Sunday 28 June 2009 (Flight Frankfurt to Los Angeles)

Well today was our next long haul flight, which was from Frankfurt to Los Angeles (being approximately 12 hours). Once we got to our boarding gate, it seems that the aircraft we were supposed to be flying on (Boeing 747) was switched for an Airbus 340. This had a twofold effect. Firstly, this allowed us to have on-demand entertainment (yay!), as Lufthansa has only upgraded their Airbus fleet. Secondly, given that it is a smaller plane by passenger numbers, Lufthansa offered passengers the equivalent of NZ$1,250.00 each and a free nights accommodation if they were willing to take the flight the next day. While it was very tempting (and if it was our flight home we definitely would have jumped at the opportunity), we had too many other bookings that would be effected by it. Also the invitation was read first in German, and a lot of people looked like they were jumping at the opportunity before we understoon what was going on.

Flight itself was ok (we still watched the netbook as there was a very limited choice on the plane’s on-demand entertainment), and we arrived in Los Angeles after 2:00am our time. We went through the fingerprinting and photo taking (feels like you’ve committed a crime) and caught the free shuttle to our airport hotel, from which we could watch the planes take off and arrive. The bed in our room had a feature called sleep number, which you could use to control the softness/firmness of the bed, with each side independently controlled. The hotel also had a pool (it’s great to be out of Europe) and a swim was just what was required before bed.

General Impressions of Amsterdam/Frankfurt

Both are reasonably dirty places that have offensive odours at times. Although both have difficult public transport systems when you only speak English (we miss the MTR in Hong Kong), Amsterdam is easy to get around as all the tourist areas were within walking distance of our hotel. Frankfurt on the other hand is a bit more spread out.

Amsterdam was always fun to walk around as there was always things happening and nice canals (even though the water looked gross) with lots of tourists, whereas Frankfurt was more like an ordinary biggish city.

In both Amsterdam and Frankfurt (as with Hong Kong) the people were very rude. Always very pushy and no concept of orderly queues. Everything was very expensive and was probably good that we only had several days in these places or we would be broke.

We can see how these European cities are very popular with older tourists, as the main attractions seem to revolve around museums. For example in Frankfurt, the number one attraction was Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s House, someone neither of us had ever heard of.

The thing that neither us of us will miss about Europe is the toilet paper, or rather, the rolls of newsprint that they pass for toilet paper. You would think that when you have to pay to use a public toilet (we even had to pay in a restaurant and in shopping malls) that they could at least provide some decent quality toilet paper. The worst part about having to pay is that they only accept exact change, so you are out of luck if you do not have the right coin.

Saturday 27 June 2009 (Frankfurt)

We woke early to enjoy the hotel breakfast, that had a huge selection, as along with the usual American, Asian and Continental breakfast options, they had salmon and a big selection of hams and cheeses.

We walked down to the other side of the river, the Museumsufer, so named because of the large concentration of museums there. On Saturday it is also the location of Frankfurt’s biggest market. It turned out to be a flea market, with a whole bunch of other people’s crap for sale. We left there pretty soon after we arrived and went to the Three Kings Church, which is a magnificent old church. This is not something we would usually do, but it was close by and Frankfurt was fast running out of things to do. We can see why it was suggested to us that we spend no more than a couple of days here.

We went for a walk down the main street in downtown area, and then caught a train (yes we managed to decipher how to do it, although still not sure we were doing it right) to the Museum of Natural History. Given that this was almost entirely in German (have these people heard of tourism?) we didn’t understand a lot of it, but we did obtain some headphones that you could listen to spiels about the more important exhibits. It was actually very good, as it has the largest exhibition of large dinosaurs in Europe and the largest collection of birds in the world.

After dinner we went to a bar called Rough Diamond, which was a completely different concept nightclub to anything we have seen back home. We considered going also going to the Cocoon Club, which is regarded as one of the best nightclubs in the world (some say the best trance nightclub in the world), but it was late and we would have had to catch a train to get there.

Friday 26 June 2009 (Frankfurt)

A very early start to get to the airport on time to get back to Frankfurt. Flying KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (as we had to Amsterdam) in a Fokker 100, a rather differently configured plane, not least of which is the position of the engines attached to the main body itself. That was the seventh plane journey out of the total of fourteen during this trip (half way!). Also KLM is part of Air France (which we didn’t know) so its good that those flights are over without incident.

It has been shockingly easy to get entry to countries in Europe after we first got here. Upon arrival we go straight to the baggage hall and then exit. No passport control, no customs, nothing.

We arrived in Frankfurt for our third time here (its like our second home). Language is still proving a problem as the signs and the train ticket machine were in parts only in German, but the people seem helpful enough. So we caught the train to central station and our hotel was directly outside. A nice hotel, part-way between an ordinary hotel room and an all inclusive, that is, had free mini bar in room, free breakfast, free wi-fi & internet computers, free telephone calls, free newspapers, free ironing service and free tea, coffee and cakes/pastries all day.

Michael Jackson died - we managed to find one TV station (BBC) in English.

We went for a wander around the area and walked down by the river Main, which is a huge river that runs through the middle of the city. We got frankfurters for lunch (we had to, we are in Frankfurt) and discovered that they are better in Christchurch. What is with the bread in Europe? Not even the birds eat it, due to it being so hard. We then went for a scenic cruise down the river with (English!) commentary, which was quite good, but not anywhere near as scenic as the Amsterdam canals. We saw a few of the main sights to see in Frankfurt, although there aren’t a lot. We then sat in the blistering sun and enjoyed an ice-cream sundae at a dessert restaurant that had no English whatsoever on their menus. We went out in the evening to have a look at the German nightlife, which in the area around the central station is mainly a huge red light district. No girls in windows on the street this time, but they have the exact same concept but in huge buildings dedicated for this purpose.

