NEIN!

Well here I sit on the train on the way to Frankfurt, Germany. It's hard to believe that half of my trip is already behind me, but the pace hasn't slowed and I anything the second half is going to be even more hectic than the first.  I finished my time i  london off by going to madame tussuads wax museum and going to some of the set locations of Harry Potter. Then we set sail for amsterdam where we spent the last 2 nights. And today we bought eurail passes which means that  for the next 15 days we can travel via train whenever and to wherever in Europe. It certainly wasn't cheap at about $500 AUD but it's the best way I think, flights might have been cheaper but you waste time waiting in terminals and it costs Alot to travel from the airports which are typically out of the town centre to the town centre, Which is where you want to go. So between the savings on time At the airports and the time spent looking for cheap flights at ridiculous hours and the money wasted travelling to and from airports it ended up being beneficial to fork out the cash for a eurail pass and now we don't have to stress about transport, which leaves more time for fun activities. Speaking of fun activities.....

Amsterdam. Wow. Didn't think I was gonna forget to fill you all in on the Netherlands capital city did you? Of course not. The motto in Amsterdam is "if you cant have fun here, give up trying". Seriously, I saw it on stickers and t-shirts. We only really had one full day and there's so much I wanted to do I didnt know where to begin. Eventually we decided that a canal boat ride was a good way to see a lot of the city easily so we set off for an hour and saw some cool stuff including Anne frank house. We spent the rest of the day walking around looking at what Amsterdam has to offer, including the numerous 'coffeeshops' that are licensed to sell hash and the red light district, which really is a huge tourist attraction and not nearly as dangerous and seedy as most people think. Firstly it's in a residential district so there's elderly and children walking pass the red windows with scantily clad females in them and often they are next door to shops and bars so people gather in the area for much more that just the girls. We were briefly educated on the history of vodka in a small vodka museum  which is just one of the many small museums in the city. (kelly bought 5 bottles of flavored vodka there, not even joking).

There's also a lot of history and nice buildings in Amsterdam but I'm assuming most tourists dont go to Amsterdam to study the architecture and history of the place. Despite amsterdam having the most relaxed laws of pretty much anywhere in the world (you can smoke weed in the police station if you want) I still managed to get myself in trouble. I got in trouble for taking photos. 'You sicko Hamish!' is probably what you're thinking right? Well unfortunately it wasn't taking photos of the girls that I got in trouble for sadly (apparently the security are known for physically reminding tourists that taking photos are strictly prohibited) but I managed to get in trouble for taking a photo of the menu in mcdonalds. Firstly I dont know why you can't take photos of the menu in Maccas but even more puzzling is the stickers plastered all over the walls saying ' no photos' that i didnt see.  Do they really have such a big problem with people taking photos of their menu?

So pretty much at this stage all we have in the way of planning between now and July 20 ( when i go on the tour de France tour) is a eurail pass and a list of places we want to go. Nothing in concrete, nothing planned, nothing to worry about. But for those itinerary hecklers out there (mum, dad etc,) we want to spend a night of two in Germany, go to Austria for a day or 2, then down to Venice again so the other two can see it, probably for a night, then down to Rome where we want to spend atleast 2 full days and nigts before heading up North again to Milan for a night and the. To Switzerland for 1-3 days depending on how long we spent at cities along the way. Then I'll leave the other 2 and head just across the French/Swiss border to Lyon and meet them again 5 days later in Paris.