Amsterdam.. Cool experience..

After the Hague, we took a train to Amsterdam.. Amsterdam is famous for its houses with big windows, canals, coffeeshops, tulips, windmills and of course red light district.. 3 of the above mentioned could be seen in the two pictures below.. coffeeshops in Amsterdam means places where ppl could smoke weed (marijuana) or consume weed in any other form such as eating it in weed cookies or cakes or milk shakes.. It is legal in Holland to consume such a drug.. 2 coffeeshops could be seen in the second picture.. heard from my Chinese teacher in junior college that the reasons why houses here have large windows n small doors is that there used to be a tax on the size of the door, thus ppl here make their doors small enuff for one person to just pass thru while windows are made wide n near the ground so that furniture could be passed in or out during moving.. haha i wonder if that is true but it seems rather logical..
also i realise later in the night that such big windows serve "other" purposes..haha



It is rather common to find such signs around Amsterdam..

no no.. dont confuse it with brassiere (which is "bra").. it is brasserie which i tink means cafe or smt like that in French..
After checking in our Stayokay hostel in Amsterdam, we decided to go for a short walk around town..

There is a flower market along a canal.. what does it sell mostly? TULIPS!!.. haha too bad for the snow.. there r no tulips when we came.. not the season yet..



Sex shops r everywhere in Amsterdam.. there sex cinemas, sex gadgets shops.. anything that could be sold abt sex could be found here.. cool...


This is a rather famous coffeeshop in Amsterdam.. its located in a rather deserted alley.. one of the scenes in Ocean's Twelve is shot here.. thats why its famous n often crowded..

Another one of many coffeeshops in Amsterdam.. Its called "Homegrown Fantasy"


These are weed cakes.. i heard that they r really really potent.. once taken, the effect will kick in within one hour n last for a long time

"Nothing" much happened tonite.. we went back to our hostel to rest after a long n seemingly never ending walk in Amsterdam.. haha

Den Haag.. Madurodam

When our train reaches Den Haag Central, we went straight to ticketing counter to buy our tickets to Amsterdam since we will be leaving this place in a few hours.. There is a service charge of 0.50 Euros for every ticket sold when we buy over the counter.. crap.. we went to the Tourist Info after that to get some info n buy some souvenoirs.. after we found out how to go to the Mini Holland, Madurodam.. we went to wait for the tram.. while waiting i took some pics of course..

At the tram stop..

LL wanted to take some pic that shows she is at the Hague.. (Den Haag is the Dutch name for the Hague) so i took a photo of her with a construction sign with the word "Den Haag" on it.. haha

I read some where that almost every Dutch has a bicycle.. n they would cycle from their home to the public transport station such as bus or trams where they will park their bikes there..

As usual, we took the tram w/o stamping.. act blur.. no one to check.. haha the strippen card is cool, it can be used for public transport in Rotterdam, The Hague n Amsterdam.. the tram stop at Madurodam..

When we reached Madurodam, the ticketing counter person warned us beforehand that what we r gonna see inside is diff from wat we r gonna expect from the brochure becos its snowing recently n most buildings r covered with snow.. the rest felt like going then ok loh.. the entrance costs 12 Euro but we have a dicount card so in the end it costs 10.50Euro..n the lady at the counter said to compensate us, they would offer each of us a free drink in the cafeteria.. ok loh..

A panaromic shot of Madurodam..

Map of Madurodam.. its so small yet so big.. buildings r small but the whole area is so big...

This train is supposed to work but during winter, it does not operate..

The Euromast in Madurodam..

Looks very real rite?


THe Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam..now a much nicer view..


Other pics..




Masterfood.. accoridng to LL, its one of the famous brand in Holland.. haha there r figures of ppl n cars in Madurodam with the buildings n we can pick them up as well altho i dont tink we r supposed to.. hha anwyay i helping to clear away the snow on them mah..

At the Schipol Airport..



Posing with SIA plane..

Posing with the plane we came in, Transavia

Posing with Dutch national carrier, KLM..






Windmills..


More pics..









Small guys in a small world..



The drink coupon which were given to us to compensate for all the snow that blocked our view of the entire park..

Traditional Swedish clog.. haha .. (the actual one is not as big)