Day 2 in Amsterdam/Belgium

Day 2

We had another typical western breakfast which is scramble eggs and bacon at the hotel which i actually adore having and the croissant there is just ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!! Totally different feeling from the ones best made in Malaysia too hehe. Lunch on this day was no provided in our tour (yes one of the cons of going with a tour) so some of us just wrap some food for later and even one of the uncles made a sandwich and wrapped it in tissue so no one will notice. Well that saves his lunch money for later.. 

So anyway we checked out of the hotel after breakfast (yes we stayed for a night only) because we are going to head for Belgium later.That morning was really foggy and still so freezing cold. It had rain last night but still sadly no snow! (Darn it). But it was only 8am and it was 0 degrees celcius. Thank god i wore 4 layers of clothes including my coat so it wasn't too much for me like last night's experience. But that did not stop the beauty of the streets of Amsterdam. It was so early and there were already a lot people walking and cycling to work already. The houses there just catches my breath and i couldn't stop looking out at the window in the bus. I took some pictures inside the bus on the road to our next stop.

 After that we went to see how diamonds are made in a diamond factory called Gazzan Diamonds and there also sell branded watches and diamonds of course. 

Okay after looking at a girl's best friend and had a free cup of hot coffee. Next stop, SHOPPING!! Teehee.. So our next stop is shopping at the factory outlet shops called the Batavia Stad which is like a place of lots of wholesale shops where branded fashion are there also like Nike, Polo, Converse etc. We were given 4 hours of alone shopping time there including the time to fill up our tummy. One of the best things i saw in Amsterdam is that a lot of people there have dogs and most of them (the small breeds one) wears a shirt! It is so adorable just looking at them in cute little shirts walking infront of their owners! They say because the shirt keeps the little dogs warm especially those dogs with short furs. And not only that, the dogs follows wherever the owners goes like literally WHEREVER (exp for restaurants). The owners will just go inside shops with their dogs on a leash beside them and walk around the shops and shop. You don't see that in Malaysia for sure. Even though the dog is a huge and fluffy dog, they don't bark or even go mad around strangers, they just follow quietly with their owners into the shops! OMG to me that is just so cute and nice. 

My family and i actually shop for really 4 hours flat forgetting our lunch and we only got the chance to walk at the first street. Totally spent too much time on one shop at a time. The things there are really quite cheap and acceptable (due to the 16% of tax refund).

After 4 hours of shopping, we are headed to Belgium!!! It is a 4 hours drive from Amsterdam to Belgium and the worst thing that happen that day was a massive traffic jam which delayed our trip for an hour or two i think. The scenery during the drive was really beautiful as the sun was setting and there are lots of windmills.

see those white sky lines?? 

Those are the tracks of an aeroplane that took off.

We had reached Belgium around 6pm and the sky was like 9.30pm dark, totally weird feeling. We had chinese food for dinner that night which was not really nice (especially the spicy sour soup which taste absolutely bad that no one drank it at all) and after that its back to the hotel. We were staying at Hotel Mariotte which is about 20 minutes drive from town. Belgium is totally different from Amsterdam. Belgium is more of a little busy city and there are many migrants there whereas Amsterdam is more of a quiet place and there are no africans there. Belgium is much dirty compare to Amsterdam and the number of migrants on the street pretty much scares me and yes, there are a lot of pick pockets there too. The people there are a bit different from the people in Amsterdam. There are still a few people that cycles there but many just drives. So just a 20 minute drive at town to go to our hotel has already made my mind up about Belgium. 

So as a conclusion, we din't do much on that day except shop and see how diamonds are made. We din't go out at night to the town at Belgium which is not included in our tour package (an another cons of going with a tour) and non of us feel like going out by ourselves anyway with the number of migrants that we just saw on the streets. (no offense they all look really big and fierce-looking) But from what Sam said, it just takes us 20 minutes to reach town from our hotel by using the metro. So to me it was not much of a day and i would definitely want to go Amsterdam again by myself as there are so much more not seen yet. 

Stay tuned guys!! :D

Nichole

Amsterdam on Day 1

Merry Christmas everyone!! Yeap seconday life is over now and heloo brand new start for me! hehe
so today i'm gonna share to you all my 8days 5nights of experience of my family trip to Amsterdam, Belgium and Paris. We went by tour with my father's close friend's family. We thought it would be best to go Europian country by tour first since we do not know how to talk their language.

