We stopped in at a small town called St. Goar which is home to the world's largest beer stein store. They will post beer steins for travelers to any address in the world. St. Goar is also home to the worlds largest cuckoo clock that hangs above the entrance to a shop that stocks Steiff teddy bears, the worlds most expensive teddy bears.
Giant teddy bear at St. Goar
As we entered the Netherlands, we had one more stop before we could reach Amsterdam: the small town of Amstelveen and the Clara Maria Cheese and Clog Farm. Here we watched the cheese making process and were treated to a clog making demonstration. The shop was lined with rows of clog, painted in different designs. The best part was purchasing a pair of clogs that could be personally engraved.
We arrived at our accommodation in Amsterdam, Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, the world's worst hotel (not kidding! The owners are very happy to admit this although I still think where we stayed in Zadar was worse!).
We were keen to see the city and set off on a bike tour. Amsterdam prides itself as a bicycle-friendly city. Over 60% of commutes are made by bikes. Although the population of Amsterdam is 820,000, there is more than 1 million bicycles in the city. More than 100,000 bikes are stolen each years and between 12,000- 15,000 are pulled from canals each year.
On our bicycle tour we learnt many interesting facts about Amsterdam, including the fact that with a network of 165 canals, Amsterdam actually has more canals than Venice.
One of the 165 canals in Amsterdam
The streets are lined with houses but these aren't normal looking houses. Houses in Amsterdam are tall and skinny. Rates are based on the amount of land a building is positioned on so instead of building out, properties are built up. The only issue when moving into one of these houses is the narrow stairwells that make it difficult to move furniture in. That's why each property has a hook on the outside so furniture can be lifted to a particular floor. Even more unbelievable is that houses are built with a slight forward lean to minimize the chance of items colliding with the building facade on their way up.
Whilst riding alongside the canals we spotted green metal structures. It was later explained that these are actually public urinals. Men would urinate into canals and when drunk would often fall in. Public urination became such an issue that the Dutch government erected outdoor urinals around the city. This seemed to solve the issue although several hundred women protested by urinating publicly on the bridge. More private toilets were installed alongside the urinals. After a short run the urinals were closed as the city discovered that the privacy afforded by the ladies restrooms were mainly used by drug addicts.
A quick stop on our bike tour in front of the Amsterdam sign at Museumplein
The next stop was the Anne Frank House. It isn't unusual to have to line up for hours for admission. It had been a long time since I had read the Anne Frank Diary so I was captivated walking around the house, reading every piece of information. The story of Anne Frank is a truly remarkable story.
Anne's family had fled from Frankfurt when Hitler's reign begins. They emigrated to the Netherlands and Otto, Anne's father sets up business in Amsterdam. German troops invade the Netherlands and Otto tries to emigrate to America but fails. When Anne's sister Margot is called up to be sent to a German labour camp, the family goes into hiding in a secret annex along with four other Jews: Hermann and Auguste van Pels with their son Peter, and Fritz Pfeffer. Four staff help to hide the Frank family, including Miep Gies and her husband Jan.
After 25 months in hiding, the eight Jews were betrayed by someone revealing their hiding place (that person still has not be identified). They were found, arrested and transported to Auschwitz concentration camp. Anne passed away at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from typhus, two weeks before the camp was liberated. Otto was the only survivor from the secret annex and returned to Amsterdam to later publish Anne's diary.
When the secret annex was raided, Miep Gies hid Anne's diary and later passed it onto her father Otto. The protectors of the Frank family risked death if caught by the Nazis, but it is believed that Miep Gies was spared from arrest by a Nazi agent, in light of their common Austrian heritage. Miep has since passed but spent many years travelling the world, speaking to school children of her experiences of the Holocaust I was lucky enough to have Miep come to my high school to speak, and I'm not sure I really understood the full extent of her experiences until visiting the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam.
It was time to venture into the Red Light District. This was a huge eye-opener and I have honestly never seen anything like it. Girls sat in windows just waiting for 'business' and sex shops lined the streets. We went to the Moulin Rouge to watch a live sex show. It was hard to take it seriously.
Walking in the Red Light District
After the show, the group was keen to visit one of Amsterdam's infamous coffee shops. Although cannabis is legal is Amsterdam, 'Coffee shops' are not allowed to use cannabis leaves to advertise so the signs often include pictures of palm trees. Amsterdam's drug policy is very different to any other country. The policy of tolerance does have it's limitations: a person is not allowed to possess more then 5 grams of cannabis in a public area or 30 grams in a private area. For cultivation, a person may not exceed the amount of 5 plants. Considering I have never even smoked a cigarette, there was no chance I was going to smoke cannabis. Instead I watched others laugh then try to figure out if they were stoned or if what they were laughing at was actually just funny.
You can't truly appreciate Amsterdam without a night on the town. It was our last night in Amsterdam and our last night on tour so we were determined to make it a big night! After a few wines on our booze cruise, we were taken to the Pirate Bar. The bar actually looked like a pirate ship inside. A few hours later, ready to call it a night, we bumped into our bicycle tour leader. Next thing I know we have jumped onto a pub crawl and are making our way around Amsterdam's array of bars and clubs.
Courts and I at the Pirate Bar
Last night out in Amsterdam
Our last day on tour consisted of a big day of travelling. We were leaving Amsterdam and on to London with a few pit stops along the way. We left Amsterdam, Netherlands and made our way into Brussels, Belgium. Our next stop was Calais, France where we said goodbye to the bus and got the ferry to London, England. We traveled through four countries in one day. It's crazy how close everything is in Europe. When we got to London it was time to say goodbye to my Topdeck family. Over the last few weeks I have made some great new friends from different corners of the world and it was sad to be saying goodbye. Now it was time for Courts and I to continue our European adventure with a week in London.
