Amsterdam wanderings...

Day 42. Amsterdam. Wednesday 24th.

Today we spent the day wandering around Amsterdam. We were trying to find Angus a new bike - his current one is not appropriate for off-road riding, so we went to a heap of second hand shops, but there are not many MTB's in Amsterdam! We spent the rest of the day moseying around and chilling out ;-)

Day 43. Amsterdam. Thursday 25th.

This morning we both called home and had a chat to the folks - nice to be able to so easily keep in touch ;-) Then we went for a walk into the city. We caught a train into the centre of town and then went for a walk around. We went into a lovely church where the organ was playing. It was really peaceful and lovely. We spent a while sitting in there ;-) We then kept wandering through the streets, had a great lunch of hot tasty soup before walking to the Resistance Museum. It was a really interesting museum with lots of information about how Holland was occupied during the war and what the resistance did to make the Germans life difficult. There were lots and lots of personal stories and quotes from individuals which made the museum really interesting. It made me feel really proud of my Oma, who worked in the underground during the war, and it really brought home the risks that she and many many other people made in order to help others. It was a great museum. We had a quiet evening in tonight ;-)

Day 44. Amsterdam (Delft). Friday 26th.

This morning we caught a tram and then a train down to Delft, which is about an hour south of the city. It's a really pretty city, lots of small canals and narrow streets, a lovely big square with a large church and town hall that is really beautiful. We went into the new church which was great - beaufitul and also there was lots of information about the history of Holland and particularly the relationship of the royal family and William of Orange and the church. They are all buried there! The old church was nice also ;-) We really enjoyed wandering around there. We had a great lunch together in a big warm cafe and then in the afternoon just wandered around the streets. We walked down to the main canal and Angus was really excited to see the bridge over the canal going up and down. Further along we saw part of the origional gate to the city of Delft which is now currently a house! Amazing! On the way back to Amsterdam Angus went and bought a bike ;-)

Day 45. Amsterdam (Apeldoorn). Saturday 27th.

Today we caught the train to Apeldoorn and met Jasper. We went for a coffee in the town (at a really cool bar - good coffee and a whole jar of cookies!!) and then went for a ride. We headed first through some beautiful suburbs of Apeldoorn - lovely houses. Then we went to see Het Loo, the Palace - stunning grounds and the palace looked great! We didn't go in. We rode out through an amazing road with massive trees all the same height and great canopy - really pretty. We then went for a long ride through the forest - on a fabulous bike path - it was really pretty and all the autumn colours are out at the moment. We stopped for a great pancake lunch at a small restaurant in the forest - yummy! In the afternoon we rode on - through the forest further and then through a type of swamp land - flat and marshy - views for a long way! It was lovely - really quiet and peaceful. Then it was back into the forest- riding through dense forest and riding along autumn leaves on the ground, it was great! We went back to Apeldoorn and popped in to visit Jaspers parents before a quick ride to the train station, almost missed our train and then managed to get on it (with some help from Jasper!) We got on the bike carriage and it was like a party - there were a group of about 20 young people who were heading to Amsterdam to go to a hip hop concert, so they were drinking and had a stereo going on the train - it really felt like being at the pub! It was a really good trip back into town, and then we rode back through the dark streets of Amsterdam.

Day 46. Amsterdam. Sunday 28th.

We went for a great bike ride today. We rode about 50km in 2.5 hours through the lovely countryside - flat and lovely open fields, canals, windmills. It was a bit windy, but overall a really nice ride ;-)