Food

Whether you are in the mood for something casual or something elegant, Amsterdam has everything that you need to make your idea of a great dining experience happen.

For those who just want to rest and relax, packing a picnic lunch and heading to the Vondelpark is the ideal solution. Easily the largest park in the city, the facility is named after the city’s best known poet, Joost van den Vondel. Sports enthusiasts can work off some of the food by participating in cycling or football, or enjoy a brisk walk through and around the park. Visitors can also enjoy the Nederlands Filmmuseum, or any of the various dance festivals that are held in the park during the summer months.

For those that want to give herring a try, heading to the Museum Quarter is a good idea. The Old Centre is also an excellent choice. You can also ask the concierge at the hotel for ideas on where to find the best herring in the immediate area. There are a number of locally owned shops throughout the city that offer herring that is fresh and prepared to perfection.

Amsterdam is noted for its rich and varied cuisine. It is possible to enjoy Indonesian, Surinamese, and Chinese food alongside traditional Dutch dishes. The rich blends of herbs and spices can tantalise just about any palette. For vegetarians, there are plenty of options that do not include any type of meat and fish.

History

Amsterdam is the site of the house where the world famous World War II diarist, Anne Frank, hid with her family from the Nazis. Now a museum, the guided tour includes visits to the secret rooms where the family hid, along with a new wing that provides information about the war, the persecution of the Jews, and the rise of fascism during that era.

Cruising the canals that run throughout the city can also be a great way to spend the day. These waterways make it easy to reach many of the key districts around the city, as well as providing the ideal opportunity to enjoy all the sights and sounds that Amsterdam has to offer, including churches and other structures that date back several centuries.

Nightlife

When visiting Amsterdam, enjoying the nightlife offered in the cafes and clubs around the city is essential; there is something to suit any taste. Families can find places that offer music, dance, and selections of food and drink that are ideal for every member of the group. Couples looking for romantic out of the way spots can also find what they crave. For the adventurous, there are also a number of adult entertainment spots, making Amsterdam a popular destination for people from all over the world.

Music is always part of the entertainment scene around the city. Visitors can enjoy traditional music as well as more contemporary sounds at the various clubs located in different districts. Musical theatre is also found in a number of locations, offering everything from the comedic to the risqué.

Culture

In order to learn more about the Amsterdam of today, visiting any of the museums found around the city can be extremely informative as well as entertaining. Amsterdam’s Historisch Museum covers over 700 years of Dutch history, giving visitors the opportunity to learn all about the creation of such uniquely Dutch products as wooden shoes (clogs).

A trip to the Rijksmuseum to see the works of the Old Masters from the 17th century all the way through to the dawn of the 20th century is recommended. Housed within its walls are over forty Rembrandt’s, as well as four Vermeer’s. All in all, the museum has the largest selection of artwork of its kind to be found in the nation, making it an essential stop during any holiday to Amsterdam. Recently Damien Hirst’s For the Love of God a Diamond encrusted human skull.

If your tastes run to more modern sensibilities, plan a trip to the Stedelijk Museum. Here, the works of some of the finest artists of the 20th century are found. Works by artists such as Chagall, Picasso, and Matisse are on display there. Artists who came onto the scene during the latter half of the century, such as Judd, Lichtenstein, and Warhol are also represented among the artwork found at the Stedelijk.

While touring around the city, be sure to enjoy the tulips found along the Singel, as well as the wonderful cheeses that are made in and near the city. You can also visit historic windmills, and learn of their role in keeping the city safe and dry. For those who prefer to venture out from the confines of an organised tour group, it is possible to rent bicycles in many places around the city, and thus stop wherever you like for as long as you like.

When planning a trip to Amsterdam, the best approach is to fly into the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Located in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer, only a short distance southwest of the city proper, the airport is one of the largest in the country, and routinely receives flights from just about every country around the world.

