It was destined to be a rainy day when we left our hotel, where we stayed for a night in Amsterdam, Holland as we took off for a boat ride for a cruise along the canals in Amsterdam. It rained the whole time while we were in Amsterdam!
Even after the boat ride it was still raining! Which was such a pity because we visited a lovely Open Air Village called Zaanse Schans, where you get to see a model farm, windmills, cheese and clog shoes making demonstrations. Therefore, we had to walk under the umbrella, and i couldn't really take any pictures! I had to make sure that the rain water didn't go inside my camera!
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| Leaving the hotel, where it started to rain! |
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| Waiting for the boat. We missed our first boat, fortunately, there was still another boat that was going to depart. |
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| In the boat. |
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| It was still raining outside! |
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| I still managed to sneak and take a few pictures, albeit the drizzling rain and wind. |
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| Holland is famous for their boat houses! In every canal, you can just see a row of boat houses. There are still some residents in the boat houses, while others are made into museums, restaurants for people to visit. |
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| You can just recognize Holland by their very characteristic long, thin houses, with large windows but with a very small main door (a single door!) simple because their government charge taxes base on the size of their doors. Therefore, to compensate, they have large windows. |
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| Clog boat. |
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| Notice how the houses have a hook up there, that is to attach pulleys/ropes to carry furnitures/whatsoever into their house through the windows! Because their door is too small to fit through those things. |
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| That is the smallest/thinnest house in Amsterdam! See how narrow the house is they have to have a balcony as an extension. |
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| Holland is a country where approximately 40% of their land is flooded by the rising sea water. Therefore, most of their houses are beginning to sink or slant towards one side because of the water. |
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| After the boat ride, we went to a village outside of Amsterdam called Zaanse Schans, where they had a clog making factory/demonstration. |
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| The clogs have come a far way through history. |
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| After that, we went for the cheese-making demonstration. The above is sausage cheese, it tastes and smells like sausage! |
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| They have all sorts of cheese. |
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| It was still raining, but we still went outside to see the windmills. |
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| After that, we went to this Dutch village called Volendam to have our lunch. We had fish and chips! Well, not exactly french fries, but we had Holland potatoes. The fish was great! |
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| Finally, it stopped raining, and we were free to roam about the village without the umbrella. LOL. |
After a spending a day in Holland, we made our way to Brussels, Belgium.
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| The streets of Belgium. |
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| Shopping street! |
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| While on the way walking to the site of Manneken Pis. |
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| Manneken Pis. |
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| So what is Belgium known for? For their Belgian chocolates of course! Godiva chocolate! |
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| Manneken Pis shisha. |
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| Chocolate! |
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| Mickey Mouse chocolate. |
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| This is the chocolate street, where you can see the Godiva shop just at the end. So, if you ever get a chance to visit Belgium, remember to buy chocolates, especially Godiva, because it is extremely cheap compared to the Godiva chocolates sold here in Malaysia! It is the best chocolate ever! Their truffles are heavenly! Seriously regretted not buying more now! :D |
