Belgium - Antwerp

Belgium is the 10th country i had ever been. At first we didnt plan to go Belgium, but since Amsterdam was so bored and it only took 1 day trip there, so we decided to pay Euro 53 for the trip. The first stop of Belgium is Antwerp. On the way to Antwerp, we saw a very nice Amsterdam village scenery. Me especially like the below wind turbine. In fact i though it is very fascinating and romantic when i saw it from the plane for the first time.Upon reaching Antwerp, suddenly i had a deja-vu. It seem like i had dream this place before. Especially when i saw those building on the hill after the flyover...I would like to take a photo but the bus passby very fast.Well, either dream of it or not, at least i am here la.

The first thing i remember of Belgium is the people here were drinker. Unlike other country, they start to drink since lunch time.So dont you beat them on the drinking the beer. When there is a supply, there will also be a demand. In belgium, they had more than 200 brands of beer.
First, we went to the market square of Antwerp. This square was surrounded by town hall or guilds house (sound like some name in pc game). on top of each guilds house, there is a symbol telling you what is the business of this guilds horse. Ie, if it is a house, then this guilds house is deal with horse.
Also there are some monument in the square.
Hilton hotel in the square. I only know now that Antwerp is the Diamond Center of the World! Oh really? i can't see even a diamond here?!
This is how they move house. No wonder staircase is so small in the building. Rupa-rupanya they like to use window instead of staircase. I think Ikea can get a good business here.
Street of Antwerp. We have our lunch here. Actually the most famous food in belgium is mussel. However we didnt try it as we afraid not enough time. (i think we only left about half an hour) and most of the cafe was full of people. So we took McDonald instead, and guess what, it cost E7 per pax! Some more i need to pay E0.40 for the toilet!! what the fxxk! So what the moral behind this story?? Eat mussel when you are in Belgium, dont eat McD!
Yummy nice cake in a cake shop.
View of Antwerp old city. The Cathedral was really huge and the architecture is damm nice. However with my lousy compact camera, i cant event shooting a full view of its door.
Another monument beside Antwerp river.
Antwerp river. I saw an old building along the river when the bus drive through. Actually i plan to walk to that building and took photo. But again, you know is this following a trip, not enough time. Sienz...........

Total spending in Amsterdam

As usual, a backpacker was most concern on the cost. I divided it into necessary cost and unnecessary cost. Necessary cost mean the money that must be spend. Such as hotel, food, entrance ticket, transportation. Unnecessary cost mean the money spend for buying souvenir and etc.

Transportation from airport to hotel = E4.30

Hotdog for lunch = E2.50

Volendam-Marken half day excursion = E32

Ann Frank house entrance ticket = E8.50

Van Gogh museum entrance ticket = E12

Nadia hotel 2 nights = E105

Manneken pis fries = E2

Dinner = E1.50

Waffle Biscuit 2 packs = E4.50

Sex museum entrance ticket = E3

Hardrock T shirt = E25.45

Boot = E29.95

Lunch at Volendam = E6

Bread for dinner = E1.18

Hot Chocolate = E1.70

Tram ticket = E2.60

Tipping for excursion = E0.50 - never though we need to pay the tips too

Toilet entrance fees =E0.50 - you need to pay for most of the toilet.

Postcard = E1

Total spending = Euro 243.18 (RM1240) = for 2 days and 2 nights

(necessary spending = Euro 186.78, unnecessary spending =Euro 56.40)

Actually we can save more on the hotel, if we get cheaper hotel, then can save another E30 - 40. However i had a very good experience with Nadia hotel so i think is worth to pay for it. No cost for breakfast cause the hotel provide us breakfast)

There is a reason why Amsterdam had so many canal. It is act to control the water level in the city. After the dam had build, Holland successfully claims back a lot of land from the sea. Huh, a war between human and natural. However with the global warming become so serious nowadays, i do not know how long can everything last. What will happen to dutch when the sea reclaims the land. The buildings behind me are classified as dangerous building due to the soft land. We can see very clearly that it is sinking, and it will continues to sink.

Some other things in Amasterdam

On 19 Sept, is the Dam to Dam run event in amsterdam. The street was full with people. However, they are walking rather than running.On 20th Sept, is another Dam run, but this time is cycling. Road was closed for car.The whole city is jam pack with tourist, bicycles...
Perhaps this is the smallest car i ever seen.
Some interesting candy! Think of buying but once again there is no room in my luggage. Furthermore it is not cheap too. 1 cost about E4.
The famous fries! Manneken pis on the street.
Yummy, this is the medium size and both of us cannot finish it. But it is much more tasty than MacDonald one for sure.

