Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Tyson and Kate's Easter
Happy Easter to all of you,
Hope you all had a good weekend, no doubt it was filled with a lot of alcohol, sport, and great food. Missed cracking the eggs, getting chocolate, and basically having an excuse to drink lots of beer. In saying that, I adopted the same mentality over here, and had quite an amazing weekend.
Friday Kate and I were up at 4am, to get a cab to a bus stop where we were getting picked up by our tour bus. Drove to the Port of Dover and got the ferry to Calais (France). Then drove into Brussels (Belgium), spent about 4 hours there exploring the city (see pic of Kate in City Square) ,
saw the major sites there including the famous and appropriately named Mannekin Pis! After that we drove into Amsterdam (The Netherlands), luckily for Kate and I, and 2 other couples on tour who booked through TNT, we were upgraded to a 3 star hotel right in the centre of town. It was a floating hotel, on the major canal in the city. It was the ultimate location. Went out to dinner with a Kiwi couple we met, and spent the night in the Red Light District, sampling the "local cuisine." After being in 4 different countries that day we were pretty buggered, so wasn't a real late one, got in around 1am.
The next morning we went sight seeing. Went to the Van Gogh museum, lined up for 45 mins, paid 10 Euro each and it was packed and not all his work was there (not that I would know anyway), so not the greatest value, but somewhere you had to go. We then went to Anne Frank's house, and up until now didn't know a great deal about it, but that was really cool, really fascinating, weren't allowed to take pics in there though, but was awesome to see the type of conditions some Jews had to live in in order not to get caught by the Germans. Early evening we had a canal cruise around the city. Spent the night again in the Red Light District, but did a lot more walking, and going into different places. I always thought the district was just one or two streets lined with girls in windows, but it's massive, heaps of bars, clubs, "specialty shops" and heaps more. Really fun place.
Sunday we went to the Heineken Brewery in the morning. That was the best place we went to, well at least I thought so. For 10 Euro each, you get 3 pots of beer, a glass to take home, and the whole tour. Luckily for me, Kate's not a big beer drinker, and either was a stranger we met, so I knocked back 6 pots in half an hour and left a very "happy" man. We then spent the entire day trying to cover every square inch of the city. Amazing city, really nice and picturesque on one hand, and crazy, dirty and insane on the other hand. It really had it all. Spent that night out again, but not a very big one. Pretty tired by that stage.
On Monday we got picked up early and drove to Bruges (Belgium). Spent 4 hours there as well, did all the tourist things, and again, walked every where we could. I loved Bruges - really beautiful place, very medieval, the place was packed, but it was really peaceful, everyone is so relaxed, canals everywhere and nice gardens around the city. Of course I sampled the local beer, which is a must everywhere I go. I've also been taking pictures of all the different beers I drink so I don't forget. In Belgium, I had Leffe Blond and Stella, in Amsterdam I had Amstel, Grolsch and Hoegarrden, not to mention my Heinekens. All really nice beer. We then stopped at a chocolate factory, went back to Calais, missed our ferry, had to wait till 11pm for the next one, didn't get back home till 2am last night, and I've just been told I have to work 8:45am till 8pm every day this week, so it's going to take it's toll come Friday.
We definitely sampled the famous Belgium chocolate and waffles, along with the Frites (Chips with mayo). Got Kate a LOT of Easter eggs, I think she was feeling pretty sick last night. Took a lot of pics I'll try and get online next week. I'll get the Latvia ones up this week hopefully.
Anyway, that was my Easter, and I've come to the conclusion that Amsterdam has to be the ultimate destination for a Bucks Party!!! Not much on for this weekend, Tommy is running in the famous London Marathon on Sunday so that will be a big day, and then next weekend we're off to Paris for 2 nights so we're trying to save some cash. Amsterdam is a very expensive place!!
(Here's a video message Tys and Kate took at the Heineken Brewery. You'll need speakers and it will only be viewable for 4 months)
http://www.heinekenexperience.com/vidEmail.jsp?uid=CA5B12D57CA56A72EF73D49D3B88C38F&vid
=kate_qnd_tys160406112607.WMV&host=hexperience3.bitmove.tv&format=wmv
Hope you all had a good weekend, no doubt it was filled with a lot of alcohol, sport, and great food. Missed cracking the eggs, getting chocolate, and basically having an excuse to drink lots of beer. In saying that, I adopted the same mentality over here, and had quite an amazing weekend.