Many hotels operate shuttles to and from the airport, making it easy to settle into your accommodation before you venture out into the city. It is also possible to rent vehicles, take taxis, and hire private tour guides at the airport.

Well this is it everyone, the video you’ve been waiting for over a year to see. The Polish Wedding Dancing Competition. Which I was able to win due to irrational behaviour caused by chronic alcohol intoxication from drinking a few litres of potato juice, wodka. (In Polish the word Vodka is spelt and pronounced wodka, and comes from the word water, woda!).

This also coincides with the first time I met Dorota’s family. Being the newest edition to the family and being a foreigner almost the entire family wanted to have a toast with me, and in stereotypical Polish tradition with a large shot glass of vodka. Now perhaps, that, I could may have survived. But as already explained by Dorota in her post about the Polish wedding, several songs play where you have to down vodka to the music.

So after each 20 minutes dancing interval, there is a song “A teraz idzieny na jednego” (translation: time to drink vodka), and you have another 20 minutes (or more) drinking (and eating) interval. There are also other songs (yes, there is a lot of singing) which everyone is singing together, followed by a shot of vodka. You will sing “Sto lat”, wishing them to live for long, followed by a shot of vodka, and “Gorzko”, which means bitter, so they have to kiss each other to make their life sweeter, obviously followed by a shot of vodka.

Anyway I actually really don’t like dancing, especially in public in front of your girlfriends family you’ve met for the first time at their cousins’ wedding. However after several dozen shots of vodka nothing would stop me from dancing, in fact I was so good, I won the night’s dancing competition, whilst wearing a pinny and impersonating a lady.

I’m so not looking forward to the next Polish wedding in 2011.

Maybe it’s a bit overcrowded, maybe a bit old, but whenever I’m there I have a feeling it gives me the summary of the whole massive city. I wouldn’t say Russia, as Moscow is almost a country on its own!

The first plans for a rapid transit system in Moscow date back in the times of the Russian Empire, however were postponed by the I World War, October Revolution and the Russian Civil War. The construction started in June 1931 and the Central Committee of the USSR Communist Party had taken advice from the London Underground, the world’s oldest metro system. By the end of the II World War lots of stations were completed and Moscow’s metro was functional.

There is an interesting urban legend about the origin of the ring line. A group of engineers approached Stalin with plans for the Metro, to inform him of current progress and of what was being done at that moment. As he looked at the drawings, Stalin poured himself some coffee and spilt a small amount over the edge of the cup. When he was asked whether or not he liked the project so far, he put his cup down on the centre of the Metro blueprints and left in silence. The bottom of the cup left a brown circle on the drawings. The planners looked at it and realised that it was exactly what they had been missing. Taking it as a sign of Stalin’s genius, they gave orders for the building of the ring line, which on the plans was always printed in brown. This legend, of course, may be attributed to Stalin’s cult of personality. In fact the line was never shown as a circle on the Metro map until 1980, long after Stalin’s death. Prior to this time, the line was depicted much closer to the shape of the actual route.

In 1950s – 1970s some architects decided to build new stations in a more spartan decoration scheme. A typical layout was developed for all new stations, and the stations were built to look almost identical, differing from each other only in colours of the marble and ceramic tiles. Most of these stations were built with simplified, cheaper technologies which were not always quite suitable and resulted in extremely utilitarian design. For example, walls paved with cheap and simplistic ceramic tiles proved to be susceptible to vibrations caused by trains, with some tiles eventually falling off. It was not always possible to replace the missing tiles with the ones of the same colour, which eventually led to infamous “variegated” parts of the paving.

Anyway, the Moscow metro is really deep (84m), really busy (max 9,555,000 passengers a day), really long (292.9km) and REALLY beautiful! AND very punctual 99.96% on time.

I’ve visited Moscow twice, spending there about 3 months in total. I have my best friend living there, great memories and lots of reasons to go back.

