Day 3 (May10): London to Amsterdam
A warm welcome from your Contiki crew as we head for the White Cliffs of Dover and our ferry crossing to France. We continue through Belgium to Holland and its capital, Amsterdam for the evening.
I had set my alarm for 5:45, but hadn't slept much since I was so excited. All of us from the Imperial Hotel met the bus at the bus stop by the hotel and Reuben took us over to the Royal National to start the tour. Around 7:30 we headed out, on this first leg of the journey I sat with Laurie from Canada. She seemed like a really nice girl, and she was. The English countryside was quite lovely, with lush green grass and yellow flowers. Hans gave us an introductory speech. I actually don't remember too much about it, except that we shouldn't use the bathroom unless it was an emergency. I don't think anyone ever did. Hans had us talk to the people behind us, Christine and Cindy who both seemed pretty cool. We took a 10:30 ferry from Dover to Calais. On the ferry we had a chance to check out the White Cliffs of Dover and have breakfast. I also finally met Kamala, who I had met online before the trip, and her friends.
When we were finally in France we had a 3 hour drive until our first rest stop, I sat with Noriko. Noriko was from Japan, but was living in Canada studying English. At our first rest stop we had an opportunity to have McDonalds, pay for ketchup, and pay to use the bathroom. We finally arrived at the hotel at 6:30, where I met my roommate, Nicola from New Zealand.
At 7:00 I had dinner with Laurie, Garry, Chris, Bryan and Alana. I wished I had eaten a little more at McDonalds since the dinner wasn't that great. Luckily the dinners got a getter from here. But they did have good ice cream for dessert. After that we headed out to Amsterdam for our Canal Cruise, featuring free beer and wine. I sat with and had a good chat with Christine, Cindy, Caitlin, and Jenny, sorry to say we didn't hear much about Amsterdam as we were usually talking when the guide was. The best part of the boat though was the bathroom, the toilet was raised as high as a bar stool. After the Canal Cruise Hans took those who were interested on "Hansie's Dodgy Walking Tour of the Red Light District." The window shopping in Amsterdam is not like at home! At the end of the walking tour some went off to the smoke shops, and about 15 of us went to the optional Dutch Cultural Show. It's a bit of Contiki tradition to not talk to much about the Dutch Cultural Show, you'll have to learn about that somewhere else.
