Matts Meanderings

I think this all starts on about the 10th of October - just to give you an idea of when i'm talking about.

Once Andrew and I had managed to recover from the long night out, we caught the train back up to Amsterdam and headed to our hostel - the Globe. Somehow, i'd heard about this hostel a few times, but for some reason, it wasn't in the lonely planet, or even vaguely well known. Rather odd. Even the hotel reservation office that we asked for directions didn't know where it was. Strange.

Once we were all sorted, we headed out for dinner with Matt and the other APS guys - Graham and Trevor. They'd just got in from their flights from Oz, so they weren't exactly the most chipper, but it was good to catch up with them for a yarn or two.

A slightly blurry picture of the APS dinner.

The following day, we headed off on mikes bike tour, which was pretty cool. We'd heard that the one in Berlin (or was it Munich?) was very good, and funny to boot, so we thought we'd give this one a bash. We'd also had an order put in by Andrea for some of the cheese from “the cheese factory thats part of a bike tour that's some guys name”. So, how could we not go on it?

Anyway, there was quite a lot of information in this tour - everything from advice on the best places to go, and the best ways to inbibe marijuana, to the history of prostitution in Amsterdam, to how to become a prostitute (apparently, just drop into the prostitution advice centre, and get a 'starter kit'). We got to go and see a proper windmill, and actually learnt a bit about the history of them (they used to be used to pump water, and in WWII, they were used by the local resistance to point in the directions that Nazi convoys had gone). We got to go to a cheese and clog factory, where we got to see how they made cheese, and how they make clogs (they cheat - it takes all of 2 minutes to make some). But, the cheese was *good*.

Other than that we learnt about a founding principle of the Netherland's constitution - the Harm Principle. Goes something like “if an doesn't harm anybody else, its probably legal“. The other part of it was the freedom it gave to the courts - they dont have to prosicute “if the harm caused by punishing someone exceeds the harm caused by the crime“. So, if putting a dad in prison would ruin a family, the courts can decide not to prosicute. Fairly deep and pretty far ahead of its time - especially seeing this was brought in about the 15th century.

After the bike ride, we joined another Aussie (Emily), and a Canadian (Chris), and headed to an Australian bar. Now, before you assume anything, it was because we got a voucher for a free drink, so thats the only reason we went there. But, it actually turned out to be a pretty cool place. They didn't have that much Australian music on the playlist, but I can overlook that. Ended up having a pretty good night - spent a little bit too much, but who cares.

Some 'happy' people at the Australian bar.

On another day, we did the museum thing, and checked out the Van Gogh museum (some pretty cool stuff there - he painted quite a variety of things), and also the Rijksmuseum (most of which was closed, but still had quite a few cool things). And the other place that we checked out was Anne Franks house. Didn't have an awful lot there, but it had quite an impact on me. Made me think about it, and made the Nazi atrocities that much more real. I s'pose it would have meant more to me if i'd actually read the book, but you cant have everything. To make up for it, i bought the book in the bookshop as I left. Reading it is a bit odd, 'cos i've actually been in the house that she describes...

And that was the last of Amsterdam. On the afternoon of the 13th, I climbed onto a plane, and headed back to good old England, to take some time out. And that, I believe, is where i can leave it for a while, cos i'm now officially up to date! Sorry about the huge deluge of posts - I'll try and be a bit more organised next time round and post a bit more often.

So, until something interesting happens (probably next week), au revoir.

Well, Amsterdam is a bit of an odd one, cos this time round, it was just a day trip. We headed in to meet up with Margo (who I met in Scotland), and Andrew. We met up, and wandered around for a while, checked out the place, and had a few beers. All up, didn't see that much of Amsterdam that time round, but it was good with the five of us just kicking back for a while, and relaxing.

Then Andrew and I headed down to Rotterdam (Margo's home town), leaving Matt behind (he couldn't be bothered seeing Rotterdam - I think he went back to Utrecht). We ended up sitting around at Margo's place till all hours of the morning, just yarning about all sorts of things. Was good.

The following day we wandered around Rotterdam, seeing the sights, and getting a bit of a feel for the city. Margo and Andrew had managed to get an opportunity to abseil of a stupidly high tower (unfortunately, only 2 spots - doh!), so I got to take photos for them. Looks like it would have been fun, but crazy.

Margo, the instructor, and Andrew abseiling down the stupidly high tv tower.

After that, we wandered around a bit more, saw some crazy cube houses, i got carried away trying to take arty photos of Margo, saw some pigeons kissing and saw my first real life dutch windmill. Also managed to find an “Australian Ice Cream” shop - i could've sworn they were supposed to be “New Zealand Ice Cream” shops... (side note - New Zealand was named after a province in The Netherlands - Zeeland.).

Crazy cube houses - apparently pretty cool, and roomy inside.

