Europe Trip Day 2: Brussels-Amsterdam

After a night in Brussels, the next morning was spent travelling to Amsterdam, Netherlands or Holland if you prefer..

First thing you'll notice, its like an advert for milk and cheese or something.. :)

Anyways, we went to a little village called Zaanse Schans (found this out after digging through the net) which is a picture perfect place where lots of attractions are conveniently situated~ First stop was the Wooden Shoe Workshop or Klompenmakerij in Dutch where we watched a shoe making demonstration by a not bad looking guy :)

everything done by machine now, so he just has to stand around..

Some of the shoes on sale~

rub-a-dub-dub, three girls in a tub :P

Wear them with thick socks.. but they still look very uncomfortable to me..

Wedding klompen :)

The cheese factory was next, and we got to try all sorts of weird cheese never seen before in Malaysia.. Green cheese anyone?

Cheese factory~

Giant cheese.. wonder what they would have become if i tried to bring one home..

Dutch goats that understand english..
It actually jumped up when we said we wanted a picture, hehe...

After lunch, we went somewhere to see some things that girls love very much.. Hint: D___s last forever~ hahahha... but on the way there i saw something very familiar that i kind of forgot originated in Holland..

dunno wats that??

Its the Heineken brewery!
no time to visit the world of Heineken tho :(

Diamonds are forever!!! :D

I thought South Africa is the country famous for diamonds, but turns out Netherlands is famous for diamond cutting.. After a brief introduction, we went into an exhibition room where we were shown:

How to choose diamonds, hehehe...

so many carats until i lost count :)

The latest cut that makes it even more bling~

Next item on the agenda- Canal Cruise which was supposed to be an hour long but turned out to be almost 2 hours.. Saw lots of interesting stuff but in the end everyone just felt sleepy.. haha..

lots and lots of bridges...

People in Netherlands really love bicycles~ O.o..

cute buildings...

lots of other stuff too.. but too many pictures to post..

Some landmarks:

Dam Square~

I think my pic is better than the one on wikipedia.. haha..

loads of pigeons at Dam Square~

Royal Palace of Amsterdam~

Teeny Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam~

Church of St Nicholas

Had dinner at a chinese restaurant called 福禄 then it was time to visit a very exciting place! :) Amsterdam's red light district~ we were too early tho and there weren't many people working yet.. did glimpse a few of them tho, but no photos were allowed.. some of my friends even got yelled at when they stared for too long... :S

overview of the street.. looks so quiet and peaceful, but looks can be deceiving... :)

Shop selling cannabis, of all things.. and to be honest, it doesnt smell that good.. :S

our tour leader brought us through these little alleyways filled with glass windows where the 'workers' were on display..

lots of these shops all over the place..

the weird thing was that there was a church right behind the street.. convenient for those who have sinned to go and confess?? maybe...

Didn't feel very safe while walking round the Red light district which was the last stop for the day, they even have stands in the middle of the road for men to pee in public.. eeew...

Proof that the moon is indeed bigger and rounder overseas??
No zoom... i swear~~

Spent the night at NH hotel somewhere in Holland @.@~ Day 3 next..