2007 Euro Tour --- Day One 8/2

We arrived at our cute little boat house today, it was perfect. We had a little living room, a small kitchen and two bedrooms. With the canal just underneath us, what more could one ask for. After paying my father's former workplace a visit, we set of for the famous Van Gogh museum. We spent a little money and got ourselves audio tours. It felt great to find myself standing in front of the wonderful works of Vincent Van Gogh. Even though I've seen most of the paintings but it is nothing compared to the real thing. The audio tour was also definitely worth it, I used to just look at a painting and think, "Hey, it's beautiful!", and then continue to the next painting. However, with the audio tour, I know what details to look for and what makes this piece of art so special. The museum was packed with tourists including a group of korean student.

It became evident enough to us as we grew tired that we did not have enough rest on the plane, as a result we had to make a change of plans. Instead of going to the Rijksmuseum straight away, we went shopping along Kalvaarstraat. I got the mushroom shrubber Mom had specifically asked for, but it had a better design than it had eleven years ago. Instead of the white plastic handle on the top, there was now a wooden shape mushroom. It was rather cheap, too.

We went back to our boat house feeling terribly tired. After resting for an hour, we decided to catch a free canal tour around city. It was amazing! The view was breathtaking and it was totally worth the cold. We even passed a huge Chinese restaurant floating on the river! We also floated past the Anne Frank House, there must have been over a hundred people waiting in line. The captain of the ship certainly knew his way around the wheel, though he did bump the side of a tunnel while making a really hard turn. After the tour we set of for dinner. We went to a shop where we could get a free dinner with our Amsterdam pass. Unfortunately for me, I forgot to bring my guide book, so I decided to order something else. The man who was sitting next to me was really helpful, he recommended what he reffered to as the best in Amsterdam, the "Americaine", minced beef with herbs. It was really delicious! Strange enough, I seemed to have tasted it somewhere before.

It was rather late when we got back to our boat house, and we perpared to go to bed. It was at this point did we realise the down side on living on the canal. As boats occasionaly passed by our canal, we could feel the boat rock gently as the ripples hit the boat. Well maybe that will make getting asleep easier. XD For now.

2007 Euro Tour --- Flight KL0878

I had no idea that the new terminal was so beautiful!! It's soooo much better than the old first terminal, but I heard that the new terminal leaks on a rainy day. Somehow, I'm not surprised. We were very lucky to have the seats next to the doors for ourselves, we can stretch our legs as much as we like ^^ The flight to Bangkok was very pleasant, the flight attendant was a bit old, but had a great sense of humour and was more than happy to help us out. We changed crews when we transferred at Bangkok, the new flight attendants were HOT, but I wasn't really satisfied with their service. They were always too busy to help you, and once I pressed the light to ask for the flight attendant, and 10 minutes later no one came, so I gave up in the end. We saw patches of bright light as we flew over the Netherlands, turned out they were farms for growing vegetables as well as flowers. We arrived at our destination at 5:45 in the morning....to be continued.