Amsterdam hits us with a furious Red left hook

Neil and I were still making jokes about the London bridge when we started our decent into Amsterdam ("wait, that's the 'London Bridge', that's was they call it? Really? because I think it would be more fitting to call it 'Bridge'. Now Tower Bridge, that's worth naming."). We were in the air for half an hour, got on the wrong train and spent 40 minutes on the scenic route around the city, wandered the streets outside the Centraal station for 15 before finally figuring out the Tram situation. My travel guide book says about 'Orientation' for Amsterdam: "Familiarize yourself with the 4 major canals that cut through the central region of amsterdam". The book said nothing about the other dozens of canals, the narrow alley-ways, the circular roads, with not two lanes of traffic but 6! (cars, trams, and bikes).

The streets of Amsterdam are out of control, and yet no one seems to be concerned about it. Neil and I toured the city on bikes our first day. This activity is both highly exciting and extremely dangerous (riding bikes down the narrow streets of Amsterdam with Trams, bikes, tourists, cars, buses, and dogs all trying to scare the crap out of you before barely avoiding you, makes our plane rides, train trips and even our attempts to cross the London street (look left or look right), seem like childs play). We managed to get lost a few time, even with two maps, but what an adventure.

A trip to Europe without Amsterdam is like going to Alberta and not seeing Edmonton (you may have heard stories about the place, but until you actually see it, you can't believe it's all true - this statement is accurate for the canals, architecture, museums, and Red Light District of Amsterdam, as well as the interesting 'character' of Edmonton). The narrow crooked building seem to thrive in their defiance of right angles, the many canals provide post-card style photo-ops everywhere you turn, the colourful, neon lite streets have everything from fast-food to fashion, to coffee-shops-sans-the-coffee. Just walking the streets for a day, is enough to fill a memory card in you camera.

Neil and I visited the Red Light district last night... and we are still alive. What a place! We went in with a plan; I had a map, I had figured out the best escape routs, and we were going to move with groups. Over kill? Maybe, but when the guys in suits started trying to draw us into the red-curtained rooms, and the packs of drug dealers began to come out from the back alleys whispering "crack, extacy, cocain, hash..." into our ears, I was glad we had found a strong group of hooligans (drunken rugby players wanting to take their shirts off for the girls in the windows) to mix in with. Neil and I had screamed through this central location of Amsterdam on our bikes earlier in the day. The narrow lane-ways suddenly became much colder and the sun seemed to disappear altogether. At night the darkness is chased away by the glow of red that pours out of every building's curtained windows. I can't believe this place excites! The best part was seening the guys who were "in the market", it was like watching an experienced Value Village shopper move through the racks. Then there were the new-comers to the district who weren't afraid to show their excitement: "these girls are fantastic! No really, I love this place!" It like the Red Mile... on the same crack it's trying to sell.

Some of the other highlights of our trip have definitely been the Van Gogh museum, the Vondel Park, Dam Square, and our favorite dutch street, Leidsestraat (it's colour full [not just red, or rainbowy], has plenty of shops, room to walk [so relatively safe from bikes and trams], and gives great canal vistas.

Part way through day 1, Neil kicked out his Goldmember impression... it's been a laugh, the dutch are crazy, and I love it.

So far the trip has been full of adventure. Europe has punch back pretty hard with new sights, strange culture, and hostel fun (Neil was really happy with our four room mates, who he named the Spanish Inquisition, something about tourture...).

Red Light District... unbelievable. Everyone needs to see that there is a place on earth where people, young and old, can view... well you'll have to see it for yourself.

(pictures to come, I'm sure there will be a computer somewhere on our trip that has a USB, come man Universal...)