Amsterdam...

Sorry its taken me a little while to get organised to write this up :(

I will post a few photos, we filmed the whole epic journey!  So once my daughter has 'edited' it I will post a link and if you like you can take a look!  Mostly with us laughing! :)

So I am now back from Amsterdam, Han and I's epic journey!  Gosh we had fun!!

Ok so it was Saturday evening (16th February) and Han and I looked at each other and we needed to get away... just for a break... so we checked flights and looked for a place to go.  We very nearly ended up in Milan!  But opted for Amsterdam as neither of us bad been there.  So we booked it online and were delighted as it left Sunday!  Arh but we are based in Southern England and the mini-cruise left from Hull... North as far as we were concerned!  hmmm it was gone 1 am and we decided to go to bed as we planned to leave at 7am in the morning!  Jon did not come with us on the trip, my parents were happy to check-in with Jon 2 -3 times a day and they are just around the corner so things were fine, and Jon wanted us both to go. :)

Now following the healthy eating as we are, we did wonder how we were going to stick to it, so we both said if there was no healthy option available we would make the next healthiest choice and share it, so that we would therefore not have a full portion of it!  It was a plan!! 

We traveled up the motorway and made it to Hull in one piece!  The furthest we have both been up the country!  We did on route stop at a few service stations...OH my they are terrible... NO healthy food, just junk food and coffee... we ate Mcdonalds scrambled egg!!  They thought us strange but we were wanting to try to stick to it.  And yes we had coffee... Starbucks and Costa! :(  

So parked the car and headed into the terminal... OMG the cruise ship was in the dock and it was massive!  We really could not get over the size of it!  OK so we have been on teh cross channel ferry boats many a time.  This 'ship' was much bigger and we could not wait to get on board.   Went through all the usual baggage checks and queued up and then boarded.  

On board we had an amazing cabin... after we upgraded! :)  It was the size of a hotel room!  A front corner suite called the Delft Suite.  We actually had this room on both outward and return journey's because we enjoyed it so much.  

This is Han and I in the Champagne lounge!! Drinking what else but champagne! With the manager!! He wanted in on our fun! :)

So set off and went to the buffet restaurant and we were both very good :)  A few photos below of what we ate in the evening, out and return.  It was basically salad and cold fish!  I love prawns so I was in my element!  And broccoli!!  Oh there were plenty things on offer, but we chose to stick to 'healthy' foods.  And we both are proud that we did this.

I actually drank a fir amount of water too!  I know this is shocking!  I think it was because it was in nice bottles!  Oh what am I like!  But it worked!  :)

For breakfast we both ate fruit, there was a fruit basket supplied in our room so we had that with copious amounts of 'nice' bottled water in our mini bar! Yes we had a mini bar!! We drank the fresh orange, we did have full leaded pepsi, asked at reception for them to change it to diet/light and they happily did!  Bonus!! So we could drink that too if we so chose!

The 'ship' sailed over night and arrived in Amsterdam at 8am the following day.  P & O arranged buses to take the passengers into the town center which was great.  We were not going back to the ship that day, we stayed 1 night and 2 days in Amsterdam.  So after being dropped by the central train station in Amsterdam we opted for the nearest hotel!  There was logic behind this... so if we got lost all buses, taxi, trains could be told to go to the station! We found a hotel Ibis right next to the station, great and convenient!  Booked in left the luggage and went exploring!  :)

we did absolutely loads of walking... wish we took a pedometer with us as I am sure we would be really shocked at how far we actually walked!  Amsterdam is a lovely place, all the people we come into contact with, in shops, in the hotel, the museums were all so friendly and spoke excellent English.  

This photo was taken on one of the many bridges by a canal, in front of a bike park.  We found the amount of bikes amazing... so so so many of them.  

Me at the Anne Frank statue... we wanted to go into the museum but the queue was dreadful, at least a 4 -5 hour wait, maybe longer.

Han outside Anne Franks house, she was gutted we could not get into see it.

Me enjoying a coffee in a cake shop!! Just look at all those cakes! lol

Han at the Rembrandt statues... 

Me at the Rembrandt statues...

OK so... this was our 1 yes only 1.... indulgence!  We were tired and cold and needed warming up so went into a huge department store and sat in there coffee shop and thought hmmm yes a hot chocolate!  Well.. OMG!! this came!! It was NOT what we were expecting!  I should of guessed by the price, the two came to nearly 10Euro!! lol  And yes we did drink them!  We had actually forgotten what chocolate tasted like!  And well it was really nice!! :) mmmm

We both had an amazing time and loved it... so we are now looking at maybe a full cruise somewhere... with that as its all on board Jon will be able to come and join in with our fun!  :)

There may well be another update to this, once Han has sorted out the photos and edited the film! :)