Day 1 London to Amsterdam via Belgium Sunday December 22nd 2013:

Today was the day I had been dreaming about ever since I booked my trip to Europe the start of my Contiki European Adventure!

This morning after a great night sleep, I was up at 6am to do a final pack and make sure I hadn’t left anything behind before checking out of the Royal National Hotel at 6:45am.

Filled with excitement and a few nerves I made my way down to the Contiki Basement.

Before boarding the coach our suitcases got weighed to make sure they were all under the 20 Kilogram limit.

We then boarded the coach and found our seats.

We departed London at 7:30am and made our way towards Dover.

Dover is where you cross the English channel into the port town of Calais officially in France!

On our way to Dover our Tour Manager Rebecca gave us a lowdown on everything Contiki:

She explained where we are staying,what we will be seeing, what to expect and important information that we needed to know.

Rebecca then organised a icebreaker, which we all had 5 minutes to talk to the person next to us before switching to help to get to know everyone we were travelling with!

Our Contiki Group had 52 people: 36 South Africans 4 Brazilians,2 Canadians, 2 New Zealanders and 8 Australians quite a diverse group!

As we travelled for 2 hours we then arrived at Dover and saw the White Cliffs of Dover.

Before we boarded our P and O Ferry to Calais,we had to have our passports on us as a border control officer came on board and stamped our passports before departing Dover.

This ferry was enormous there were 10 other coaches boarding and lots of cars and trucks as well. You are free to walk about on the ferry while you travel across the channel.

On board there are a lot of options to pass time lots of shopping including duty free and souvenir shops as well as lots of restaurants and cafes.

The journey from Dover to Calais took about 1 hour and a half.

We then made our way back on the coach after arriving in Calais and made our way north to Belgium where we had a lunch stop in Brussels.

After our lunch stop we made our way back on the coach towards Amsterdam.

Rebecca organised another icebreaker activity which consisted of coming up to the front of the coach and introducing ourselves to everyone on the microphone.

Including answering questions and what people might not know about you.

When we had finished our ice breaker we had a scheduled afternoon break in a town called Breda.

A city located in the southern part of the Netherlands.

We stopped at a place called La Place.

This was such a great cafe/restaurant it had fresh juices,coffees, pastries and sandwiches!

• 

• 

Once we had our afternoon break we boarded the coach and had a 2 hour drive before arriving in Amsterdam.

As we travelled towards Amsterdam, Rebecca explained how the rooming list worked and who we were sharing a hotel room for the tour with.

Rebecca then explained our itinerary for Amsterdam that night which included: checking into our hotel room, having an included dinner at the hotel, heading into Amsterdam for an optional Canal Cruise before exploring the Red Light District and finishing the night at a local bar Contiki goes to on trips in Amsterdam.

Rebecca then made her way up the coach to ask if we had any questions or queries about our night in Amsterdam.

We arrived at our hotel in Amsterdam Nieuw Slotania Hotel Amsterdam: at 5:30pm.

When we arrived Rebecca checked us into our hotel rooms.

We had 45 minutes to relax and get changed for our night out in Amsterdam.

We then made our way downstairs for our included dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Our included dinner was a great way to chat and find out about everyone on our trip.

After our included dinner we made our way to the coach and made our way into Amsterdam for our optional canal cruise.

This was such a great way to get to know our new tour mates and tour manager over drinks.

We floated down Amsterdam’s canals under the city lights cruising past historic buildings and eye opening Red Light District.

Once our canal cruise ended we made our way back to the coach and were dropped off in the centre of the Red Light District to explore.

As the group explored the Red Light District I found myself adjusting to the cultural differences in a new country and how in the Red Light District there where pleny of sex shops,brothels and prostitutes in red lit windows. something entirely different to what I was use to seeing back in Australia.

When we had finished exploring the Red Light District:

We met up with Rebecca and she took us to a local bar where we had a few drinks together as a group before making our way back to the hotel.

Rebecca organized tram tickets back to the hotel as this was the easiest way of getting a group of people back to our hotel.

On our way back to the hotel one of the Brazilians was giggling and couldn’t stop laughing as the group of Brazilians had gone to the Grass Hopper Coffee-shop one of the worlds most famous cannabis cafes (which was legal when we were in Amsterdam)

The group made it back to our hotel for a good night sleep ready another day of exploring Europe early in the morning on our way to the Rhine Valley and St Goar in Germany.

What an amazing experience so far and its only day one!

Safe Travels!

Campbell 🙂