Photo of Novoslobodskaya Metro Station thanks to Andrew

Then we were taken to Birkenau by bus, a place where everyone was “delivered”, selected (so strong people had to work), as you can see in The Schindler’s List, where they lived… and were killed. They worked in factories and plants in the Upper Silesia industrial region and other nearby areas that were important to maintaining the German war potential located nearby. If the transport (of prisoners) was delivered to the overcrowded camp, there was no selection, everyone was sent “to have a shower”. They lived in wooden stable-type barracks, built originally for 52 horses, and had a total capacity of more than 400 prisoners per barracks. In reality there were about 7 people sharing a bed, not enough toilets and no heating. The barracks were frequently damp, and lice and rats were an enormous problem for the prisoners.

As previously mentioned, we went there during winter time, had hats, gloves, warm jackets and boots. We were freezing. Very often they didn’t have any shoes and only very thin, destroyed clothes…

The last place you are taken to, which is on the other side of Birkenau, a place for extermination, it was partly destroyed by the Nazis escaping in late 1944, and trying to destroy any evidence of the genocide.

Brief history
All over the world Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide, and the Holocaust. It was established by Germans in 1940, in the suburbs of Oswiecim, a Polish city that was annexed to the Third Reich by the Nazis. Its name was changed to Auschwitz, which also became the name of Konzentrationslager Auschwitz (concentration camp).
The direct reason for the establishment of the camp was the fact that mass arrests of Poles were increasing beyond the capacity of existing “local” prisons. Initially, Auschwitz was to be one more concentration camp of the type that the Nazis had been setting up since the early 1930s. It functioned in this role throughout its existence, even when, beginning in 1942, it also became the largest of the death camps.

The first and oldest was the so-called “main camp,” later also known as “Auschwitz 1″ (the number of prisoners fluctuated around 15,000, sometimes rising above 20,000), which was established on the grounds and in the buildings of pre-war Polish barracks.
The second part was the Birkenau camp (which held over 90,000 prisoners in 1944), also known as “Auschwitz 2″ This was the largest part of the Auschwitz complex. The Nazis began building it in 1941 on the site of the village of Brzezinka, three kilometres from Oswiecim. The Polish civilian population was evicted and their houses confiscated and demolished. The greater part of the apparatus of mass extermination was built in Birkenau and the majority of the victims were murdered here.

The Germans isolated all the camps and sub-camps from the outside world and surrounded them with barbed wire fencing. All contact with the outside world was forbidden. However, the area administered by the commandant and patrolled by the SS camp garrison went beyond the grounds enclosed by barbed wire. It included an additional area of approximately 40 square kilometres (the so-called “Interessengebiet” – the interest zone), which lay around the Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2-Birkenau camps.

The local population, the Poles and Jews living near the newly-founded camp, were evicted in 1940-1941. Approximately one thousand of their homes were demolished. Other buildings were assigned to officers and non-commissioned officers from the camp SS garrison, who sometimes came here with their whole families. The pre-war industrial facilities in the zone, taken over by Germans, were expanded in some cases and, in others, demolished to make way for new plants associated with the military requirements of the Third Reich. The camp administration used the zone around the camp for auxiliary camp technical support, workshops, storage, offices, and barracks for the SS.

Typical Polish weddings start on a Saturday and take 2 days! In a few words, it’s all about tradition, church, drinking, eating, dancing, drinking, singing, drinking etc. I’m familiar with all of that (maybe with some exceptions), but for Alex it was all new. And for both of us it was a truly unique experience. Also as it was my closest cousin’s wedding, Alex had a chance to meet my whole family for the first time. It took place in Kolo (pronounced kowo), a small town in central Poland, where I was born.

