PAUL

We arrived in Amsterdam last night (June 3) flowing a quick flights from Leeds Bradford Airport. After breezing through customs and finding, to our slight surprise, that all the signs and announcements here are in both Dutch and English, we made our way outside and caught a tram headed for our accommodation. First lesson learnt: hang on when the tram takes off. These things are like roller coaster ride and we both nearly fell off our seats when the tram first lurched forward. After booking into our hostel, we went for a stroll through the local neighbourhood where alfresco dining dominates the streets.

This morning, we made our way up to Dam Square, the starting point of a free walking tour of Amsterdam. With time to kill before the start of the tour we did a fair bit of exploring on our own. The tour was great and lasted 3 hours. It included the first church in Amsterdam, the notorious 'red light district' with its 'window workers', 'coffee shops' where coffee isn't the main product sole, and 'smart' (magic-mushroom) shops, the Jewish Quarter where Rembrant chose to live, the Royal Palace, the Jordaan residential district, the Anne Frank Huis, several hidden catholic churches from the time of the protestant Reformation, the widest bridge, the narrowest house (1.8m wide), the Dutch East India Trade company headquarters, leaning buildings, the marijuana museum and much, much more.

After the tour we made our way alone side streets and canals and found a great shop selling holographic shop. We braved the post-office, supermarket and souvenir shops to do some necessary jobs and then wandered home to our hostel to rest and write this. Tonight we might go for another walk through the neighbourhood, but that'll have to wait for the next blog.