Police DNA Spray and Ov-Chipkaart In Amsterdam

First thing I noticed on leaving the apartment, is that if you misbehave around here, the police will spray you with their DNA.

....yes, that's what I thought too. Anyway, moving swiftly on....

I will go into more detail about the transport around Amsterdam when I get some better photographs. But basically today I figured out to get myself a Transport Pass Card; €8 for the card and €10 for credit.

It's called an Ov-Chipkaart and you beep it over a scanner when you get off and on the vehicle.

It took us about 10 - 15 minutes on the tram to get into the centre of town which believe me beats walking all that way.

My journey in cost about €1.50 of my credit. You can check your remaining credit balance and also top up the credit at several clever little machines all over the city and in the transport stations.

This card covers you for Trams, Buses and Trains.

...we're getting somewhere (that doesn't involve my poor little legs)

Tea in Amsterdam

Look at this for handy...... you boil the kettle, make tea and then keep it warm in a glass jug over a stand heated by a tea (fitting) candle!!

Arrived in our apartment

We're here!!!

Thank goodness. Met our 'host' who is very nice. He is away now and has left his apartment in our (hopefully) capable hands. Got a taxi this morning from our hotel, €15. We are central and we're heading out now to explore

(That translates as 'trying to find where on earth we are in relation to everything and hopefully find our way back without walking for 6 solid hours)........

Update; the walk from where we are into the Dam Square centre was supposed to be 30 minutes. Inspector Gadget walking at full warp speed might take 30 minutes. Personally, I am exhausted and ended up getting a taxi back. Hopefully when I am less tired and have better concept of my surroundings, it won't all seem so spread out. 


Wrong turns taken = 5
Number of times almost hit by bicycle = 3
Number of condoms seen hanging randomly in a window display = 45

.... told you....

Amsterdam Airport Taxi

We flew at 7.30am this morning and landed one hour later in sunny and very warm Amsterdam - about 16 degrees.  We got picked up by a taxi company Amsterdam Taxi On Line from Schipol airport. They were the cheapest on line at €34.00 and he was right on time, in a nice car and was very friendly. Gave us advice on where to walk and eat...

Isn't this flattering!!! I don't care, I was tired, I was hungry and I was roasting warm....but I had a cone of chips and a falafel which makes everything ok. 1 big falafel , chip and 2 bottles of water was €12.00.

We did get slightly lost, but that's because Andrew was in charge of directions which is always a mistake. Tonight we had a lovely dinner near the hotel; Steak with Salad and Chips & Chicken, Goats Cheese and Spinach, 2 beers and 1 bottle of water was €42.00.....

.......today I learnt that not specifying 'tap water' means any water brought to your table will be at least €5

...... and that when a Dutch man says 'oh, about 5 minutes walk from here'...it probably means at least 20 minutes for little short Irish legs

In Liverpool

Woop WOOP!!!

We decided to not go for the boat; it would have meant us leaving the house at 6am....then even if the sailing went ahead, we had no guarantee that it was actually going to make it to Liverpool.

Turns out it did...but nevertheless we went for the FLYBE flight at 11.30 and arrived in Liverpool after a very smooth 20 minute flight.

Our room was not quite ready in BASE2STAY, so we took a 5 minute walk into Liverpool One shopping area and to........RED HOT WORLD BUFFET!!!

This place is fabulous; £10 for all you can eat, with Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Italian and more. The only negative about it is it's very much geared towards the British Fast Food mentality; lots of curry and chips but only one hot plate (out of about 50) that had just vegetables on it.

I decided to make up for the lack of fresh vegetables by loading my plate with Thai Green Curry......flaming hot Thai Green Curry it turned out to be, but it was still nice. And some Squid. And some chicken curry. And some Onion Bajis. And some noodles. Maybe a little burger. But that's ALL I had...I didn't have dessert.

.....and a little Korma with rice.