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<p>Well, what a crazy place Amsterdam is! We'd heard stories, of course, but didn't realise it'd be so... explicit! It was really very different to Rotterdam - whereas Rotterdam is full of big-name commercialised shops and huge office blocks and hotels, Amsterdam seems to be mostly odd little shops, hostels and ‘coffee' shops, that don't smell much like coffee...</p> <p>We got up relatively early and headed into Delft to start the day. We walked to the station via my cunningly crafted route, and saw some of the sights; it turns out Delft is an absolutely lovely place, with a lot of culture and great architecture of its own. Well worth a visit!</p> <p>A long-ish train journey late, and we were in Amsterdam. It was hellishly busy, and rather confusing! We headed for tourist information to get a map or a walk through the city first, but after that still had no idea where to go first. <a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/B.Hymers/EuropeTrip/photo#5109695290757222946"><img src="http://lh3.google.co.uk/B.Hymers/RulIy2wSEiI/AAAAAAAAAPI/k8_effrxIcA/s144/CNV00009.JPG" class="alignright" /></a>After a quick lunch at a lovely sandwich shop east of the centre, not far from the station, we decided to take a boat ride round the canals.</p> <p>After that we just sort of wandered a bit through the crazy busy streets, looking at the odd fast-food places (where your food is stored in a safe?!) and coffee shops full of wide-eyed smokers.</p> <p>Since I forgot the camera, we found a little camera shop (also crazy), which was a lot like those in Fisherman's wharf, San Francisco. A bit of bargaining and false indecisiveness later and we had a shiny new camera.</p> <p>After this we saw that the map we bought had lots of sights of interest marked on, and not long after that we realised that the map had rather poor taste, so we took a makeshift route around the canals. Not long later, we stumbled across the famous red light district! Again, this was very crazy, there were all sorts of things on show... We were offered a discount for ‘kinky couples' by one cheeky Dutch stereotype!</p> <p>We left very shortly after that, and came back to a delicious meal of hot dog sausages, crisps, lettuce and rich tea biscuits. We've got 270km to travel tomorrow, to Koln, so I hope the rain doesn't get any worse...</p>
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