Day 31 - A Day Out in Amsterdam

Today was our day to explore Amsterdam! Caroline and Dirk-Jan had organised the whole day for us, so all we had to do was turn up!

Auke, Ali, Dieuwe and Amie left the bungalow park at around 8.00am to pick up Opa. We drove to a train station in Amsterdam and parked there as parking is hard to find in the city. At the train station we saw a duck with ducklings which Amie fed.

We met up with Anne Roos and Angus who had stayed the night in Amsterdam already, and Caroline and Dirk Jan. From there we caught a train into the city centre.

In the city centre, there was a cute tunnel we had to walk through with paintings on it.

We had a quick coffee as we had arrived a bit early.

Near here we had to catch a boat to get to a 5D theatre called This is Holland.

One of the buildings next to this one had a giant swing on the top of the building which looked like a lot of fun. Opa and Ali were keen to go on it but we didn’t have enough time before our booking.

The 5D theatre was brilliant. There were three parts to it. The first part was a short film explaining the history of Holland. The second part was a lit up map of Holland showing the different parts. The third part was the 5D part which was a movie taken from the perspective of us flying over Holland. We all got strapped into our seats. When the movie started playing our seats started moving as if we were flying. It was fantastic, when we flew over the tulip fields we could smell tulips, when we went through the snow there was snow, when we went over the water we got wet. We had so much fun!

After this we caught the boat back. From here, we met up with our tour guide who was going to take us on a walking tour around Amsterdam.

It was very interesting, he told us about how Amsterdam went from a little fishing village to a city, he explained how it turned from a Roman Catholic city to Protestant, he told us about the hidden Roman Catholic Churches in people’s houses when it was made illegal, he showed us convents, and he showed us some old church buildings. He showed us where they used to hang people for crimes, and much more!

We stopped in to a little place for lunch that used to be a convent. The name of the street was Prayer Without Ending.

When the tour was over we walked to outside the Anne Frank House where we we all hopped into a boat for our canal ride.

They showed us how the houses had hooks on them to lift things from the canal, and they explained that the houses were tilted forward so the items didn’t scrape on the way up. The houses tilted to the side, however, are a hazard. We saw some old buildings again, and even a little boat called Berend.

Once back, we went into the Anne Frank house for a tour. We were not allowed to take photos. It was very sad because they were so close to being rescued. Just a couple of months away. We were surprised at how large their hiding place was! It was multiple rooms and quite spacious - although it would have felt like a prison being there for so long.

Once Anne Frank was finished, we went to an old student pub for dinner where Caroline and Dirk-Jan used to go when they were living there. The food was delicious! Ali ordered the ribs (expecting there to be 6 ribs) and ended up getting about 20 ribs so there was no way she could finish them! Auke ordered the Chicken Satay.

After this we walked back to the train station. On the way there we walked through some very narrow streets.

We saw policemen riding on horses.

Some more old churches and buildings, and the beautiful water.

And we found a shop that sold heaps of Fanta varieties we had never seen! Also a few Dr Pepper flavours, and Chupa Chup drinks!

We caught a train back to where we were parked and drove home. We got home at about 10.00pm.