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| Author : GEORDIEandVIRGINIA | Diary name : Gullibles_Travels | ||
| 6 May 2004 : Colonge - Germany | |||
| Into the land of the giants | |||
| I know now that Jonathan Swift's inspiration for the mythical land of the giants Brobdingnag was the men’s toilets at Amsterdam Airport. There were four urinals in a row and one of them was set lower down the wall and had a step underneath it. Even after being awake for 24 hours and having endured a 12 hour flight next to two snoring seals I could still tell that the smaller one was for kids. The trouble was, even at the junior urinal I could hardly see over the rim let alone pee over the rim. Now as most of you know, I’m no shorty but I was having slight difficulty with this normally easy task. The people that built this strange place must have been 8 foot tall and urine must come out their noses. I know that 49% of you might be curious about tales from beyond the blue door so there you go. Well, long time no post. We flew KLM airlines from Singapore to Amsterdam and contrary to expectations we did not drop out of the sky. We flew over some amazing places, including Kursk in Russia. As it was night time, we saw the cities lit up with all their lights. Virginia ordered a vegetarian meal and I now understand the scam. It is just to get your meal served 30 minutes before everyone else. Approximately 5% of the plane including Virginia sat there grinning at everyone and fussing over what they were going to eat first. The guy behind me signed up for a week of chores with his wife, just to have a bite of her salad. Idiot. I would have held out for a piece of the tofu sausage. We stayed at a beautiful apartment near the centre of Amsterdam. It was on the 4th floor and the stairs were tiny! I'm sure there have been colonoscopy’s larger than what we went through on those stairs. There were parts that you had to turn sideways to get through, other parts the ceiling were so low we danced the Lambada. With a 20kg pack on your back and shopping bags in each hand (not mine) it was a real test not to topple. Didn't see many "large" people in Amsterdam. I think the combination of biking everywhere and houses with no lifts and eighteen flights of stairs must keep them pretty fit. We went to the Anne Frank "Houis" as part of our “eddiecation” of the city. The history and personal accounts of the exhibits were amazing; however the best part was the 'Choices' exhibition at the end. One of the aims of the Museum was to promote debate about discrimination and free speech in society. There was a looping video presentation discussing current issues and freedom of speech arguments that the audience could vote on. http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?PID=21&LID=2 For example, viewers were told about a historian who denied that the holocaust had ever happened. The screen was divided into two sides which offered opposing points of view. One argument asserted that it was insulting to victims to deny that the event ever happened. The other argument countered that he has a right to express an academic opinion no matter how stupid the rest of us might think that it is. After all – many important revisionists were ridiculed at first. Surprisingly, about 75% of the audience voted that he should not be able to say his view in public. I was in the 25% that thought he should be able to say what he liked about the holocaust and if the evidence did not support him then he would be the subject to ridicule as a “fringe academic”. The voting process was a real eye opener and showed you just how different points of view can be. I thought the example above was quite clear cut and yet I was in the minority of voters. Next up was a Muslim Cleric from the UK who spoke out against homosexuals. One side argued that he should not be able to make derogatory comments and that he had violated UK anti-discrimination laws. The other side argued that he has a right to express an opinion especially if it is part of his religion. What comes first – freedom of religion or protection of minorities? This was an exhibition that had many school groups attending. I found it interesting that while kids in NZ and AUS were drawing pictures of whales, kids in the Netherlands were debating the constitutional limits of free speech. Go figure. Went shopping for curtains while we were in Amsterdam. Not as shocking as we thought it was going to be. There were two types of people – stag night English drunks looking for trouble and couples giggling and pointing. The windows are marked with a red/pinky light and when the girls are "busy" they close the curtain. Funnily enough about half the girls were chatting into mobile phones. I can just image their conversations – “Yeah I’m bored at work again – what are you up to?” From Amsterdam it was on to Arnhem. A provincial town outside of the Netherlands that was the site of the Bridge Too Far during WW2. Went to the museum at Oosterbeck which was very good. Complete with Panther tank on the lawn outside. Took some photo's on Arnhem Bridge just to make my little brother jealous. Stayed at a little Bed and Breakfast just off the main street area. The lady who ran it was lovely and had a beautiful house, complete with the 3 flights of stairs. Boy, are we getting fit. We had a problem that we were not as portable as we hoped. Virginia's backpack with its various tied on accessories (Yoga mat, shopping bags...) was now bigger than her and she needed a Sherpa to help lift it. Stairs now required 3 trips. When an elderly gentleman with a cane tried to help Virginia up the stairs at Arnhem Station we realised it was time to repack. It was only a matter of time till spastics in wheelchairs might take pity on us. We got Virginia a suitcase on wheels with a smaller pack which sits on the top attached to the handle. Boy does that girl love to shop. I had to remind her several times that new shoes were not part of the deal. Apparently I just don’t get the whole color coordination thing. We have managed to come to an agreement though. I get a laptop and she can buy jewelry. Jewelry is small and doesn’t weigh too much. Now the laptop on the other hand…more about that later. We are now in Colonge, Germany. This is a very old city, much of which was rebuilt after WW2 – the Dom is a HUGE cathedral in the centre of the city that just goes up and up and up! Check out the photos. A trip to Cologne would not be complete for me without a trip to the chocolate factory. Chocolate making, much to my surprise, is actually quite complex. I have a new patron saint – Saint Lindt. They had a chocolate fountain there and it was all I could do not to dive in and go swimming in the sweet sweet nectar. I’m having fun learning the language - Virginia only knows a few words - Vas ist Das? and Gute Shieser. If she is stuck she runs them together when asking a shop keeper a question. I think they get the message. Ist das gute shieser? has been asked several times. Virginia got a haircut too. She has this problem where she never ends up with what she wanted. Last time in Sydney she even took a photo of what she wanted to the salon and it still went horribly wrong. It took 72 hours, 1.5Kg of chocolate and 2 visits from Craig to come right. So when watching her talking to this German guy about what she wanted done I was a little nervous. Would Craig be able to come to Germany at such short notice? The hairdresser seemed to be nodding a little too much (‘Ya ya no problem! Das is easy!) while Virginia was speaking – like when you don’t understand but don’t want to ask. Surprisingly enough he did a good job. Phew. Well, for all you fellow geeks out there, laptop time. I am in fact typing this diary entry on my newly acquired piece of Uber HP technology. It comes complete with a German keyboard. The final decision to purchase was made 2 days ago when I was composing a long email to my sister Christina and Mr. Bean at the computer next to me kicked out the power cable for the entire store. There's nothing worse than retyping an email. All you can think of is how much wittier and insightful your last one was. Not much to say about the laptop except its better than yours Scott. When the package arrived at the hostel reception the guy took one look at the HP box and said “What the hell are you buying a printer for on holiday?” And finally, I decided to name it after the most powerful force in the universe that I know - Sandra. Off to the South of France tomorrow. Till next time, BYE! | |||