Saturday 6 May 2006
Highlights: English ‘lads’ stripping and singing

This is mostly a travel day.   After going on another walk around historic Bruges our BusAbout bus picked us up late at around 2.30 pm and we were officially on the road again for a quick trip to Amsterdam. During the bus rides you get information on the new place we are heading.

I found out XXX is the symbol for Amsterdam representing the third fights they needed to win to survive; flood, plague and fire. XXX is the mark on all exports.   Amsterdam legalised porn first and shipped it around the world and that is the reason today we know such videos as XXX.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that most of The Netherlands is reclaimed land (from rivers or sea).   This is the main reason for the canals (to stop flooding as under sea level) and the windmills (to pump the water).

Catching up with my new travel buddy Belinda we found out the meeting place for the bike tour we are both doing tomorrow and went out for a nice Italian dinner (we got in around 6.30 pm and it took about an hour to check in).

The night finished with a show in the ‘beer’ hall of the hostel.   About 20 drunk English lads singing up a storm and eventually removed all their gear to cheering other backpackers.  I’ve never seen so many women rushing around with their cameras clicking 🙂