Friday 20 July 2007

GOING DUTCH

I'm just back from enjoying my birthday treat from David: a couple of days in Amsterdam...

Aside from being immortalised in Ronnie Hilton's 1965 hit, 'A Windmill in Old Amsterdam' ("A little mouse with clogs on! Well, I declare! Going clip-clippety-clop on the stair...") the city known as "The Venice of the North" is, it turns out, an easy-going place of great charm, full of elegant bridges...


...and an amazing number of bikes!


As for the Dutch, they are a delightful people: generous to a fault...


Painfully honest...



Highly tolerant - even, apparently, of someone who paints lines on the road whilst obviously stoned!


Possessing a great sense of humour, evidenced by selling wooden tulips...


...fluffy clog-shaped slippers in a cow-hide animal print...


...and, at Schiphol airport, adding a tiny embellishment to the urinals in the gents' loos in the hope of encouraging better aim and less spillage!


1 comment:

Boll Weavil said...

I visited Amsterdam for the first time last year. It has some very nice parts to it but having gone on to stay at Delft, I found that there are more attractive places in that country.Still, the harbour area with the old boats is fantastic and well worth a visit.