Marken

Marken is another lovely small fishing village. From Volendam, we took a boat ride to Marken. The whole journey took about 15 min.Port of Volendam.
Port of Marken. Look like some exclusive holiday villa with private boat.
The houses here look very alike with the houses in Volendam. We were taking a walking tour. We came out from another end of village after 15min.
The most lovely house in Marken. It is so colorful, well maintain and small! From the clothes hanging, i think it is belong to a male. Another interesting is people here hang the clothes without using clip. They just slot the clothes into the string. It is because wind is too strong over here,clip cannot stand the wind.On the way back to Amsterdam, i fully understand what does the sea level higher than the ground mean, however it look quite safe for me.

Volendam

Volendam is a nice and small village. Previously, this village is a fishing village. As fishermen were quite poor, so their house is very small.After the dam built, fisherman no longer can fishing again, so this village became tourist area. All the houses here had a big window! As they will have the most pretty window competition every year.So you can saw every house had a nicely decorated window.
It was once sea before on my right. But now it become a lake. It is because previously there were serious flood in this area due to holland land is lower than sea level. So they build a dam to separate outer sea and inner sea. Wow! Just imagine how big the project was. Slowly, the inner sea getting water from 5 rivers and now the water is not salt water anymore. Indirectly, it became a giant lake.

Local activity beside the sea.
Dutch type of photograph.
So nice the marry go round. Cannot find in Malaysia! Allysa kept on mumble that she will definitely bought it if she was not backpack. When think of her giant "elephant" luggage, she lost all the shopping mood.
The street full with tourists and shops.
The food on Volendam. It look like seafood tempura. Actually the food at the other store look more attractive. However the price also very attractive! Double the price here.
Our E10 lunch... shared among both of us. The conclusion was... the food is not tasty at all!

Wind Mills and Cheese Factory

Windmills is just located 5 min walks from the clogs factory. Actually the whole area is an open air museum. At the entrance, someone will taking your photo regardless you like it or not. They will sell you the photo when you came out later. Furthermore, they can speak mandarin to promote you the photo "照片，照片”, hehe! Is not only China people will do this kind of business ya. In fact, there are 4 buses full with china tourisms at the entrance. Now is the turn the white serve the yellow.
Unfortunately all the windmills are facing river. So i was unable to take the photo of the front view of windmill.Somebody said, only the windmill with "tail" behind it is the original windmill.
You can go into windmill by paying Euro 3 as the entrance ticket. However we do not had enough time so we choose not to waste money. Arghh! this is the problem of following tour.
Lomo effect of windmills.
Landscape view of windmills musuem.
After the windmill, we proceed to cheese factory. We learn how the cheese were make here. However i join in half way due to toileting so i don't actually understand the whole picture.
These cheese are hard like rock.
A sample of cheese making facilities.
After the owner finished his explanation, he open another door. WOW, it another world inside. The cheese shop!There are sample for testing. Just one try, for a person like me who do not really fancy cheese, had tasted the most tasty cheese in my life! Oh really is so so delicious.It is not like normal cheese that we bought from supermarket at all. It was full with 口感！Suddenly i had the urged to buy but when think of my luggage and it is only my first stop ...hai.....forget about it la. Cheese wrap with different color paper represent different flavor.
This lovely house is beside the cheese factory. Could it be the house of the cheese factory owner?

Can i had one in malaysia??

Clogs Factory

Day 3 in Amsterdam, we join the half day excursions to Volendam-Marken+Windmills. It cost us Euro 37 per pax for this 4.5hour tour.

Beside from milk cow, Holland is famous of clogs. Almost every visitors who came will bought a pair of clogs, or clogs keychain, or clogs magnet...Clogs is the traditional shoe wore by dutch. As it is water proof, warm and light.

Clogs sifu show us the material , the willow wood. First, cut out the length that you needed. Depending on your feet size.Clamp the wood on the engraving machine. The one at right hand side is sample. The mechanism of this machine is just as key making machine. It will copy the sample shape and engrave on raw material accordingly.
Within 2 minutes, outer shape of a clogs shoe is finished. Now the inner engraver start working.
It only took another one minute to complete the inner part. Sifu remove the exceeding part at raw clogs.
Then it is ready to wear! The standard of wearing the clogs is to wear the stocking first, then between clogs and feet should had 1 finger distance of space to ensure you wear the right size.
So here is the clogs with painting and polishing. From Wikepedia, i found out that Holland clogs is so advance- The traditional all-wooden Dutch klompen (clogs) have been officially accredited as safety shoes with the CE mark and can withstand almost any penetration including sharp objects and/or concentrated acids.
Wow! Can clogs wearing be a trend in the future?! Yes, we had clogs brand now , which is the rubber clogs. It's a brilliant business and designing idea but i don't think it can get the "CE Mark" as the traditional wooden clogs as!