Before any church ceremony, or any party takes place, the spiritual part comes: parents give the bride and groom blessing and they all go to the church. Traditionally a Polish wedding takes place in the church where the bride belongs. Bear in mind Poland is a catholic country, the ceremony will most likely be hold in a catholic church with a long Mass, followed by throwing rice or coins on the bride and groom once they are leaving church (I guess that’s not really Polish). They have to collect all the coins, and here are two ways of explaining this: the person who collects the most coins will rule the family OR they have to collect everything, as it gives them luck… Anyway, after that there is the part with all the presents and congratulations…
Now everyone should go to the party? Not so quickly…

Friends, neighbours, anyone can build a “gate”, which could be on the new married couple’s way from home, from church to the car, to the party, anywhere. To cross such gate they have to pay, most often using a bottle of vodka as currency (or sweets for kids). Once they get free, they are leading the way to the party, and all the cars following them continuously beep their horns!
Here the party comes. Guests have to be there before the new married couple. When they finally come they are welcomed by the parents with bread and salt. Everyone gets a glass of champagne to drink; the bride with the groom breaks their glasses. Then the groom is carrying her on his arms (if he is able to) to the party room, where they will open the first dance (how stressful: 60-250 people are watching them!).

The party (1st day) usually continues until early morning (you can leave earlier, if you can’t stay so long ). There is lots of food, and actually you are expected to eat all the time. There is various food, including intestines (at least on this wedding). There is even more to drink and the main choice is between vodka and… vodka! There are breaks between eating (and drinking) and you are expected to go to another room, a dancing one and dance! There is waiting for you a great local band singing “Ken Lee” or any other English hits without actually using English words. The good thing is, they have great hits for grandmas, kids and others, but believe me, the more vodka you have, the more you love it.

So after each 20 minutes dancing interval, there is a song “A teraz idzieny na jednego” (translation: time to drink vodka), and you have another 20 minutes (or more) drinking (and eating) interval. There are also other songs (yes, there is a lot of singing) which everyone is singing together, followed by a shot of vodka. You will sing “Sto lat”, wishing them to live for long, followed by a shot of vodka, and “Gorzko”, which means bitter, so they have to kiss each other to make their life sweeter, obviously followed by a shot of vodka.

I completely forgot how to drink vodka at weddings… You basically should cheat! You are only drinking half shots or pretending you are drinking one. Because I didn’t share that golden rule with Alex… you can imagine we didn’t stay sober for long.

But we still enjoyed “ocepiny” which took place at midnight, which is one of the oldest and the most important of Polish wedding customs. In old days, it was so significant that only after ocepiny, and not the church ceremony, was the bride considered to be a married woman. Before ocepiny, the bride socializes and dances with her unmarried female friends. After ocepiny, she belongs to the married women’s circle. The bride and so groom are placed on the dance floor, facing the guests. The band (or in some uncontrolled cases a family member) is singing all the funny/dirty songs about losing freedom and virginity, losing children by their parents, etc. All of the unmarried girls stand behind the bride. Next, bridesmaid removes the bride’s veil. Finally, the bride casts the veil behind her, and the girl who catches the veil is the next to marry. Similar thing happens to the groom’s tie, which one of unmarried guys has to catch. Then the new pair has to dance together or do something else together.

Also, still as a part of “ocepiny” there are loads of games and dancing. The price for a winner of each competition is a bottle of vodka. So there is “clothes exchange”, some chair dancing, some more jumping and crazy stuff. One of the competitions was dancing and Alex, as a special guest (almost nobody was able to have a conversation with him, before drinking) was asked to join them. That was a dancing competition for couples, where only guys were dancing… Alex was a woman. Imagine a traditional Polish family, where everyone is serious and polite. And now imagine Alex (not really sober), going slowly and politely at the beginning, the same as the rest, and then going wilder and wilder!! Alex and his partner looking like a dirty couple on that dance floor!! I have never ever seen my family happy like that, laughing like crazy, everyone was crying! They obviously deserved those bottles of vodka more than anyone else. And yes, my family absolutely loved Alex from that moment on!

After that there was again lots of dancing, singing, eating and drinking, too much for some of us! The day ended about 5am, for some of us earlier

So you’re waking up on Sunday morning, feeling great or very opposite, and have a few hours to get ready (sometimes to squeeze church in there as well).

