Way to not be tourists!

Thursday 27 November

My sister and I both decided that we would most definitely not be tourists whilst travelling Europe.

Well, today we were most successful in not not being tourists.

Why? We managed to gain an extra day in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the castle we hoped to visit is actually only open on Saturdays and Sundays, so we had nothing to do. There is this free walking tour around amsterdam which seemed pretty good. We decided to go on it.

It was actually a very good tour. The guy who led it, Neil (Canadian), was very funny and very knowledgable. I highly recommend it to anyone who goes to Amsterdam for the first time and is interested in the place in general, plus its history.

I learned a heck of a lot of history about Amsterdam, and it is actually very interesting. Lately I have been becoming more and more interested in history. I still won't be picking it up at school, but I do like learning about it, preferably on my own time in my own way.

On the way back, after the tour was finished, we passed a Christian book store, which happened to have English books in it. I went in for a quick look, and there, sitting on the shelf, was Sinner. Dekker's Sinner. Released a couple of months ago, it is at the very top of my list of books to read. Unfortunately, it was quite expensive, and I didn't want to spend that much of my money on it, so I had to leave it. I guess I will just have to wait until it arrives in New Zealand, which I doubt it has yet (though I am not sure, mind you) and most likely will not arrive for a long time.

Anyhow, my last day in Amsterdam was great.