Hello from Amsterdam (Netherlands)! What a great city. Lots of hustle and bustle, trams, cars, scooters, bikes and pedestrians all going everywhere - but everyone seems quite tolerant of bumbling tourists :) Apparently the population here is about 800 thousand and there are about 1.6million bikes - so every person has about two. So cool.

So Kim, Amy, Lei and I are on Contiki. Left only yesterday from London. Saw white cliffs of Dover then lots of white cloud and nothing else as we crossed to France on a huge P&O ferry. Crazy drive from France - Belgium - Netherlands (where ~ 60% of the land of the country has been reclaimed from the sea - a project that begun in the 1700s apparently).

Went on a canal cruise last night with our Contiki group (about 50 pp and there's at least 7 couples) which was great fun. Saw lots of people enjoying a few quiet drinks on their boats as they cruised the canals. Then we went to the famous (or is that infamous?) red light district. Girls in windows in bikinis/underwear, many of them looking a bit bored & lots of groups of men. Ahhhh at least it's predictable :) Visited a coffee shop, tried to order a non-marijuana muffin and the waitress laughed and with mock shock said 'we don't do that kind of thing here'. He he - coffee shops are the places where marijuana is purchased over a counter and can legally be smoked inside the cafe. A cafe is the normal, non druggy place to go for a latte darling.

Was a good night but we were all super wrecked (SLEEP-WISE) due to the dinner on Friday night in London with Johnno, Tenille and Sharni and getting home really late. Lei only got 1 hours sleep. So we're all catching up on zzzzs and it's not even related to partying on tour (yet!!)

This morning went on a brief bike ride around the area of Edam (where they make the famous cheese) and that was super fun. My favourite moment was riding next to a canal right out front of the group and a very large egret bird came out of the canal and would have been standing less than a metre from me, deciding whether he/she should fly away or not. Mr Egret was lovely. The crazy bike riding lady called it a 'blue herring' (was that a twisted joke?)... oooh I would love a bird book here. Then we went to a cheese- and clog-making place. Then to a major diamond centre. Saw over 100,000 euro worth of diamonds, WOW! Wasn't tempted to buy anything though, maybe next time (after I've won the lottery I guess).

So now we're just walking around town and are on the way to Anne Frank's house. Oh and Kim's using the phone to ring the bank as she managed to kill an ATM yesterday and she's not sure if her 200 euro or so she ordered but did not receive, was taken off her account.

It's an interesting experience of self-discovery going from relatively independent travel to an organised bus tour with 49 other people. Positives and negatives for both experiences, for sure, but I think (at this stage) that I still enjoy the discovery of a new city from a status of unawareness. Ie. where there hasn't been a helpful tour manager introducing the city, providing a map, notifying the group of the bus and tram numbers to get places, and the key attractions to see. However, it is an efficient and care-free way of travelling - one gets to see the key sites without having to spend lots of time doing research and getting from train/bus stations or airports to town, or finding accommodation. Of course, I will reserve my conclusions until the conclusion of this tour experience but at the moment having relaxed fun.

Claire