hey every1

sorry for the delay between blogs. have been too busy with the window shopping and coffee shops :)

amsterdam was awesome. very different to anything else i have seen. and i know what ur all thinking so let me answer those questions first up - yes i did visit a "coffee shop" and if you look at my photos of amsterdam you will see what i tried. and yes i did visit the red light district (thanks to Randy Roy's Red Light Tours) - but no i did not sample the goods. Mind you dad has been M.I.A. quite often this week so i certainly don't speak for the both of us.

I spent the first day in the dam washing! very exciting, although i did get out to do a cycle tour of the city in the afternoon. The second day I visited Anne Frank House first thing in the morning which was a very interesting experience. the house itself is quite eerie and the exhibition is very insightful. From there I went to the Van Gogh Museum. Having not known much at all about the artist it was also interesting to learn of the life he lived, and I did even appreciate some of the art on display. Decided it was time for something more exciting after that so I visited the heineken brewery. The brewery has many interactive activities and it was a good way to see the history of the beer and to learn about how it was/is made.

The following day I did a cycling tour of the countryside which covered the windmills and a clog and cheese farm. Also went into visit dad at IBC (the exhibition he is here for) - and as i suspected he was working very hard...well his arm was working hard getting his beer to his mouth anyway. On saturday I did a wetlands safari which involved kayaking which was an awesome way to see the countryside north of amsterdam. Also visited the sex museum one afternoon. caught the train from amsterdam to brugge at 5:54am on monday for a day trip there. some of the architecture was amazing. anyway im at the airport in amsterdam now - about to fly to athens then corfu and the gate is open so i have got to go. hope all is well

have posted photos of greece/amsterdam and brugge so enjoy

love mike!