That night, ended up going out partying with Margo, and one of her friends Mara. Was lots of fun, especially with the really bad 80's music . Left the place at 5am - only reason being that we didn't want to miss the last bus. The party seen in The Netherlands is pretty crazy - it doesn't really kick off till about 1am. But, it was a good night - a lot of fun - just letting go, and who cares what people think about my dancing .

PS - feel free to have a squiz at the rest of the photos of Rotterdam .

When we arrived in Utrecht, and found Maud (who Matt had spent a bit of time talking to in Rome - I don't think I'd even met her then... ), she took us out to our hostel, which being the absolutely wonderful person she is, had booked for us. And it was a proper hostel again - with other backpackers! Yay! Was a good feeling . Odd thing was when they gave us the intro spiel, we got the “if you want to smoke grass, go out the back”, and it was just part of the intro. Wasn't really expecting it - a bit of a surprise.

Maud gave us the tour of the town - she ended up taking us places that she'd never been before. Admittedly, she's only lived there for 3 months, but we've seen as much of the place as she has . Even though you associate the canals mainly with Amsterdam, nearly every town has them, and Utrecht is no exception (apparently over a 1/3 of the Netherlands is below sea level...). A few pretty cool buildings, but nothing super exciting about the place. But, it was good to be there with a local, and also to have someone other than Matt to talk to . That night we ended up heading out (with another Rome survivor - Hanneke (pronounced Hannaka)) to a student union party somewhere, which was a lot of fun - pity about the 2am curfew at the hostel.

Hanneke, Matt and Maud at the student union bash

While we were there, we thought we'd better make the effort to go and vote in the Aussie election. So, we jumped on the train, and headed down to the embassy in Den Haag (aka The Hague). Left the station, and went “not another new city...”. So even though it was a new place, with probably a few cool things to see, we walked pretty much straight to the embassy, voted (now that was exciting), then straight back to the station. We got told off for not going to the beach there, but I really couldn't be bothered... So, it wasn't all that much of an exciting day. But after that, Maud, Matt and I went out to some bar for a while, which was fun. Matt piked pretty early, so Maud and I had a fairly deep conversation for a while. Was good.

And then, it was time for the big cheese - Amsterdam!

PS - if, once again, you're bored, check out the photos of Utrecht, and photos from The Hague.

Gah. Why oh why did I start this thing. Its bad, cos I started a precedent on how much I was writing, and even in just saying I'd do it. Painful. Then again, its my own fault for letting it get so far behind...

Anyway, the magical adventure that was The Netherlands all starts in Maastricht. A little city, not that much exciting about it, other than it claims to be the oldest city in The Netherlands. The hostel we stayed in was waaay out in the boonies (over 20 minutes on the bus), but had an added benefit of being attached to a leisure centre with a pool. And as a bonus, my 'residents pass' (for want of a better term) gave us free access to the pool. And seeing i was a little antsy from lack of serious exercise, it was a good thing.

This pool was kinda odd. For starters, the changing room was just a room full of little individual cubicles, with a door on the front (from the outside), and a door on the back (with access to the pool). Wasn't even a catch on the doors, so it made it interesting trying to get changed, while holding the doors shut... Other thing was that when we eventually got access to the 25 metre pool (which I'm almost positive is 20 metres max), after the lesson was finished, they decided to ignore the line markings on the bottom of the pool, remove all the lane ropes, and then get everyone to swim across the pool, rather than up and down. So, swimming involved ducking and weaving to avoid others, rather than the solid exercise i was hoping for... But, at least i got a swim out of it.

Next day we hit the tourist info point (the VVV apparently), and grabbed a map of the town, and wandered around seeing all the sites. Wasn't all that exciting really. Well, no, I lie - we got sidetracked at one point, watching a building get demolished. It was quite amusing - there was lots of guys standing watching, a few with wives, but only one woman standing by herself. Pretty funny. Oh the other exciting thing was finding a street called "Hilarius Street" - i was impressed.

There really wasn't that much that was exciting about the whole place, so we headed of for the excitement of Utrecht, to meet Maud - a fellow survivor of the hostel in Rome. 

PS - now that I've got the photos up, you can check out the photos of Maastricht if you're bored...

Finally got the last of the photos uploaded, and added the links into the menu. At the moment, you've got access to literally all the photos I took - I haven't had chance to whittle them down to a smaller collection of good photos. I'll get there eventually, but I'm just not sure when.

Enjoy!

This time, just to be different, we caught the ferry to the next town, which is a pretty smooth way to travel, if i may say so.

Yet again, we were forced to go to a hostel in a castle, this time in Burg Ehrenbreitstein. It was on the other side of the Rhine from the town, so we had 2 choices - walk up to the bridge (500 metres-ish away), or catch a ferry. So, it was the ferry, except for the time we were out late, and the ferry had stopped - then we were forced to do the walk - about an hour and a half all up. Oh yeah - that was the hostel that had the chair lift going up to it - was pretty fun catching a chair lift up and down from the hostel - even if it wasn't cheap... .