And here “poprawiny” (continuation) comes and there is another party! In old days, the wedding ceremonies continued for around seven days. Unfortunately now we have only one or two! People dance again, drink again, eat again. But I guess if you had enough the day before, you are only watching and smiling

High Definition version at Youtube

The AquaDom in Berlin, it was ok, although extremely hyped up. No comparison to the Great Barrier Reef… Sydney here we come

On Friday 19th December I took my EasyJet flight to Schiphol (AMS) airport in Amsterdam to meet Dorota. We would have a nights rest before we set off on our 2,746km roadtrip to Poland and back.

We got to Tychy in Poland around 2100 after 1,157km and an 11 hour drive. The best part of the drive there was driving from perfectly flat roads in Germany to passing through the old border control and entering Poland the other side. Video to follow

I will write about the places we visited in more detail later but here is our itinary below.

20th Dec – Amsterdam to Tychy

21st Dec – Tychy

22nd Dec – Drove to Krakow from Tychy
Stary Rynek (Main Market Square)
Brama Florianska (Florian’s Gate)
Barbakan (Barbican)
Bazylika Mariacka (St. Mary’s Basilica) with Oltarz Wita Stwosza (Altar of Veit Stoss), 2m Wooden People, Trumpeter who know one knows

Sukiennice (Sukiennice Cloth Hall) – Middle age cloth hall
Wieza ratuszowa w Krakowie (Town Hall)
Adam Mickiewicz Monument
Wawel – Hill, Castle, Katedra (Cathedral), Dzwon Zygmunta (The Sigismund Bell), Groby Krolewskie (The Royal Tombs), Private and Royal Apartments, Smok, Vistula River (Wista)
Kazimierz Jewish Ghetto – The biggest in Poland

24th – 26th – Polish Christmas in Tychy
Here are some of the Polish dishes we got to enjoy:
Sledzie w Smietanie (Herring in cream) i ziemniaki (with Potatoes)
Smazony Karp (Fried Carp)
Kapusta z grochem (Cabbage with Peas)
Duszone grzyby (Strangled Mushrooms)
Barszcz z uszkami (Borsch with “earlings”, dumplings stuffed with minced meat)
Pierogi z kapusta i grzybami – dumplings with cabbage and mushroom
Kompot z suszowych owocow – dried fruit compote
kaczka z nadzieniem – stuffed duck (with herbs, spices and chicken liver)
Karczek – Pig Neck
Salatki Warzywne – Vegatable Salads
Kielbasa – Sausage
kurczak w galaretce – jellied chicken
Kapusta z grzybami w ciescie francuskim – cabbage with mushroom in French bread
25th Dec – Ice Skating in Pszczyna
27th Dec – Oswiecim /Auschwitz, Brzezinka / Birkenau – the Museum
My first sample of Zapiekanka (Halved baguette topped with mushrooms and Ketchup)

28th – 29th Dec – Czech Republic
Svoboda Nad Upou, Pec Pod Snezkou

30th Dec – Wroclaw
Panorama Raclawicka
Krasnale (Dwarfs)
PRL
Spiz (http://www.spiz.pl/) (Underground pub built within mini Brewery)
Piwnica Swidnicka (http://www.piwnicaswidnicka.com/ Oldest Pub in Europe)
Jatki
Jas i Malgosia (Two buildings)
Garnizon Church & Tower, today Kosciol Sw. Elzbiety (St. Elisabeth’s Church)
Ostrów Tumski (Cathedral Island) with Wroclaw Cathedral
University

2nd – 3rd Jan – Berlin
Feeling extremely rough both with flu and after a near crash experience that day we managed to bear the 1 hour queue to go to the top of the Fernsehturm (TV Tower), the view was ok, but nothing as spectactular as the Eiffle Tower.

