Day 2 – 23rd July, Amsterdam to Rhine Valley
After a surprisingly good nights sleep on the floor of Erin, Jenny, Tracy and Helens room I headed back down the corridor to my room to see if the others had arrived back yet. Luckily they had. They’d had a pretty big night out and didn’t end up getting in until after 3am. They’d bought some mushrooms at one of the coffee shops. Apparently they didn’t get very much sleep as they were giggling all night at random things from the effects of the mushrooms. I guess I was lucky, as even though I didn’t manage to actually sleep in a comfy bed I still got a good nights rest which I’d heard was going to be quite a rare phenomena on this trip.
Breakfast consisted of bread, bread, more bread, ham, cheese, salami or cornflakes. I opted for the cornflakes. After breakfast we packed our stuff into the coach and headed into the city centre which was about a five minute drive away. Our options were to explore Amsterdam at leisure, or visit a diamond exhibition before exploring the city. I chose to go to the diamond exhibition as it was at no extra cost. Diamonds have a long heritage in Amsterdam ever since the Jews introduced the diamond cutting industry in the sixteenth century. Only a few people decided to come along; Ruth-Ann, Tracy, Erin, Matt and Jackie. Once inside we were taken on a guided tour by the dullest ever tour guide. He had a completely monotone voice, and obviously didn’t like this aspect of his job. Besides that, it was interesting to see the diamond cutting equipment and processes as well as a selection of diamonds they had on display. He then escorted us into a room where we all sat around a table. He then proceeded to get out folded pieces of paper which contained a selection of different diamonds. He showed us how to classify diamonds. This was known as the four C’s: cut, colour, clarity and carat. A diamond which is yellow in colour is the most common, and therefore less expensive. The clearer a diamond becomes the more expensive it will be. The clarity of a diamond can range from flawless, which would obviously increase the value, through to variations of very slightly included, slightly included and included. Included referring to the flaws the diamond contained. There are also different shaped diamonds. Princess is a square cut which looked very elegant and definitely the cut I would choose (if I had the choice) for my engagement ring. The number of facets a diamond has also determines its value. We saw a new diamond which had somewhere around 126 facets. It was really small, but the intricate detail was amazing and caused the tiny diamond to sparkle intensely. This tiny diamond was worth around 56,000 Euros! Definitely out of everyone’s price range.
At the end of the demonstration we got to have a look around the shop which had many different types of diamond jewellery for sale. Sadly as we were on the ‘budget’ tour no-one could afford to splash out, even on a bit of diamond dust.
After the exhibition, Erin, Tracy and I went in search of the Anne Frank Museum while Matt, Jackie and Ruth-Ann headed into the city centre. We walked for a while trying to figure out the map Richie had given us. We ended up walking the wrong way for a while so decided to catch the tram. We knew which number we had to catch, and luckily it arrived straight away. This was my first time on a tram. They were clean, unlike the public transport back in the UK, and the conductor was really friendly and even showed us what stop to get off at and where to go. Once we got off at the right stop we recognised the huge church with scaffolding on the tower which we had seen the previous night on the canal cruise. This was the church bell tower which Anne could see from her window in the secret annex. When we reached the Museum there was a huge queue snaking around the building. We were warned that there were always big queues so it wasn’t surprising. We saw some of our Contiki buddies at the very front of the queue. They’d gone to queue up as soon as the coach had dropped everyone off in the centre. They’d been waiting almost an hour which wasn’t too bad, especially by British standards as queuing is what we do best. We had another two hours left until we had to meet everyone back at the coach so we decided to stand all the way around the corner at the back of the queue. Every now and again we’d nip out in turn to get a drink from the real coffee shops and to go souvenir hunting. I’d decided instead of buying tacky or overpriced souvenirs I’d just pick up a couple of postcards from each country we visited.
When we were almost at the front of the queue we saw a familiar face heading our way. It was Mark. He’d been wandering around the city by himself taking in the culture and searching for an Amsterdam T-Shirt. Instead of buying postcards like me, he was planning on buying a T-Shirt from every country we visited. He’d also been taking photographs around the city while the others headed into a coffee shop to continue what they had started the night before. We soon got inside the Museum which had been done out really tastefully keeping as much to the era and original decor of the factory and annex as it would have been at the time. Anne’s father Otto Frank had been the General Manager at the jam factory. It was at the back of this factory where the families decided to hide when the troubles began. Throughout the Museum there were artefacts and video clips of the survivors, friends of the Franks and factory workers. Then it was off upstairs, through the famous bookcase and into the secret annex where the families had hidden. The windows in the annex were darkened with material to try and recreate the dark and dismal conditions the families would have lived in to avoid being discovered. The rooms were actually larger than I had imagined, although they were now void of any furniture except for the sinks and toilet. I imagine once the furniture was in place, and all eight of them in situ it would be very cramped. In each room there was information showing who shared each room. In Anne’s room there were still decorations she had put in place on her walls from newspaper and magazine cuttings. There were even pictures of film stars from the period which had been preserved behind a sheet of glass. We then left the annex behind and saw video clips about the concentration camps, and information about the fate of each person in the annex, and of the people who had protected them by trying to keep their location a secret. Only Otto Frank survived the holocaust after the concentration camp he was sent to was soon liberated. The Museum also housed the original diaries of Anne’s.