The bizarre thing about Frankfurt is that it has all these magnificent old buildings, however, not many of them are actually old. They have simply been rebuilt in the same style after being destroyed in the war.

Thursday 25 June 2009 (Amsterdam)

A bright and early start to the day, we decided to head to Anne Frank’s House, which is now a museum. The line was long already by the time we got there (remind me not to go to anymore of the main tourist attractions in the cities in Europe) but the museum itself was very good. Inside of course is the exact house that the Frank family hid out in, along with Anne Frank’s original diary. For some reason, no photography was allowed inside.

All the walking we have done in the last week was taking its toll, and we decided to stop for a massage (well out of the red light district!) Jen got a hot stone massage.

We then had lunch and went to the sex museum, which did not have such big queues, but was still very full. The exhibits were a little different to most museums, and there were a lot of shocked faces. It basically told the story of sex through the ages through a huge collection of models, exhibits, videos, photos and paintings.

As we had heard, there a masses of bikes here, being the main form of transportation within the city area. What we had not heard was how crazy the biker riders are. They woosh around the streets at very high speeds (streets that are shared by both cars and foot traffic). If you are in their path, they ding their bell and then get angry if you don’t immediately move. They do not give way to cars or people, and we know from our taxi ride that the drivers are crazy also. What makes this situation worse is that not one of the bike riders we have seen was wearing a helmet. Wait, it doesn’t end there, we saw one person who had herself and three small children all on one bike, none of whom were wearing helmets. Sort of feels like we have gone back in time to when people where stupid.

Also saw a Police boat on the canals, so now we have seen Police here travel by boat, car, motorbike, push bike, horse and on foot.

Wednesday 24 June 2009 (Amsterdam)

Getting out of bed was hard this morning due to how luxurious the bed was, but we needed to drag ourselves up as there was plenty of Amsterdam to see in the short time we are here. We walked around the canals a bit more and went to a couple of local street markets (Waterlooplein market and Albert Cuyp market). A few bargains were available, but nothing like an Asian street market. We walked through the red light district in the daytime (hey, its hard to avoid as its right in the centre) which didn’t quite have the same buzz about it, but the girls were still in the windows, a lot looking very bored or talking on cell phones.

We also went to an area which I think translates to English as Newmarket, which is an area frequented by young people with lots of bars and restaurants with outdoor seating area. The day was very warm, so this area was quite busy.

We went to a restaurant called Coco’s Outback, an Australian restaurant nearby our hotel whose slogan is “Lousy Food and Warm Beer”. We had lunch watching State of Origin II (Queensland won series, yay!) - I had a crocodile burger and we both had the national dish of the Netherlands, fries with mayonnaise.

Now what would Amsterdam be without its museums, but all the art museums that are here don’t really interest us, so we decided to go to the torture museum. Mildly disturbing, but must make people glad that they live in this modern world.

Dinner was KFC (even though I’ve failed I still got to try it), which I didn’t even feel bad about because the food in Europe is so plain (Missing Asia and looking forward to Mexico - MMmm fajitas). Also the cost of food here is ridiculously high.

We then took a canal cruise, which took us round the canals of Amsterdam with an (English!) commentary explaining the history and various features we saw. One of the more interesting things that they pointed out was that when the houses were constructed they were taxed on their width, which is why all the houses are tall and thin. This made the staircases in them very steep and narrow, which necessitated that each house have a hook coming out of its roof, which is used when people move house to pull the furnishing up and through a window.

Tuesday 23 June 2009 (Flights and Amsterdam)

For the most part this was a boring day, as it involved getting up early, catching a flight from Riga to Frankfurt, waiting at Frankfurt airport for our delayed flight to Amsterdam, then finally catching our flight to Amsterdam and getting in well after 8:00pm. If I knew what I know now about the best way to book flights, we would have avoided having to go back through Frankfurt and thus had most of an extra day to explore Amsterdam. But the whole purpose of our trip was fulfilled today when I got to have a Pork McRib from McDonalds at Frankfurt airport (the weddings are only the secondary reason).

Anyway, when we eventually did get to Amsterdam, we both thought the airport was a great way to impress visitors, being quite unique, and having all signs in English. Unfortunately, upon leaving the airport, we were confronted with the truth about Amsterdam. Catching the train to Central Station at which we saw how dirty and smelly this city really is - particularly so after just visiting Hong Kong and Riga Old Town, both which were very clean cities.

Although most people speak at least some English when spoken to in English, their English is quite limited. Walking down the street, you never hear people conversing in English (noticing a theme here yet?), and all the street signs are in Dutch. We attempted to use the Metro system but could even come close to working out how - asking the information desk was not going to work as she had difficulty telling us how to get to the boarding area.

Anyway, we checked into an extremely nice hotel called Eden Rembrandt Square (the beds were as luxurious as we‘ve ever come across), a four star hotel right in centre of the main nightlife area of Amsterdam. So glad we took advantage of some cheap rates and booked this hotel instead of the usual Amsterdam style "hotel" we had originally booked. Despite it being after 10:00pm, we decided we would venture into town. We walked around the canals, which have no barriers whatsoever, and the cars park right on the edge. The streets are all made of cobble stone, but much more modern even cobble stones than those in Riga Old Town.

We ventured through the red light district and saw the ladies in the red-illuminated windows, and even saw some people going into the booths, after which they shut their curtains. The rest of the red light district was made up of sex shops, sex museums, peep shows and suchlike. It was an extremely busy area. We quickly visited Dam Square and Rembrandt Square (we will investigate these further later) and went to a “coffee shop”.

Like Frankfurt, everything seems to be so expensive here! Like the same price you would find in New Zealand, but in Euros.