amsterdam on foot.

Monday morning came around, after we slept in, and I got up and attempted to shave. I was able to trim part of my beard and blew my converter. I could not get my electric trimmer to work with Payton or Keith's converters and had to clean shave. This is something I have not done since Halloween 2008. Good thing I brought a razor. Once we were all ready we went out and had breakfast at a Pannenkoek restaurant and had real pannenkoeks. Payton had jam, Keith had caramel, and I had honey. Delicious! Katie would be proud. After that we headed to the Van Gogh Museum and along the way we walked through the floating flower market. I recommend going to this place, it had LOADS of seeds, bulbs, flowers, and plants. Once at the museum we saw some Van Gogh paintings, along with Toulouse Lautrec and Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, among others. Got some cards for Abby - shout out, woot! Then we ate at thd Hard Rock Cafe, which was meh, though Keith enjoyed his meal. And, since it was our last night, had dessert...at McDonalds. M&M McFlurry = yum. Payton had a Lion McFlurry, some weird european candy bar. They have more McFlurry flavors here, lucky.

We were thinking about going out that night, but when we got back we just crashed on our beds. Got a good night sleep, about 11 hours.

We got up in the morning and had breakfast - granola and gingerbread. Then packed up our stuff and checked out, but stayed at the hostel to charge appliances and figure out our next move. We decided it would be a good idea to purchase our Eurostar tickets back to London early, only £75 this time. Random side note: buy ALL of your train tickets early online if you are able. Saves money and you will not have to sit on the incredibly uncomfortable, fold down seats by the door. After that we bought some last minute souvenirs and headed for the train station. Missed the train we wanted and had to wait 1.5 hours. Random side note: if you are using a Eurail pass to get around, activate it the moment you get into the country where you start using it, even if you are not going to use it for a couple days. Ticket assistance is slower than turtles covered in molasses, but that can be said for any country in which you travel. When we got that fiasco organized we found some place in the station to eat, which was really good, and played cards to pass the time. Made our train this time and headed for Berlin.

We had a transfer in Diusburg and when we got to Oberhaus we got a little confused and Keith thought we had gotten on the wrong train. After the help from a lady heading to Amsterdam on our train heading away from Amsterdam, we found we were going in the right direction. The afore mentioned lady needed to go to Diusburg to catch the only train in the area heading to Amsterdam. Weird. We got on our next train and arrived safely in Berlin...at 11:30 at night. We found an information kiosk and asked for directions and the lady we spoke [broken English] with gave us a map and schedule of the tram, but I did not feel like figuring out the tram rails at 11:30 at night and have us miss our stop and end up on the other side of Berlin where it could be really sketchy. So, we took a cab. And if you think the cabs in New York or Philly are crazy, try one in Berlin. We were speeding through the city...and listening to some girl screech about Friday night on the radio. Terrifying, yet awesome. Random side note: I know some of you might be thinking I am talking about Rebecca Black, and if you are you would be wrong. This singer actually had some talent. For those who have no idea who Rebecca Black is or what anuerism inducing song I am talking about, turn your speakers up and have a listen to Friday.

After the crazy cab ride we checked into the hostel. And while we were doing this the cab driver came into the hostel and gives us back a €20 note that we gave him on accident on top of the fare. Honest man! Not many of those around. But we got checked in, found our beds, and slept.

More to come soon, stay tuned!

steinkraus.