Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Haag (Netherlands)

The first stop on our European tour - so far getting around seems really easy. Eurail pass is validated and we are ready to go. Train to downtown from the airport no problem. Found our hostel pretty easily in the red light district!!!

First dorm room - 2 bunk beds and a mattress on the floor but we got our own bathroom - big + in hostels!

Halal food everywhere - open till 3am! (later than the bars!)

No windmills - disappointing.

Not too much to see in Amsterdam - lots of museums but nothing original - for a small city there was a lot of walking and it got really cold at night!

Smell of marijuana everywhere - makes you feel sleepy! Aamir chickened out - he said he would try hash brownies (space cakes) but when we got to the cafe he wouldn't do it.

It didn't get dark here till 10:30pm nice for walking around - confusing for figuring out the time.

We walked through the red light district and Sharmin was propositioned by a school teacher - time to eat some halal ribs!

Next day we ditched out bags at the train station - the luggage lockers are a great concept! Took a trip to Rotterdam - finally saw a windmill!! Rotterdam is known for its architecture and its shopping but Aamir was not impressed by the architecture. The shopping looked great but with two small bags we were not planning to do any shopping.

Dutch menu at a restaurant left Aamir with meatball soup - which left him hungry - nice waiter - didn't charge us for the soup.

On to Den Haag (The Hague) supposed to be the political part of Netherlands - we went specifically for the MC Escher museum. The museum is housed in an old palace - very beautiful. The architecture is nicer here than in Rotterdam.

Tonight we leave for Denmark - there is going to be a train strike starting tomorrow so everyone is trying to get out of Amsterdam - mad rush at the train station. Lucky for us we had first class seats reserved on the high speed German ICE train. Our train car was almost empty - apparently the rest of the train was a sardine can!

We fell asleep in our comfy leather reclining seats and missed our connection in Duisberg, Germany - luckily we woke up before Koln, Germany and managed to catch our connecting train there! Crisis averted - what we learned: keep an alarm clock for 30 minutes before the train is scheduled to stop at the station you need to get off at. Silver lining - Koln had a beautiful cathedral right outside the station which we wouldn't have seen if we didn't sleep through Duisberg.

From Koln, we got a 2nd class couchette - 6 bunk beds to a cabin - met some cool folks from Australia and a man from Iran. Tomorrow we arrive in Copenhagen!