lockers at the train station and headed off to the main square to do a walking tour of the city centre. We soon saw what a cool city it is to walk around - with all it's canals, bridges, beautiful old buildings, courtyards and bicycles everywhere - there were just so many interesting things to look at! That afternoon it clouded over and began to rain, so we looked around a few shops until it was ready to head back to the station to collect our bags. We caught a train out to the suburbs where we met our amazing hosts Hendrik and Marieke, who were really warm and friendly and made us feel so welcome in their home. We had a lovely dinner together and so enjoyed hearing stories about their incredible 8 month overland motorbike journey from Amsterdam to the south of India - what an awesome adventure!

Thursday we were up fairly early and, after a quick breakfast, caught the train back to the city centre to do some more sightseeing. We eventually made our way down to the river, where we hopped on a ferry for a slightly different view of the city. We spent most of the the rest of the day just wandering around the canals, visiting a few of the touristy things like the flower market, an old church hidden away in a quiet courtyard and the giant " I AMsterdam" sign. Later that afternoon, Kevin and Jason went off to do the Heinekin Experience - a very well put together tour of all things Heinekin in the old brewery - while Monique did some shopping and cake eating ;-) On they way home we met Monique's cousin Colette, who is currently living in Amsterdam, for a quick coffee, which was really cool. We rushed back to the apartment, just in time for another delicious meal and then coffee with stroopwaffels and more interesting conversation.

Friday we were again up early, finished off packing our bags and made the short walk down to the local metro station. We didnt have long to wait, and soon we were back at the main station to catch our onward early morning train to our next stop - Berlin!