Day 1/2

Our flight to Amsterdam was at 12am and it was a 13hour long flight. ( yes it's so long i slept, woke up, tv, slept and not to mention an ache back urgh.. ) We reached Amsterdam at 6am ( 7 hours late from Malaysia time which is 1pm at Malaysia ) and the moment i step out of the plane it was FREAKING COLD. Not like air-conditioned cold but like genting cold! We were just inside the walking panel into the airport and you can already feel the cold weather outside. It was still dark when we reach there and the first thing we got so excited about when we went outside was that we can see smoke when we talked. Haha i mean it's sounds a bit crazy to you but we were so happy and excited when we start breathing smoke out of our mouths and nose whenever we talked.

cute one fascinated by the smoke haha

The place is ABSOLUTELY FREEZING!!! I was wearing a pair of heattech (it's the latest technology of thermal clothing that must wear in a cold country that is the same like so called longjohns ) and a sweater inside with my coat on and it is definitely not enough. I was shaking already after 10 minutes while waiting our bus outside the aiport. Thank goodness there was heater inside the bus.

The moment we went on the bus our tour guide, Sam briefs us about some must-follow law that we must do while in our journey here and i have to say Amsterdam is really strict. For example we have to wear our safety belts inside the bus at all times if not fine 200 euros (if i not mistaken) and the driver can only drive max 12 hours a day which is recorded in a tiny machine infront so basiclly we don't really go much places a day because we have to be sent back on time to the hotel if not the driver gets fine if caught.

Amsterdam was amazingly beautiful and really really really clean. You don't see much dry leaves on the streets and no rubbish at all. Many of the people there cycles and a number of them walk to work too. Amsterdam very much supports eco-friendly that's why there's very little cars there and the goverment even made bicycle lanes which are in red on all roads for those who cycle. It was still early but there were already alot of people cycling and walking to work. We don't get to walk around much but i manage to snap some photos inside the bus.

Our first stop is The Cube Houses. I was amazed by the houses which are actually in a cube shape and people do live inside it! The cube houses look really big from the outside and its built on top of other shops but Sam says its actually quite small inside.

a tramp! 

the amazing view behind the cube houses

Then, we were headed to Volendam, a small town in Amsterdam and had lunch there too! The land at Volendam is actually lower than the sea, we had to climb up stairs to reach the deck to look at the sea. Sam also had said when it snows the whole sea will be frozen and the people there will come out and have ice skating on the sea. And at Volendam, they're well known for stoop waffles and fish. The waffles are like biscuits but with honey syrup inside them and they are just delicious! 

the place we had lunch

they are famous for their fish! it was fully packed with people 

nothing beats a bowl of hot soup on a freezing day

they're famous appetizer! *it taste exactly like maggie soup lol

and *drum rolls.... 

the famous fish dish!!

i can tell you guys this is the best fish i have ever eaten in my life!

look at all those cheese!!

seagulls approaching us while we were eating a seafood platter 

After lunch, we headed to the see how Cheese and Clogs are made. Clogs are shoes made out of wood. There were so many of them in different sizes and designs. 

in amsterdam they use wind to generate electricity 

but this are the old style windmills they used 

i bet you don't see this in Malaysia huh :/

doggie poop bags

Then we were headed to town for a 45 minute boat ride around Amsterdam. It was really really cold by then. I couldn't stop shivering when we were waiting for the boat. And now gonna show you guys some really breathtaking scenes of the place. 

those are all bicycles. Its like a parking place for bicycles

i think there was a movie scene taken in this place but i don't remember what movie :/

there are people who live in their boats instead of a house 

and have permits of getting electricity and gas 

the houses in Amsterdam are known as canal houses

can you guys see the green canal house in the middle?

that is the smallest canal house in the whole city 

all of the canal houses have this kinds of hooks on top at the roof

this hooks are use to pull unload any furniture into the house because the front door is either too small to fit in a furniture or to save energy from unloading it up to the other floors

The canal houses are just beautiful. After that we had chinese food for dinner. When the sky turns dark the temperature drops down too. It was -8 degrees and yes i was absolutely freezing cold. It was so so cold that all of us barely wanted to move at all. At last we went to see the royal palace and its a wrap of the day. And it was so darn cold that everyone don't even wanted to take pictures. I just got a quick snap of the palace and hurry toward the bus.

It was winter so it gets dark very fast there. The sun rises at 8.30am and sets at 5pm. So by 6pm the place is like 10pm dark. We stayed at the Novotel hotel for just that night and it was only 8.30pm. LOL

Amsterdam is amazingly beautiful,calm and so clean. I loved the place except for the extremely cold weather. 

Stay tuned for more! :D

Nights 

Nichole