Amsterdam

We had a very fun two days in Amsterdam after our couple days in Berlin.

On our full day in Berlin we all took a long walking tour in the morning that took us past all of the sites - the TV Tower, Museum Island, the Brandenburg Gates and the Memorial to the Jewish Dead of the Holocaust. The memorial was one of the most moving places I have ever been and I felt claustrophobic, frightened, and humbled by the more than 1,000 massive cement stellae. In Berlin we also visited the Topography of Terror museum, set right in the former heart of the SS and Gestapo. The museum provided a remarkably honest and forthright account of the rise of the SS, German complacency during Hitler's ascension, and also the atrocities committed by the SS men. It was a harrowing thing to take in but I applauded current Germans for their support of this very necessary museum.

After visiting the museum we continued on to the Tiergarten and then finally walked past the Brandenburg Gates and back into the center of the city. Our night consisted of a very interesting pub crawl / historical story tour of the Berlin Wall remains and memorial. I cannot imagine how an entire city was rent in half by two warring sides but the memorial and our tour provided some remarkable accounts. Finally, the group started celebrating my birthday with a song on the Berlin metro as we headed to a club.

Yesterday we set out for Amsterdam quite early in the morning and we arrived around 7pm. After setting up our camp in record time we headed back into the city. We continued celebrating my birthday in the city for a little while before heading back in to get some much needed sleep.

Today, in our last full day with Contiki, Erika and I visited the Anne Frank House with several of our friends. It was a moving experience and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone who visits. The exhibits, alone, are worth a trip to Amsterdam. It is difficult to imagine the life that the Frank family had to lead during their years in hiding but the interactive museum, built from fragments of Anne's diary, does a fine job in painting the picture.

After we left we headed across dozens of canals and got a late lunch. We then set off for the famed Amsterdam flee markets, only to find most of them closing up. We hurried back through the Red Light District and quickly found our group near the train station. There, we met our coach driver, Cathal, for the last time as he will be leaving early tomorrow and we'll have a replacement driver take us back to London. We all headed to our last group dinner - a traditional Rice Table - an Indonesian buffet. Indonesia was once a Dutch Colony and the rice table flourished in the Netherlands.

Now we are all back at the campsite, excited to enjoy one last night together before we split up tomorrow. Erika and I, and many of the other campers, will be taking the coach back to London and then we're flying back to the US on Wednesday.

We'll see you all soon!

-Simon & Erika