The first thing I noticed coming out of the station in Amsterdam was the wall of people, then the bicycles and then the canals. Our first day in Amsterdam was slowed a little with Ruthie having a bout of the “man flu.” We still managed to get a walk around the red light district. I think this attraction may be that of a bygone era but that may be because I’m now a grumpy old man. Judging by the looks and the actions of the girls in the windows, they didn’t seem to want to be there either. You can never have too many sex shops selling oversized sex toys? They are oversized aren’t they? I guess while youth testosterone continues to emerge, this tourist attraction will survive.

Amsterdam is the city of bells. If the church bells aren’t ringing, the tram bells are and if they aren’t, the bicycle bells are. Yes, many many bikes and they seem to have the priority over buses, trams, cars and pedestrians. In fact the population is 821,000 and there are 881,000 bikes. The weather was almost mild and we only wore two layers. It’s a beautiful city, cruises on the canals, historic buildings, museums, shopping and many cafes (yes special ones as well) and bars. It seemed as if everyone was out doing something in this unseasonally mild weather.

I was born in The Hague, the youngest of 6 children. My family emigrated war torn Holland to Australia when I was 6 weeks old. This holiday adventure was never meant to be a journey of self discovery but I was keen to catch up with any remaining family in The Hague. My family had returned to The Hague for 2 years when I was 6 years old. I have some vague memories of that time and have made some reconnections via Facebook. My Cousin Ada and her friend Dick picked us up from the station. I hadn’t seen her in over 55 years. From there we visited her daughter’s family and here we enjoyed traditional Dutch fare. Everyone had made us feel so welcome and I think in the end, even Ruthie was speaking a little Dutch.I also met up with a childhood friend whom I hadn’t seen for 56 years. He had traced me through a photo we both still have. For a bit of fun we recreated that photo all these years later. He had also kept a letter I had written to him when I was 8 years old on our second return to Australia written by me. I was blown away! Not only with how neat my hand writing was as an eight year old but the content too. And it was totally written in Dutch!!!

Dick acted as our tour guide and he drove us around The Hague. I saw the house I was born in. The house that I lived in on our first return was now demolished and new modern buildings existed. So many memories flooding back from such a young age. My cousin had arranged a B&B and we can’t thank her enough for the hospitality she gave us. Ruthie and I ended up quite emotional over this part of our journey.

We trained it back to Amsterdam where we enjoyed a leisurely boat cruise through the calming canals to finish off our stay. Apparently they have to rescue 1 car per week that has overshot their parking into a canal.

The Eurail part of our holiday is now finished. We thoroughly enjoyed our train journeys. The trains were comfortable and mostly on time. We were like a couple of excited teenagers on adventure, free from all the troubles of the world, not knowing where we would be going or staying until the previous night or sometimes even the same day.