EU Holiday, August 25 (The XXX)

Still could barely walk in the morning, but grabbed a train down to Ajax Amsterdam Arena for a stadium tour. There was noone around when I got there so I was worried I was going to be the only person on a dutch speaking tour, but a lot of people arrived afterwards so they ended up splitting the tour into a Dutch and English half. The tour and the stadium was alright, quite new, but nothing really out of the ordinary for a stadium I suppose. Quite spacious and easily accessible too, it's just a shame I was leaving a day before the next game was on.

Ajax Arena. They forgot the grass needs sunlight during the design phase.

We Are Ajax ? The chairs look just like the ones at work. A holiday nightmare.

Luis Suarez in the players rooms.

Up in the top stand.

Walked past Waterlooplein Market which is more of an arts and craft market and then back into central Amsterdam. Happened to come across the Red Light district which is kind of strange. Firstly there was only a few red street lights, and secondly all of the women are sitting in windows of the stores and trying to get your attention. Others didn't seem too interested and were eating chips or using their mobile phones. It wouldn't be so strange if it was located outside the city, but it is pretty much right in the centre.

Random photo of Amsterdam canals.

Went back to Damrak to hunt down a couple of anime stores that were pretty poor and some souvenir places. I was confused as to what the "xxx" logo was on all of the souvenirs, I later found out it represents three crosses on the "coat of arms of Amsterdam", so that's one mystery solved. I jumped on one of the canal cruises to take a trip around some of the many canals that represent Amsterdam, there wasn't many interesting sights to see along the way (or the tour was crappy) but I did learn a fun fact that on average one car a day (or maybe it was a week) drives into the canals. Whichever one it is, it doesn't sound quite right to me...

Amsterdam houses from the canal cruise.

I think this is the Church of St. Nicholas...

Because my feet were in such bad shape I missed out on a couple of other things I wanted to do in Amsterdam: Heineken Experience museum, visit a functional windmill and have another go lining up for Anne Frank House. However not too bad to get everything else done on the list in just four days.