The hostel. So annoyed that we were forced to stay there...

The town's right on the point where the Moselle and the Rhine rivers meet. Right at that point, is a huge statue thing of somebody, in a park called Deutsches Eck (or something). [Getting tired here - I'm getting more and more descriptive ]. All in all, its pretty cool. Check out the photos - you'll probably agree with me.

Other than that, i got a phone call from the Westpac Fraud Department - they'd noticed that my card had been used in Japan and Thailand, while also being used in Germany. So, their computers picked it up as being a bit odd. They picked up the oddity within a day and a half, so I was pretty impressed. They cancelled my card, refunded the dodgy transactions, and wanted to send me a new card. Only problem was, I had no idea where i was going to be in the 2 or 3 days they needed to get it to me. So, I had to get it sent to England, about 2 weeks ahead of where I was - that was the only date I knew where I was going to be. Painful, but I'm glad they picked it up... Not sure how they got my number - but it was a physical card used in both countries, so it wasn't online transactions. Damn credit cards - so many security problems with them - time to get rid of them, and replace them with something better (just have to come up with the something better, and patent the idea ).

And that, I think, is Germany done and finished. I think I'm now up to about the 4th of October, so not too much more to write, but its about 1.30am now, and well and truly past my bedtime. So, that'll do for now. G'nite.

[Edit - fixed a typo, and added in the picture...]

Okey dokey... Time to babble on about Bacharach. I think we arrived there about the 1st of October, so I'm only 3 weeks behind on the posts... Gah! I'll get there soon, I hope.

Anyway, once again, caught the train from A to B, A being Worms, B being Bacharach (or is it supposed to be W to B?). Oh yeah, thats something I should share about German trains - there's a ticket you can get for about €22 that allows up to 5 people to travel anywhere within the state, or on the weekend, allows you to travel anywhere in Germany! Much cheaper than the standard tickets. Has to be off-peak of course, but who really wants to travel peak, anyway?

Burg Stahleck has been completely refurbished, so its really nice inside - pretty much done up the way I'd like to do up an old house/building/castle. Still looks old on the outside, but really nice inside. Only problem with staying in a castle is that they're nearly always built at the top of hills. So, it was a pretty steep climb to get up there - with the pack on .

Good thing about Bacharach was that there was actually some other backpackers there, so it was a lot better. Spent a bit of time with one of the guys we met there - Ricardo - from the Dominican Republic, but living in Puerto Rico. He had been working for a week or so, and was talking some holidays before heading home again. Ended up hiring some bikes, and going for a ride - first downriver to Burg Reichenstein, then up river (past Bacharach again) to St Goar, to Burg Rheinfels - a pretty damn large castle, a bit ruined, but still pretty cool (except for the stinging nettles that i managed to find ). Then again, after all the castles I've seen this year, I'm getting to the point of being almost castled-out. After that, we couldn't be bothered riding back, so we caught the ferry back downstream to home - very relaxing.

Ricardo, Matt and Me on the ferry back to Bacharach
(with thanks to a nice old Indian guy)

Then, the following day, it was onwards to Koblenz.

[Edit - added in the picture]

I must say that I was impressed that I was able to go to a town called Worms (even though its pronounced Verms)... Pretty cool (well, OK, I'm easily impressed, but who cares ).

Well, when we were there, we pretty much wandered around, checked out the sights (took all of an hour), and got lost for a bit. Wasn't too hard to get unlost though. Its a cool little town (I think they claimed it was the oldest town in Germany, but then again, a few towns claim that ), right on the banks of the Rhine. Sat there on the banks, watching the barges go past, while eating dinner - was nice and relaxing.

The hostel was pretty cool - still full of school kids (and an orchestra group), but we managed to get a room with only 4 beds, and a private ensuite - practically a hotel! Very nice, quite enjoyed it. The hostel was right in the middle of town, right opposite a whopping great big cathedral. Quite cool.

While we there, we also ducked off to Heidelberg for a day trip - just for the sake of it. Pretty cool place - its tucked up in a little valley (with a castle above it), so everything up close to the castle is still really old, and all the new stuff is further away - so it doesn't overpower the old. Checked out the castle - very impressive, and also had a wander up through the hills. There's a path through the hills above the town, called the Philosophers Walk (or something), which was a nice walk - pity about the lots of stairs to get there. (Apparently, its a popular place for couples late at night - it'd be quite picturesque ).

Back at Worms, we found we had a room mate, a German guy called Matias. He was a very very talkative guy, with a pretty poor handle on english... We told him that we were going to grab a beer, and read the newspaper (as we'd had a long day), but he really wanted to talk. Very annoying, especially when he lapsed back into German, and expected us to understand. Luckily we lost him along the way, and managed to have a relaxing night after all. Odd thing was that in the middle of the night, he got a phone call, and then disappeared. Strange.

And then it was on to Bacharach...