Friday Kate and I were up at 4am, to get a cab to a bus stop where we were getting picked up by our tour bus. Drove to the Port of Dover and got the ferry to Calais (France). Then drove into Brussels (Belgium), spent about 4 hours there exploring the city (see pic of Kate in City Square) ,
saw the major sites there including the famous and appropriately named Mannekin Pis! After that we drove into Amsterdam (The Netherlands), luckily for Kate and I, and 2 other couples on tour who booked through TNT, we were upgraded to a 3 star hotel right in the centre of town. It was a floating hotel, on the major canal in the city. It was the ultimate location. Went out to dinner with a Kiwi couple we met, and spent the night in the Red Light District, sampling the "local cuisine." After being in 4 different countries that day we were pretty buggered, so wasn't a real late one, got in around 1am.The next morning we went sight seeing. Went to the Van Gogh museum, lined up for 45 mins, paid 10 Euro each and it was packed and not all his work was there (not that I would know anyway), so not the greatest value, but somewhere you had to go. We then went to Anne Frank's house, and up until now didn't know a great deal about it, but that was really cool, really fascinating, weren't allowed to take pics in there though, but was awesome to see the type of conditions some Jews had to live in in order not to get caught by the Germans. Early evening we had a canal cruise around the city. Spent the night again in the Red Light District, but did a lot more walking, and going into different places. I always thought the district was just one or two streets lined with girls in windows, but it's massive, heaps of bars, clubs, "specialty shops" and heaps more. Really fun place.
Sunday we went to the Heineken Brewery in the morning. That was the best place we went to, well at least I thought so. For 10 Euro each, you get 3 pots of beer, a glass to take home, and the whole tour. Luckily for me, Kate's not a big beer drinker, and either was a stranger we met, so I knocked back 6 pots in half an hour and left a very "happy" man. We then spent the entire day trying to cover every square inch of the city. Amazing city, really nice and picturesque on one hand, and crazy, dirty and insane on the other hand. It really had it all. Spent that night out again, but not a very big one. Pretty tired by that stage.
On Monday we got picked up early and drove to Bruges (Belgium). Spent 4 hours there as well, did all the tourist things, and again, walked every where we could. I loved Bruges - really beautiful place, very medieval, the place was packed, but it was really peaceful, everyone is so relaxed, canals everywhere and nice gardens around the city. Of course I sampled the local beer, which is a must everywhere I go. I've also been taking pictures of all the different beers I drink so I don't forget. In Belgium, I had Leffe Blond and Stella, in Amsterdam I had Amstel, Grolsch and Hoegarrden, not to mention my Heinekens. All really nice beer. We then stopped at a chocolate factory, went back to Calais, missed our ferry, had to wait till 11pm for the next one, didn't get back home till 2am last night, and I've just been told I have to work 8:45am till 8pm every day this week, so it's going to take it's toll come Friday.
We definitely sampled the famous Belgium chocolate and waffles, along with the Frites (Chips with mayo). Got Kate a LOT of Easter eggs, I think she was feeling pretty sick last night. Took a lot of pics I'll try and get online next week. I'll get the Latvia ones up this week hopefully.
Anyway, that was my Easter, and I've come to the conclusion that Amsterdam has to be the ultimate destination for a Bucks Party!!! Not much on for this weekend, Tommy is running in the famous London Marathon on Sunday so that will be a big day, and then next weekend we're off to Paris for 2 nights so we're trying to save some cash. Amsterdam is a very expensive place!!
(Here's a video message Tys and Kate took at the Heineken Brewery. You'll need speakers and it will only be viewable for 4 months)
http://www.heinekenexperience.com/vidEmail.jsp?uid=CA5B12D57CA56A72EF73D49D3B88C38F&vid
=kate_qnd_tys160406112607.WMV&host=hexperience3.bitmove.tv&format=wmv
# posted by Barb @ 10:39 am 
