Checkout was fairly early, but at least I had more sleep that night than the one before. We had a couple of hours to wander through Amsterdam. So we visited Anne Frank's House (or in Dutch Anne Frankhuis). It was a great experience and worth visiting for anyone there. From there we had coffee next door, and once we saw the traditional pancakes on the menu, we had to try them even though we were definitely not hungry. Scales off limits for 6 months, me thinks! T...

So the contiki began, although off 3 hours sleep after clubbing on my own the night before, I wasn't feeling the brightest. Luckily day one consisted of a drive to Dover and a ferry across to France. We were introduced to our South African tour guide, Steve and our mascot "Scuba Steve". Our mascot can only be described as a teenage mutant ninja turtle on steroids, who had apparently been abducted once by another contiki group and returned with a few phallic obj...

The weather was feral today. Severe weather warnings greeted us, high winds and lots of rain. It was like we were in Melbourne again (especially since the sun came out later). Although the canals, bikes, smell of weed, and all the 17th century buildings reminded us we were still in Amsterdam. Oh and the included "continental breakfast", hardboiled eggs still in their shell with bread and some unnamed cold meat. Needless to say, we went back to the cafe for a comp...

By the time we had left Hans Brinker it was already after midday. We grabbed a complete English breakfast at this place 2 days in a row. We headed into town where we observed the tram and bike network, which to anyone who has been here is amazing, to say the least. 60% of locals own a bike and ride it daily. That will never happen in Melbourne, as the road design combined with the flat land make it ideal and easy to do for everyone. We wandered the streets like...

As I left Helsinki, the shuffle of seats on the plane began, from my beloved window seat I moved two rows forward to allow a lady to sit with his husband. Nice guys finish last, now I had a seat between a big overweight (I'm not judging) man and some noisy young morrocan (I'm guessing) child. Then came the Finnish girl: "would you mind please moving seats with my friend?" "Sure" I replied, the air hostess laughed and I said "put me in an overhead locker if u need...