I mentioned earlier that Seville is a great place to set up base to explore Southern Spain due to the excellent transport connections to the rest of Europe. On Tuesday we caught a taxi to Seville Airport, about a ten minute ride (22 Euros) from the centre of city. Checking the board for our flight I saw flights to all the main cities of Europe. If you heading north you might like to catch the fast train to Madrid, which is only a couple of hours away. It is a fairly long train trip, and a few changes, if you heading to Northern Europe, like we are today, but if you have the time, why not catch the train.
As you can see we have had a great time in Spain. It is constantly surprising. There is so much of Spain that we haven't seen from Madrid to the Basque Region in the North and Santiago, the original purpose for the trip. Barcelona was fun, that is a city you probably have to see. The highlights for me were Granada and Cordoba (you have to see Cordoba). There is so much more to see and do in Seville of course.
I've enjoyed the Spanish lifestyle, the excellent weather of course, so much like Sydney, and eating out, relatively cheaply, and at all hours of the day and night, except Siesta time of course. Fortunately, I have been travelling with a self proclaimed 'Foodie', so I'll do a blog post on some of the excellent restaurants in Barcelona, Seville, Granada, and Cordoba.
Spain is moving up to my top five places, and I will definitely be back to explore more of Spain. Despite, 20% unemployment in Spain, I never had a problem with any social problems. I can tell you now if Australia went to 20% unemployment (from about 5%) you would not be able to walk down the street in some parts of Sydney. Now, however it is time to fly to in Amsterdam.
We caught a 1.30pm flight to Amsterdam and landed at 4pm Local Time. I wasn't really paying attention to the time, as I was engrossed in The Economist magazine. I was interrupted by a Dutch couple across the aisle who thought I was their nephew. I must look a little Dutch.
On the approach I did happen to look out the window and saw a billiard table flat green land punctuated by the occasional yellow fields as to be expected.
Standing at the baggage terminal it suddenly clicked that Dutch was similiar to German, which I found I sort of could sort of understand, from long ago German lessons at school. But don't worry everybody seems to speak English too, so I don't think I'll have to draw anymore childish drawings in my notebook.
I must admit it was a culture shock arriving in Amsterdam. After checking into our spacious Airbnd apartment (see website links) we went for a stroll around De Pijp our neighbourhood. Everything you have heard about the Dutch riding bikes is true.
I looked up on Wikipedia, a trusted information source, and found there are 800,000 bikes for 750,000 people in Amsterdam. It also, probably not surprisingly, has the highest number of bike thefts. There is an old Amsterdam joke that if you yell out, "Hey, that's my bike", then five people will jump off their bikes, and start running.
Anyway, I'm pleased with our Airbnb apartment. It's a spacious two bedroom apartment on the third floor of a terrace in the De Pijp area of Amsterdam. It has good internet access through WiFi at 65 Mbs. It's about a twenty minute walk to the centre of town or you can catch a tram or I guess, a boat.
Once again, I've done absolutely no research on Amsterdam. I know nothing apart from what you know, actually I probably know less. However, if you wish to know more, either follow my blog, or read the following information.
I'd probably just read the info.
TRAVEL INFO:
Amsterdam
Website: http://www.iamsterdam.com/
The official tourist website - Iamsterdam - so clever the Dutch.
Holland aka The Netherlands
official tourist website: http://www.holland.com/global/tourism.htm
official tourist website: http://www.holland.com/global/tourism.htm
TRAVEL TIPS:
- Watch out for bikes. They are everywhere.
- Watch out for bikes. They are everywhere.
- Dutch is sort of like German. If you don't know any German, they are very helpful and speak English.
- Did I mention about the bikes?
- Did I mention about the bikes?
