Hop Holland!

I am writting this from an internet cafe in Amsterdam. We have been here for three days and will take a night train tonight to Denmark. Amsterdam has been a great experience. It started off well when we arrived the night of Holland's 4-1 win over France in Euro 2008. We arrived in the early evening, so we had time to grab some cheap orange shirts from a souvenier shop and head down to one of the town squares. Now, I have been to football matches live before, including one at Old Trafford, but I have never seen anything quite like this. The crowd was energetic yet controlled and we even had people letting off orange flares and smoke bombs. It was quite the site and a lot of fun.

 

I have to say that I really admire the dutch education system. Everyone here speaks such wonderful English. Three things highlight this to me. For one, I am not a slow talking person, yet I've never had to repeat myself. Secondly, I have never found a dutch person lost for words, their vocabulary is excellent and they always know the words they need to use. Lastly, their pronunciation is very good. Granted they have thick accents, but I have never had trouble understanding them. Someone told me that you never ask a dutch person if they speak English as in doing so you are essentially asking them if they graduated from school.

 

In terms of other things I've done while I've been here, I just got back from the Van Gogh museum. I was very impressed by it and would highly recommend it to anyone. It is the first time I have been to a museum which focuses on one artists and so I really appreciated being able to chronologically follow his work and see his development both as an artist and person. It is also always fun to realize that you are standing less than a foot from a world famous painting (such as his sunflowers). I also visited then Ann Frank house. I can't classify this as enjoyable, but I am glad I went. Walking around I felt a deep personal interest in it all knowing that members of my family lived through that time and experienced that persecution. One moving quote they have in there (I forget the exact quote or who said it) says that Ann Frank was one person who has moved so many, and then goes on to ask what would the world would be like if we had diaries for all the victims of the Nazi regime? Would there be anyone denying these terrible events then?

 

The last thing I'd like to mention is the New Europe free walking tours. To anyone travelling right now or who is going to do so, I would highly recommend these. They have them in most major cities. They operate on a tips only basis, so you pay what you feel it was worth. They are three hours long and so far have not disappointed. We have done them in Paris and here in Amsterdam. I am told the one in Berlin is the best.

 

Lastly, for those wondering about the subject line of this post, it means "Go Holland". You see it all over the place here. All for now, I hope to be able to do my next update from Copenhagen. Unfortunately we will not be making it to Legoland, but I am told the city itself is worth the visit. I'll let you know, stay tuned.