The next day we decided to take the easy route and paid for a tour bus to take us to the following:
Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie
Kurfürstendamm – The Protestant Kaiser William Memorial Church (in German: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche
Dom Aquaree/Sea-Life
Hotel Berlin
Kulturforum, Kemperplatz
Potsdamer Platz
Judisches Museum (Jewish Museum)
Gendarmenmarkt
Alexanderplatz
Friedrichstrabe/Unter den Linden
Brandenburger Tor/Brandenburg Gate
Berlin Hauptbahnhof/Central Station
Flohmarkt
Schloss/Palace Charlottenburg

4th January – Amsterdam then back to Brighton

More to come…

Driving an oddly balanced Toyota Prius hybrid due to its battery and even with winter tyres on was a drive from hell. Every time i tried to change lane the car would slide sideways or I would lose control of the front of the car.

3 tries later, several Audis passing me and after sitting behind this little car for about 25 minutes travelling at 45 km/hr I decided that I would just go for it. I pull out all good, slide into the next lane, start accelerating and I lose total control of the car. So I decide to move back into the slow lane, where my control of the car is now zero. I’m still rapidly heading towards the car in front, almost sideways, which is now slowing down due to the ice, I can’t steer, I can’t break, all I can see is the flashing red traction control light and of course another car looking like it’s driving straight towards me.

This is where I wish I could show the near miss in bullet time, you know, the rotating panning video shot around the object with time paused. Just as I was about to hit it, the car in front managed to accelerate just enough so that I would miss the car by what seemed 1mm.

Now don’t get me wrong a crash at this speed certainly wasn’t going to kill anyone, but when you have borrowed someone’s, Dorota’s boss, brand new pride and joy with less than 5,000km on the clock, I was scared… shitting myself.

Anyway after this near miss, about 2 minutes later we came across this car spinning in the road about 1km a head of us, another 2km up the road a car wait in the ditch, and for two lucky people. We saw two sets of spiralling skid marks going straight down the road and carry on going. How lucky are you to spin your car on the motorway and a) not hit any other traffic and b) stay on the road!

I HATE driving in the SNOW.

Unfortutely it can’t be too active, well by that I mean I can’t do any repetitive knee movements (well not for the next 6 months). I injured my knee training for the South Downs Randonnee in 2007 and I ended up having to have a lateral release, real life example here. I’ve had to have one operation and am waiting on the other now, with a 12 month recovery period. Anyway the South Downs Randonnee is a 100 mile mountain bike ride from Winchester to Eastbourne across the south downs way and has to be finished in around 12 hours.

My second big event was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa which was simple amazing. It is just short of 6000m and took 7 days to complete the climb. I’m one of the above in the photo, that was an additional bet for a few additional pounds.

But now I am stuck for what to do? So far I have thought of maybe climbing Mount Cho Oyo, or infact summiting any mountain naked, walking the Bering Straight, or canoeing the Amazon, your ideas and suggestions below please.

Luckily we had our tickets from museum night which gave us fast entry so we didn’t need to queue up which was great. You get the preferential treatment if you buy your tickets online.

The ground floor is the most interesting with information on the colonies of the Dutch, their relationships with the Spanish, the Golden era and how they lost it all. There were a few open questions in my mind after the visit, such as how Suriname returned back to the hands of the Dutch after the British controlled it and how and when other colonies were returned.

Thinking of colonies I’m not sure what was happening in Amsterdam this weekend, but we saw lots of children in fancy dress with black faces, presumably it has something to do with the slave trade. I’m not to sure on their motivation for this event but it doesn’t seem like the sort of act to be celebrating.

I was surprised to see an exhibition inside of Damien Hirst. After queuing up for about 30 minutes where we were squeezed into a pitch black room. I realised that in fact this was the only piece of work. I’m not too sure what I thought of Damien Hirst’s “For the Love of God”. It did look amazing with the way the light reflects of the diamonds, Photos here of the £50 million disco ball. I’ll let you decide on this one.