Amsterdam

Stayed at this Doubletree by Hilton Amsterdam Central Station hotel during our 3D2N stay in Amsterdam. Very nice and clean place with Starbucks just downstairs. It's also very convenient as it is within walking distance to the cruise terminal and central station.

First stop after checking in, Van Gogh Museum. But before that, I went to dam square to get my shopping fix at H&M, Zara and MNG. Its slightly more expensive compared to Barcelona, especially MNG. Barcelona is still the best and cheapest place to shop in Europe, since my fave brands like Zara, MNG, Pull & Bear and Camper all comes from Spain. I dunoe whether H&M will be cheaper in Sweden but I highly doubt so since things in Scandinavian countries are all very exp.

Guess I quite enjoyed Van Gogh Museum. It's WAY much better than the Picasso museum I went to in Spain coz I din yawn till I cried. I like Van Gogh's art much better than other artist, maybe it's becoz of his vibrant thick strokes of painting. Somehow, it just look much more appealing to me. Hubby enjoyed it very much of course, since he loved going to museums. Sadly, no photography allowed inside the museum.

Taking at break at the cafe.

After the museum, we walked along the canals.

By the way, you must be very careful crossing the road in Amsterdam, coz u need to look out for buses, trams, cars and most of all, cyclists. There were SO many cyclists on the road, it seemed that everyone in Amsterdam owned a bike. Touring the city by bike is also a BAD idea unless you are an expert cyclist. I had seen many people falling off from their bike and some tourists who are so fed up that they ended up walking with the bike...

Next day at Zaanse Schans, a pretty little place at the outskirts of the city.

It's a must to see some windmills in Holland,

milk a cow,

Wear a wooden clog shoes..

Pet a sheep ( poor thing wearing such thick woolley coat in this burning hot weather without a shade of tree. Guess they forgot to shave him)

And eat this very expensive pancake (€12)

Basically, it's a very nice touristy place. Would have enjoyed it more of the weather wasn't so hot.

The following day and also our last day in Amsterdam, we went to the Rijkmuseum and took a canal cruise after that. The above picture is a very popular spot near the museum. It's like a MUST to take a picture with it if you go to Amsterdam. We managed to get this shot with hardly any people coz its very early in the morning.

Noticed that a lot of paintings in the museum had portraits of men wearing these white fluffy flying saucer thing around their neck. Could it be a Dutch fashion thing in those days?? Anyway, the museum was quite boring to me. Noticed that most Dutch paintings were quite dark in nature.

One of the most famous painting, the Milkmaid. Think this was my fave among all the paintings in the museum coz it looked pleasing to my eyes.

Kinda regret taking the canal cruise coz the weather is too freaking hot that day! Felt like I'm trapped inside this oven for an hour, that I almost puked. There's no aircon as its open top and no fans.....Btw, the river water was dark and murky with plastic bottles and litters floating around. Surprisingly, there were no bad odors.

In a nutshell, Amsterdam is a vibrant and touristy city yet a scenic and very multi-national place. Its not as dangerous as i thought. No, I din try any of the space cakes but I did went to the famous red light district and was amazed by how good looking the prostitutes were. It was such a touristy and crowded place that it felt more like a theme park rather than a red light district. Also, there were no such thing as a free public toilet. Even in a shopping mall, inside a fast food restaurant, you need to pay €0.50 to use a toilet. Guess its very common in Europe but i still think its ridiculous to pay even €0.50 to use the toilet inside KFC which we dined in. Think the only toilets that were free to use were the ones inside the museum (since we already paid for the entrance tickets) and those in the airport. However, you will be amazed that it's actually possible to take the public transport for free, especially for metro trains coz the gantry gates were always wide opened or no gates at all and nobody checks for our tickets. It's like, we bought the tickets for our train back to the airport 2 days before at the train station. 2 days later, we towed our lugguages, walked into the station, up the platform, boarded the train, get off the train at the airport while the tickets were still inside our bag untouched all the while. I guess ALOT of people din pay but we just pay coz we dun wish to get into any troubles....

 

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Day 6 - Eidfjord

The weather at Eidfjord turned out to be excellent. Blue sky, sunny, great for taking pictures and I managed to take a lot of nice pictures that look like something out of a postcard.

There were wild flowers everywhere and it felt like spring more than summer.

Dream house! How I wish I lived there! I love the houses in Norway, they all looked very pretty.

 

Edifjord is a very small town compared to Bergen. Went ashore to walk around after eating breakfast. There aren't anything much except for a hotel, 2-3 souvenir shops, a supermarket and some houses. But the scenery was nice and very relaxing. The whole town was very quiet with sounds of birds chirping.

Goats grazing on top of the souvenir store. They are the 'lawn mowers' for the grass.

Watched a short video in this nature center with some exhibits.

One of the largest dam in Norway behind me.

I saw these white fluffy flowers growing everywhere near the dam. They felt just like cotton balls. I guess if you gathered more of these and stuff it into a pillow casing, you will get a free pillow!

Hubby posing with a troll. Lots of troll statues in Norway.

