Schtop ... it's not ready yet.

So James has informed you a bit of our escapades in Amsterdam.

We started our little trip a stupid o’clock to catch the crack o’dawn (for it was) flight from Bournemouth Airport. This is of the Shed & a runway style of regional airport, but it is literally here as much of the airport (departure gates, baggage reclaim/ customs/ arrivals) is made up of portakabin/ mobile buildings. But we could cope with that, as its also home to really cheap airport parking (£7 per day then deduct 5% for pre-book, bargain!).

We left 5 mins late, our Ozzie pilot informed us this was due to chaos on the airfield (I swear he said airfield rather than airport, the field is closer to the truth). We arrived, along with our baggage … and headed for the YH … booked and collapsed in a heap in the comfy seats, to wait a while for James & Ruth to turn up from their Sleazyjet flight. Hunger was starting to occur, so a raid for lunch was made to the nearby Albert Hejin, it was way cheaper to buy the elements rather than sandwiches … so we also provided lunch for our Sleazy friends.

A faff & tram later we met up with the rest of the possie, confusing Tom as the fountain was no longer in Dam Square he thought was there. It was a mass pancake session, before a wander around Kalverstraat and canals to head back to the YH for a later meet up.

The evening was spent in the Van Gogh Museum (where James thought one of the pics in the temp exhibition looked like David Walliams). The music for Friday Night / Musueum Night (for its open until 10pm, with music) was sort of chilled easy listening stuffs on decks. Then it was the start of the attempt for food … after a short while DrT & I felt it was taking too much faff and I was really tired following a week of late nights due to work … so headed for a YH satay and chips between us.

Saturday saw Anne Frank & Canals. Anne Frank didn’t have quite the same feel as last time (in January), but I think that’s because there was more of us & last time we had been to the Jewish Historical Museum the day before … The place is stark and moving, but it has bought to life the diary to see where she was writing from. After Canals DrT, James, Ruth & me peeled off as we were getting in the Xmas shopping during the afternoon, whilst the others went elsewhere. So we had a quick pizza (French stylee) and then onto winter coat shopping for Caz … but by the evening James was going darn … he liked my coat lots and wanted one for himself (it’s a ethinic knitted jacket with fleece lining, but rather than bright alternating colours is a more subtle shades of green in colour … and was the only one of that style!). So a happy Caz & Dr T left the lovebirds for a trip to North Amsterdam for a trip to Pipoos (with James’ talk of the pissoirs, should this be the cross between a pee pee & a poo poo rather than a craft shop) but also got to see the real life side of Amsterdam in the process, for this is where the workers live. We re-met and then headed for De Bjeknof (?sp, means The Beehive) … where although I couldn’t find a dutch style bag for life for mum’s pressie (she has a fine collection (mainly German) for her shopping) but did find a fine pressie for the parents … and then as it was a gift it was wrapped, and DrT was his usual self with the camera and took a picture of me looking over the screen watching it being wrapped like a small child …

We headed back to the YH, James having purchased his blackcurrant gin (and then raiding AH for a cardboard wine box to pack it in so it could safely go in the hold …) but the trams weren’t quite as they should due to a taxi & pedestrian incident … that blocked the tramline where we should have got on… Back the YH, where dinner looked good, so we used our meal ticket that night while the others went for Argentinean steak (this came a bit of a running joke …).

Sunday and DrT was in his element playing at Nemo, a hands on Science Centre. After which we headed for a quick late lunch stop and then a few more pressies shopped for. Dinner was Dutch … and as you will have read James & I experimented with dried parsley as an accompaniment to the lemon in white beer… I didn’t really taste much difference.

Monday was rather damp, so after finding the NAP (Normal Amsterdam Level, from which all the tide levels for europe are gained, the equivalent in the UK is Newlyn Datum), that it seems I was the onlyy one out of all of us who saw it in various groups found really interesting (hmm prob. cause it makes sense to me and I use something similar everyday at work). Followed by the last bit of Xmas shopping we met up for lunch in the historical museum before the rest of the Bournemouth flight possie went to the museum, the flybe pair headed out to the airport, and I amused myself picking up a surprise pressie for DrT & some funky striped tights (all the Dutch kids seem to be wearing funky winter tights) for his niece. A chocolate waffle and sit down later we then headed back to our bags and an early arrival at AMS. They seemed to be just about to offload a lot of bags … as it seems it went from nothing to gate closed in a short time … it seemed often it was a race for between the last call for flights & your bag being offloaded (not forgetting that you have the security control inbetween).

We arrived back at Bournemouth late night … a quick run home and bed. But a good weekend with friends, if a little damp with all the rain/ drizzle.