Singapore and the Netherlands
(Picture: Canal at Dusk, Amsterdam)

My last few days in Singapore were really nice, I saw some of the city centre and the area along the river. It reminds me a lot of Darling Harbour in Sydney. The weather in the evenings is just perfect, and there are always people out having a good time.
However, the time had come to move on, and on Wednesday night I flew out to Heathrow, which has to be the worst airport I've ever been to (for it's size). Maybe I was just in a terrible mood after sitting on a plane for 3 hours while they fixed the air con before we took off, and thus missing my connecting flight to Amsterdam, but it really was a depressing place. But eventually I did make my way to Amsterdam, where I was met by Tim (my cousin Jayde's husband) and their son Peppin, who is about to turn 1.
On Friday morning I caught a train through the flat green countryside to Amsterdam, about 45min away. It was just like in the postcards: canals, windmills and cows, and people on bicycles! I arrived in Amsterdam around 9am and headed to the tourist info, where I was aghast to discover that I had to PAY for map! It was €2, about $3, but still... it's the principle... The map was very good though.
I walked all the way from Amsterdam Centraal (train station) to Anne Frank’s House. It was a nice walk, I saw many pretty canals and old houses that. Anne Frank's house was interesting, but not great, because they have taken out all the original furnishings and just have a few glass cabinet displays and quotes from the diary written on the walls. The best part was climbing up the actual staircase that was hidden behind a bookcase when the Franks were there.
I then walked all the way to Museum Plein, which is where all the big museums are, including the national museum (Rijksmuseum). I only went to the van Gogh museum. It was really good, I really like van Gogh’s work and the gallery was laid out well. I saw some of his most famous works, including the one with sunflowers. I also looked at the other exhibitions, which included a huge collection of Japanese art from the Meiji period.
I walked all the way to the Royal Palace (trying to save money by not catching trams! Besides, you get a better feel for a city on foot) to meet my friend Wouter, who is a Dutch guy I met at Melbourne Uni who is now living in the Hague (a city on the west coast). We decided to take a cruise of the canals, which is a very touristy thing to do but still very interesting. There was a commentary, so at least I knew what I was looking at! Saw lots of lovely old buildings and bridges. There are a lot of small boats anchored along the sides of the canals, which people take out along the canals in the late afternoon. There are even some house boats. Wouter and I then wandered around an area of Amsterdam called Jordaan, which is a residential area (only the very rich can afford to live in the central district). It was nice to see how actual residents of Amsterdam lived, the streets are pretty and narrow with tall buildings. There are lots of flowering pots of geraniums, petunias etc. We then walked to Rembrandtsplein (‘plein’ means ‘square’). This year is the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt’s birth, and so on display in the plein there is a big group of statues depicting his most famous painting, the Nightwatch. There is a small grass lawn surrounded by trees where the statues are, and all around this there are bars and restaurants with outdoor tables - it's great. I really like Amsterdam and will definitely be coming back for the Dutch ''Queen's day'' celebrations at the end of April!
There are bicycles EVERYWHERE. I almost got hit by one about 5 times in Amsterdam, because I didn’t know which were bike paths and which were pedestrian paths (they are normally the same), and I would instinctively step in FRONT of the bike instead of away from it (because of the whole riding-on-the-other-side-of-the-road thing).
On Saturday morning I caught a train to the Hague, which is the centre of government for the Netherlands (even though Amsterdam is the capital), it is also home to the International Court of Justice. There are many old government buildings, it is quite pretty. I had some of the famous ‘fries with mayonnaise’ that you can get everywhere in the Netherlands. It was nice but also very rich! We then caught a tram to the seaside suburb of Scheningven (that is an approximate spelling...) around 5pm. It is a very popular beach, especially amongst tourists. There is a long promenade, and hundreds of beach bars/restaurants with lots of outdoor tables. I guess it's a pretty good beach by Dutch standards... but doesn't really measure up to Clifton (South Africa) or some of the Australian beaches! We sat at one of the beach bars to have a drink (well I just had a Coke because I was feeling very poor by this time!), which was lovely and relaxing.
Today (Sunday) Jayde and Tim took me out to see some Dutch countryside. We drove out to a pretty town called Zaandijk, where they showed me some of the tranquil residential streets. There are small narrow canals between some of the houses, which are all about 100 years old. We then went to an area just on the edge of the town, where there are some working windmills and other things, including a clog-making workshop and a cheese factory. It was really geared towards tourists, but still very pretty.
Tomorrow afternoon I am flying out to ROME, which will be great I am sure! I'll probably have pretty limited internet access for the next month, so won't be able to put up many updates... but I'll try!