Me posing with another troll, yup....it's a troll and not Santa's little helper. I can't help but felt like a troll/hobbit in this country sometimes compared to the Norwegian people here who looked like the elves from Lord of the Ring....sighz....

 

Had lunch on the ship. The flavours of the world theme for lunch at Lido was szechuan. Was hoping for Thai actually. We already had Indonesian, Philippines, Vietnamese, Chinese. The Chinese theme was the worse coz every dishes tasted freaking salty like hell. I hate salty Chinese food, seriously....Chinese food is not just MSG!

 

Heard that it was a HA's tradition to hold a desserts party at the end of the cruise. Btw, desserts on this ship were excellent! I ate mostly desserts throughout the entire cruise. The midnight snack for the last day was Dessert Extravaganza! OMG!! I never seen SO much mouth watering desserts displayed in front of me! I wish I can try everything but I can't unless I wanna die of sugar over-rush. I actually got a brain freeze from sugar overdose that night.

All were beautifully displayed desserts, ranging from cheesecakes, tarts, fudge, puffs, swiss rolls, mousse, etc....sadly I dun see my fave matcha desserts.....oh well. Guess elderly angmohs dun really appreciate matcha.

All u can eat, candied apple

A section for sugarless desserts, yummy minus the sin

Btw, about 85% of the passengers on this ship were elderly folks. Seriously, what is HA thinking by hosting this heart attack cum calories and sugar overdrive event at 11pm somemore?! I dunoe whether anyone die the next day.

The following day was a whole day at sea before arriving in Amsterdam.

Norway in a nutshell - definitely a place for nature lovers. Very scenic and tranquil environment, plus some celtic/Enya's music, and you will be in dreamland instantly. It's also very clean and orderly. Beautiful country, delicious food, beautiful blond people. A good place to relax, fall asleep (for me), and recharge. Cons: too freaking expensive!!

 

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Day 5- Bergen,Norway

Arrived at Bergen, the oldest and second largest city in Norway.

Bergen was a leisure day compared to Geirangerfjord. We signed up for this 'Queen of the fjords'' tour, which is purely sightseeing by bus and boat. Nothing strenous this time...yea....The scenery was so nice and soothing that it making me sleepy. Actually fell asleep on the bus and was surprised to see most of the angmoh elderly folks also sleeping. Everything looks so nice and beautiful in Norway. The weather is nice, the scenery is beautiful, and almost everyone in Norway are blond, tall, slim and good looking. Seriously, God is unfair. Why does he made some people look like angels while others look like trolls?! Hmm...now I am beginning to understand how the trolls in Norway come about. They are actually people from another part of the earth and since in those olden days, Norwegian people have no ideas who they are, they just referred them as trolls. Haha......

The tour started with the bus ride out of Bergen and then we boarded this ship shown above. No, we din get out of the bus at all. The entire bus was inside that ship, together with a few other cars. This is like a transport vehicle to transfer people with their vehicles from one side of the shore to another.

Hubby posing at the head of the ship. The whole head of the ship moved up and just opened up like a jaw and swallowed up the buses and cars driving in. Then it closed its mouth like a jaw and sail off...very interesting.

There's even a cafe and washrooms inside.

when we reached the other side of the shore, the backside of the ship will opened up like what the front of the ship did before, and spit us all out again....it's so fun...hahah

Visiting a wooden traditional stave church. It's no longer in use but used as a tourist attraction. Smell musty and old inside.

Lunch buffet at this Hardangerfjord Hotel. I finally tasted Norwegian smoked salmon! It's really different from those other smoked salmon I had eaten before. It's not as salty or slimy as the usual smoked salmon and had no fishy smell at all. Yum!

The hotel is situated right next to the fjord. Hubby posing at the hotel's backyard. We got about an hr of free time after lunch to wander around before boarding the bus.

Next stop at a waterfall.

Ice cream break

The ice cream cost about 25 NOK, about $5 USD.

 

Things are very expensive in Norway. Basically, you can't get anything to eat without at least $20 for a meal. All the magnets I found cost at least between $8-12 USD minimum. Even for those cheap looking magnets which I usually get for $2-4 USD. A simple souvenir tee short cost at least $30 USD. Thats about the same price as what i paid for a Abercrombie and Fitch tee in US (at normal retail price)

Constantly feeling drowsy and sleepy on this trip. Wonder why I always feel so sleepy and drowsy when I am on a cruise. Maybe there's something in the food or it's the motion of the ship?? Also, Norway had this lullaby effect on me, maybe becoz everything seemed so quiet, tranquil and soothing...at least I dun have to be on the alert for bears trying to eat me. Seemed like they were all killed by the Vikings long ago.

Dinner at Lido buffet. Its about 6-7pm and its still so bright outside. Eating light to save my stomach for the indonesian theme midnight snack at 11pm. Think I preferred Royal Carribean's buffet as its self serviced and had more varieties. Buffets are supposed to be self serviced, that's why it's called buffet!

Bye bye Bergen, next stop - Eidifjord

 

 

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