Leaving Amsterdam we were disappointed. We expected the Cannabis culture and the Red Light District but not the lack of any other stimulus. Our opinions may have been jaded by the cold but, even in the summer, swimming in the polluted canals would have been degrading unless you were smashed on beer and/or pot, with a hooker on your arm.

We had left early, from Amsterdam, to find a campsite near Zaandjick, our cultrural stop the next day. Having found a quiet place in a truck stop we spent the night with fears that the hurricane winds would roll us over. We awoke upright but with the wind still howling as we set off for the district of Zaanse Schans to see how cl0gs were made. The short walk across the bridge was freezing, with a capital Fuck Me, but the view was nice... After crossing the bridge we discovered the Pewter museum was in the same area, but closed. Our numb fingers were very disappointed... The clog workshop was amazing with variety and warmth. Although we had timed our visit "perfectly" with the arrival of other tourists we enjoyed the hollandishism of this little village.

Leaving Amsterdam we saw a lot of the countryside we had seen entering. Calm drivers, flat plains and windmills. On our way to Gouda we were forced to ake an alternate route due to a broken bridge and thankfully saw the Netherlands we had hoped for. Driving down single lane streets, with bridges as driveways, we saw an amazing country. As we pulled over to let another driver pass, we were thanked by them for giving them the right of way on their side of the road. Arriving in Gouda it had no appeal and it was too cold to hunt for cheese so we continued onto Rotterdam.

Our sole purpose of visiting Rotterdam was to see the preserved windmills of Kinderdijk. With a temperature of -2o and a wind chill of -92o, it was a chilling experience. The confines of how the workers lived on top of the task that was required was amazing. The cold, however was too much to bare and so we skipped on to Antwerp, the first stop in our Belgium tour.