Once out of the Museum we didn’t have much time left so we quickly rushed to find something to eat before meeting the others and hopping back onto the coach. We then left the buzzing city of Amsterdam behind to begin the long trip through Germany to St Goar and the Rhine Valley.
Anne Frank statue near the museum in Amsterdam
Literally everyone has a bike
More bikes
Mark, Erin and Tracy
Pretty self explanatory
Along the way Richie had some plans up his sleeve for everyone to get to know each other. He played some soppy love songs and got the whole coach doing speed dating. This involved everyone on an aisle seat moving round from seat to seat every ninety seconds so we got a chance to speak to everyone on the coach. It was quite a good idea, although it got a little draining when you’d gotten around to the thirtieth person where you’d end up saying the same things over and over again. We did get to meet most people on the coach and know a little more about each other including everyone’s names. After all we did have 52 people’s names to remember. After this most people slept as they’d had a late night. We were then woken up by Richie who decided speed dating wasn’t enough and that we should all come down to the front of the coach, get on the microphone, and say a few words about ourselves. This sounded a little daunting, although all we would have to do was answer some questions such as who you are, where you’re from, what you were doing before the tour, and what you plan to do afterwards, as well as making three statement about yourself. One of the statements had to be a lie, while the other two were truths. Then everyone would have to guess which one was the lie. My two truths were that I knew basic sign language and that I was a rock climber. My lie was that I was allergic to alcohol. There was a gasp from Richie our tour manager as this tour was mainly centred around drinking. He then twigged and understood that this was my lie. I should hope so too as everyone saw me having my complementary drinks on the canal cruise yesterday.
After a few hours on the road we reached St Goar. We stopped at what we thought was our hostel and had out evening meal. We didn’t get a choice in what we wanted to eat. If I remember rightly it was beef with a strange tasking noodles/pasta combo followed by the tiniest portion of black forest gateaux I had ever seen, but it did serve its purpose and filled a little hole. Then it was off to the bar to sample our first taste of German beer. In Germany there is a law against adding any preservatives to the beer. This meant you wouldn’t suffer from a hangover, as apparently it’s the preservatives in the drink which cause a hang over. The glass the beer came in was a lot larger than a pint, but not quite the 2 litre beer stein size.
Our next stop was a few minutes walk to a traditional wine cellar for tonight’s wine tasting.
The cellar was lit by candle light along the ceiling and on the table.
Behind the table there were big wooden barrels which contained vast quantities of wine.
We were all given small glasses in which we had our first wine.
We were shown how to inspect the wine, first by holding the class up to the candlelight to inspect its colour and clarity.
Then we had to smell the wine to see how pungent it was. Next we took a sip which we had to swill around our mouth before swallowing it.
Apparently the best way to sample the wine is to swallow, and not spit it our.
Unless of course you’re sampling hundreds of wines in a row.
I’d been sipping the wine quite slowly and chatting away, so when the next wine came along I had to down the wine quickly before they poured the next one into my glass.
The next wine was a medium/dry, the first had been dry.
How ripe the grapes are determines how sweet the wine would be.
If the grapes were harvested early the wine would be dry.
If the grapes were left to ripen fully the wine would be sweet.
The third wine was a medium followed by the fourth which was sweet.
Naomi was sat opposite me and didn’t particularly like wine, but had come along anyway.
The Australians have an Aussie drinking chant which they sang at Naomi as they noticed she wasn’t drinking her wine.
Instead of caving in to their request and downing the wine she just threw it over her shoulder to their surprise which soon shut them up.
The last wine we had we were only given a small amount as it was very expensive.
It was around 30 Euros for a half bottle.
It was a dessert wine and quite sweet and wholesome.
You could definitely taste the quality of it.
Trying out some long exposure in the wine cellar
More long exposures - Ashton
Rosa and Kerry
Mark
We were allowed to take the glass we had used to taste the wines away with us. At the end of the wine tasting I bought a bottle of wine number two to take home. On the way out we bumped into another Contiki group waiting to go wine tasting. This was to become fairly common as there were a number of Contiki tours running throughout Europe which would overlap at certain points. This group had begun their tour in Paris, ending in Amsterdam, so they were doing the same tour as ours but in reverse. After the wine tasting we got back on the coach and drove to our hotel. Along the way we saw the steep fields where the grapes were grown. Some of the slopes were extremely severe. It was hard to fathom just how the grapes were harvested.
When we got to the hostel it backed onto the river. The river was fairly calm so we decided we would brave the cold and go for a swim. Sadly there was a mix up with the hostel so we had to wave the idea of night swimming goodbye and head off back the way we came to another hostel. Once there it was quite a climb throughout the winding corridors and stairways with our heavy luggage to our rooms. I was sharing with Krysten and Fiona from Singapore who I’d been sat on the back seat of the coach with. Krysten had unfortunately sprained her ankle on the morning of the tours departure coming down the stairs of the hostel they were staying at, so she would become my fellow injured buddy. We decided to have an early night rather than head down to the bar with the others. I was so tired I actually fell asleep with the TV on and in all my clothes. I woke up around 2am and changed into my night clothes.
My trusty travel journal. I guess its time to buy a brand new one and book my next trip!
