Here are my stories about the above!
As mentioned, before heading to Amsterdam I got two unexpected stops - one night in Luxembourg, one night in Bruges! These passed very similarly: trains in the morning/afternoon, dinner and some internet, sleeping, walking around town, leaving for the next place. I also got to talk about Slovakian politics with a cool guy I met in Luxembourg, and went out for beers in Bruges with some Australians.
Luxembourg was pretty impressive to look at though not so cool to navigate with my backpack (the train station was high up and my hostel was low down). But it was good to return to a French-speaking land and drink some Orangina!
Bruges was also cool, I enjoyed how on my city walk I went from mostly-empty streets to dense tourist-town as I walked further towards the city centre. Nice houses but bad Stella! Give me BBC any day (though my cumulative time in the BBC is probably longer than the amount of time I spent in real Belgium, possibly making me a biased judge).
Conclusion: 1 day is plenty of time to see a small town, but isn't really a great amount of time to spend in a place. Lots of train travel in 3 days = very tiring!
Luxembourg and Bruges photos: here!
After my quiet first night in Amsterdam I was ready to see some of the town! I went on a free walking tour on my first day which was really good, our guide was real energetic and took us all for lunch afterwards. I found a fellow Australian on the tour (we had the same backpack), Nick from Brisbane, and we went out for beers later that night along with two Ukrainian guys he'd met at his hostel.
The Ukrainian guys I am now calling Han Solo and Chewbacca. Han Solo could speak some English, and would make a comment every now and then - but Chewbacca couldn't speak much English at all, so instead talked constantly in Ukrainian with Han Solo occasionally translating. Much like with Chewbacca, he was always part of the conversation and often interjecting emphatically, but you know you have no hope of ever really understanding. This illusion wasn't helped by the fact that I swear I heard Han Solo call him "Chewie" several times, though I probably just misheard a Ukrainian word.
The next day I saw the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum and that night set off to do something I hadn't done in almost 2 months: go to the movies. Far out, I had no idea how much I missed movie cinemas until I was sitting in one! I went to see The American, which was a bit of a mixed bag but was definitely the kind of movie I felt like sitting down and watching (lots of running around Europe).
On my last day I had a most excellent Dutch day! I rented a bike to do some cycling around the countryside and when it turned out the bike hire place had run out of maps the girl suggested a route to me, wrote some place names down on a post-it and said to just follow the signs! Turned out the first place I was headed to wasn't signposted until after heading to another place first, something I found out after an awesomely helpful local gave me directions. But after that it turned out the girl's suggestions were great, I saw a lot of black and white cows, green fields and, succesfully, one windmill. It rained once for about 15 minutes but after that the skies were pretty much blue!
After I'd ridden around for most of the afternoon, and was completely beat after riding against the wind for a while, I headed to my last stop in desperate need of some food but with no sign of a cafe/restaurant anywhere. I asked another helpful local and was directed to a Pancake House, where I bumped into some fellow cyclists who I'd seen on the track - a family from South Africa and their Dutch friend Famke (!!), who invited me to join them for lunch! In the cafe I had tea with rum, greatest post-cycling drink ever, and a massive Dutch pancake with bacon, apples and sugar-syrup. So good! (Lola, I think you would like Dutch pancakes)
With the combination of cycling, windmill, traditional Dutch farmer pancake (which apparently my bacon-apple choice was) and meeting someone called Famke, I feel like I've appropriately lived the Netherlands dream.
Netherlands photos: here!
Frustratingly, some dust has gotten into my camera and has been showing up every now and then as dark blurs on my photos, particularly when I zoom in on things. Not cool! The only way I can think of getting rid of it is taking my camera into a repair shop, which would probably be pretty costly. Maybe I can photoshop some of the blurs out when I get back home? Does anyone know more about cameras than me and have any tips (I've tried looking through forums to no avail)?
I'm liking the look of Switzerland so far. Swiss 5 franc coins are so massive you feel like you're trading with doubloons and I've only been here four hours but I've already eaten a copious amount of cheese.
Also, the receptionist at my hostel here said my hat was cool, and then said I had a cool voice and should take up singing. Hooray! (this is so much better than "you have a weird accent", which I'm still getting everywhere)
In just a few days I will be in Piz Gloria, spending exorbitant amounts on the cable car and being rewarded with champagne and a chance to practice my genealogy. Note to self: remember to wear kilt.
