Day 2 Amsterdam to St Goar via Rhine Valley Monday December 23rd 2013:

This morning after a good night sleep feeling rested the group headed downstairs at 6am for our included breakfast.

We exchanged stories from a crazy night in Amsterdam over breakfast!

Once we finished breakfast we checked out of our hotel rooms, before taking our bags to the coach at 6:45 am.

We then departed our hotel at 7:15 am and made our way into the centre of Amsterdam.

We were dropped off in the centre of Amsterdam where we had free time until 10am to explore the city.

To start the morning exploring myself and Jessica walked through the Amsterdam Christmas Markets located in the Museumplein  (Museum Square)

The Amsterdam Christmas Markets had an ice rink, traditional dutch street food, hot drinks and cute markets which made us feel in such a christmas spirit!

As we explored the Amsterdam Christmas Village, Jessica and myself ran into some of our fellow Australian travellers and the group of us decided to explore the Amsterdam canals on our way to the I Amsterdam Sign which we wanted to have a photo with!

As we walked by the canals its no wonder so many people visit Amsterdam to see them as there really beautiful!

The group of us made it to the I Amsterdam Sign which was one of the places I most wanted to get a photo at in Amsterdam!

After taking photos at the I Amsterdam Sign the group of us made our way back to the Dam Square.

We met up with the rest of our Contiki group, before the coach picked us up and we made our way towards our next country Germany.

On our way to Germany our Trip Manager gave us a brief history lesson on Germany and the area we would be staying the night in St Goar.

As we travelled towards Germany, we arrived at a service stop for lunch in at 12 pm.

We had 45 minutes to have something to eat and stretch our legs.

These service stops in Europe are so much better than what we have back in Australia!

They have so many cafes and restaurants with local food and drinks.

They are like a small shopping centres in the middle of the highway!

After lunch we made our way onto the coach and made our way further into Germany and learnt about the Rhine Valley!

The region of Germany we are travelling through, including the fact it has the largest cuckoo clock in Europe!

On our way towards our accommodation in St Goar, Rebecca told us that this quite a small old fashioned hotel and it would be easier to pack an overnight bag as the hotel had no lifts and really small staircases which makes taking a suitcase up quite difficult.

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

During our way to our hotel, I was amazed at how thin the windy roads in Germany can be!

Our our coach driver Bart was very skilled to navigate our coach through them as it was quite dark by the time we made it to our hotel at St Goar.

We arrived at Hotel Montag St Goar at 6 pm.

When we arrived Rebecca checked us into our hotel rooms.

We had 30 minutes to relax and get changed for the night at St Goar.

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

Our included dinner consisted of various sausages, mashed potatoes, potato bake and vegetables with Tiramisu for dessert. This was a great homely dinner bonding with everyone on our trip.

After dinner most of the group headed down to the bar to have a few drinks.

I was feeling quite tired from a big day of exploring Amsterdam so I decided to have an early night and feel rested for a long day of travelling to Munich in the morning.

I think taking some solo time is important on a Contiki trip to help refresh your batteries as everything happens so fast and it takes some getting use to doing so much in such a short space of time.

I headed to sleep super excited that tomorrow was Christmas Eve and would be such a experience to get to spend it in Munich!

Safe Travels!

Campbell 🙂