Day 15

Today, our plan was to go to Amsterdam, and then spend the night with dad's last sister. As a result, the morning was all about packing up, saying our teary goodbyes, and making our way to the train station to head our to Amsterdam.

We had to deal with the brilliant ticketing system again before lugging four suitcases onto the train and trying to find 4 seats facing together so we could put all our stuff together. It took a little while but we finally got there.

We got off the train at Amsterdam and had to find some luggage lockers for our stuff so that we could go and have a look around the city. Unfortunately, all the large lockers that would fit the parent's suitcases were taken. Damn tourists. Although while contemplating our next move, enough people came back to claim their luggage and leave empty lockers. I felt like a vulture circling, waiting for its prey to die.

Speaking of food, our next priority was to grab some grub. The pub that we picked had free WiFi so yay! Once our hunger was satisfied with greasy Dutch food goodness, it was time to have a look around the city.

For those who know, Amsterdam has an awesome canal system. So we went on a boat that went around them. They also had some awesome looking paddle boats that you could cruise around on but we didn't really have enough time for that.

The first canal stop was at the house of Anne Frank. It was pretty cool, thought provoking and all that. But it would have been cooler if I had actually read the book. After the house, we had a squiz at the Jordaan region. While waiting for the boat we some a bunch of drunk students dancing on some small boats. I eagerly watched, waiting for one to fall in. But alas it did not happen.

We stayed on the boat for the rest of the tour this time, learning some interesting facts about Amsterdam. My fav was that the canals were 3m deep. 1m water, 1m mud, and 1m bicycles....

We had dinner, and were served by the most unhelpful staff ever. I think they were too busy being 'busy', or were just too cool.

We went back to the station and collected our luggage and then set off north to Hoorn. It's near here that dad's sister lives. Upon arriving in Hoorn, we had a bit of a communication fail. The mobile wasn't connecting, so we couldn't tell dad's sister that we'd arrived. That's ok, we'll try a public phone booth. None of these seemed to work. You put your money in,  you dial the number, it takes your money for the thrill of pushing the numbers. We ended up asking a kind florist if we could use her phone, and she was nice enough to let us. So if you're ever in Hoorn train station, buy flowers there.

My cousin and her husband came to pick us up, and we finally got to our destination. We spent the rest of the night catching up with everyone. My cousin could speak English ok, so Sandra wasn't as bombarded by Dutch as she was at other family events.

Sleeping at my aunt's house was interesting. I really appreciate her putting us up, but sleep wasn't easy to come by when all 4 of us are in the same room, we had an air bed, there is a church that rings every hour 2 blocks down the road, and a grandfather clock downstairs also chimes. Relaxing.