Euro Ramble 2004

Sunday - Its full of Bicycles!

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Sunday morning we were woken by rain falling on the window, oh dear! Günter had done us a good breakfast, so we made the most of it while contemplating the rain outside :-(

Ian & David packing in the rain.

After a good send off by Günter, we headed off into the rain, Hmm, if it kept up like this, we would be soaked in a couple of hours, despite our wet weather gear.

After around 40 miles blue sky just started peeping between the clouds and it stopped raining, Hurray!

Somewhere close to Frankfurt I saw the unmistakable twin headlights of a Munch Mammoth heading in the opposite direction, He was gone in a flash, no chance to take in any detail, I really would have liked a closer look :-(

By lunch time not only did we have sunshine, but heat as well, it was roasting! Time for an ice cream!

Amsterdam was a fairly long haul, but we made it by four in the afternoon. We stopped near the Railway Station to get our bearings and this was the amazing scene. Bicycles everywhere, literally piled up in places!

"My God, it's full of Bicycles!" as Dave Bowman famously said in '2001 A Space Odyssey' (wav)

We found the Tourist Information office close to the Railway Station thanks to the GPS, and asked about accommodation. Unfortunately, there was a television convention going on in Amsterdam, and the city was pretty well booked up. After quite some searching she found us a single room for four at the Hotel Casa 400, nearly 3 miles away. Dave found it on the GPS and lead us there.

The Casa 400 turned out to be a reasonable place to stay. Once we were all in one room instead of two, the price per person nearly halved! €161 for the room with breakfast + €14 booking fee,  that's €43 or £30 each

There was a big Police Station just over the road and it was well lit, so not a bad place to leave the bikes, and the Railway Station to the City Centre was only around 500yds away.

A decent room, four single beds, veranda, en suite bathroom, office desk and TV, not bad at all!

Dave getting ready for a night out.

We had an evening meal at the Casa 400 that wasn't bad at all. After that we travelled in to town on the local train, It was interesting to note the local station clock has the same 'Stop to Go' action as Swiss station clocks do, just the second hand looks a little different. By the time we arrived in town it was too dark to take pictures, but it's really nice around the canals and bridges.

Today's route, Rothenburg to Amsterdam 400 miles

 I think it's fair to say we had a good time in Amsterdam, we didn't get back to our hotel until four in the morning, I was completely wrecked! Sadly, tomorrow we would be heading back for the ferry home :-(

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