Wining and Dining our way around Europe - Amsterdam, Dublin and London edition

Hi Steemers! Thanks for stopping by again :)

This next edition starts with us travelling from Berlin to Amsterdam. In case you missed my last post you can read it here..

https://steemit.com/travelfeed/@terrybogan/wining-and-dining-our-way-around-europe-munich-prague-berlin-edition

So we now have a 6 and half hour train ride ahead of us, which is one of the longest so far. As we pass through the German countryside, that is mostly blanketed by snow, we try and catch up on some sleep.

Arrive in Amsterdam at 5pm and walk to our Airbnb houseboat that is moored in a canal not far from the station. Since we only had snacks on board the train we are ravenous, find a restaurant near by and have a bottle of wine with our early bird dinner.

Once we have quenched our thirst and tamed our hunger we can now start exploring. Walk to the area of Jordaan and check out all the trendy shops and cute houses lining the streets.

Find a cool lil sports bar where we spent most of the night drinking wine, playing pool and taking silly pics.

It's all fun and games until someone (me) decides to pose on the pool table ... since I'm quite tipsy I fall from the table and in the process snap a pool cue in half! Lucky for us we are the only people in the downstairs pool room so we quickly finish our drinks and hide the broken cue at the back and come across another broken cue!.. not sure if that one was broken the same way as ours though 🤔... We go upstairs and as we are waiting to pay our bill we see surveilance cameras from the pool room just above the register, facing the bar... there is a good chance most of the people in the bar witnessed our silly antics and pool cue breaking falls! We quickly pay our bill, leaving a generous tip and head back to our houseboat as we think we have caused enough mischief for one night.

Have a slow start to the day as we are meeting up with Michelle's parents and younger siblings at noon. Spend the day with them walking the streets and canals, checking out the sights, stop for lunch and do some shopping along the way. It's been a good day and a good way for us to get our bearings for when we go out later. After we say our goodbyes we head back to our boat to get ready for the evening, since we had a late lunch, we have a cheese platter and bottle of wine for dinner. After our dutch cheese fix we go about ticking off another traditional Amsterdam experience... "coffee shops"
Just one of the "coffee shops"

We go to the closest one and are quite surprised to find out that although you can smoke in these cafes you can't always drink alcohol at them!.. In most of the cafes they only sell non alcoholic beverages with coffee being the most popular choice - hence the name coffee shops! Good thing we saw lots of them on our walk around so we just keep going until we find one that is a bar aswell - Stones cafe. As we are ordering a bottle of wine and enquiring bout the wacky tabacky, we are told they don't sell any!.. Apparently it is BYO, they tell us to go to the Bulldog as they do take away.. there we get some joints and space cake and then return back to Stones to finally enjoy them along with our vino!

We were warned not to overindulge as the weed is alot stronger than what we are probably used too and that if eaten it takes longer to hit you... Michelle smokes the joint, with me only having a few puffs, as I'm eating the space cake. It is like a chocolate cake/muffin and isn't very big so despite the warning I decide to go for it and eat it all at once! Doesn't take long to eat so now I just have to wait til it kicks in....

Michelle on the other hand feels it straight away and is starting to get paranoid as we kept getting randoms coming up and talking to us. Spend the next hour or so drinking more wine reassuring her that people are just talking to us cos they are drunk and or stoned, not because they want to kidnap us ala the movie Taken. I start to feel the space cake and all of sudden all the paranoia Michelle was feeling hit me too, just as that was happening we got given free shots from the bartender. This now convinces us that everyone is out to get us so we down our shots, skull our wine, gather up our things and get the hell outta there!

Once outside in the cold, crisp air we snap out of our paranoid delusion and laugh ourselves all the way to another bar a few streets away.

Wake up the next morning feeling like we had a big night. Vague recollections of other bars come to mind but the walk home and entering of the houseboat elude us both and we are dumbfounded as to how neither of us ended up in the freezing canal - as the entry to the boat is narrow, steep and not fenced off aswell as having a temperamental lock that we can barely open whilst sober!

Pull ourselves together enough to go and get some brunch. The food helps alot so decide to do something educational with a visit to the Sex Muesum... defintely saw some things and is interesting to say the least!

Head back to have naps before having dinner in Jordaan, followed by a canal cruise to see the light festival which only runs from November to January. Cruise goes for an hour and a half, get to see lots of cool light installations along the river bank, across bridges and some even out in the main harbour and waterway.

After viewing all the pretty lights of the festival, it's time to see some different kind of lights... the Red light Distict 🚨

Walk past all the "windows" and eventually succomb to the hustle of seeing a sex show. Buy our tickets and wait in line for the next viewing. Apparently there are 10 acts/shows that are on constant repeat all night, the show starts on the hour allowing new guests in but if your voyeuristic self wants to stay for another round you are welcome to do so.

Two drink tickets are included in your entry so when the doors open we get our two wines and take a red velvet seat in an old school looking theatre and wait for the show to start.

The shows are all different and range from strip tease and burlesque acts to full on sex shows between guy/girl and girl/girl. Once the 10 shows are done, we don't feel the need to hang around and see them again as that was enough voyerism for one night, so head home instead.

Have a bit of a sleep in then get some breakfast, buy train tickets to the airport and send some stuff back home by post. Our internal flights only allow 20kgs and since we have been shopping up a storm we defintely need to unload some extra weight. Catch a train to the airport, only to realise we have missed our flight!! We were relying on a travel app from the travel agent but unbeknowst to us when it is not connected to wifi it just changes your times/dates of flights etc! This is SO unhelpful and inconvienent when travelling but right now we have to get to Dublin, so have to pay €250each to catch the next flight... Take screenshots of all the incorrect information given on the app and will deal with the travel agent later!

On our flight to Dublin it is decided that once we arrive we were going to get wasted!.. Despite the fact of this happening unintentionally every other night, this will be an intentional get wasted celebration of us overcoming our travel hiccup and getting on with our holiday 🍷🍻🍷

Catch the bus to our hotel which is just off O'Connell St, the main throughfare of Dublin. Check in, drop our bags off and then it's time to get wasted.

Start the evening off at Murray's for a hearty Irish meal and cider, then play pool in the outside area... no silly antics this time as the place is packed and the whole outside area is made up of the outside of 3 other pubs/clubs. After we are done with pool we go to the next pub which is like a giant drinking hall with lots of long tables and seems to be full of backpackers. We have one drink here but we weren't digging the music or the vibe so move on to the 3rd place. We like this place instantly everything from the name - Fibbers McGee, the crowd - not as young or annoying, and the music - 80/90s rock and metal 🤘!!

Stay here til it closes, where they move us into the 4th bar. We were only going to stay here for one drink but then we befriended a group of brazilians and discovered the bar had 20+ flavoured vodkas!... we try quite a few types but decide the fairy floss flavour was the best so stick with that until somehow Michelle navigates us back to our hotel in the wee hours.

Wake up around lunchtime but it takes a couple more hours for us to get it together before we can head out and see this lively city. It's a bit chilly today so we grab some hot chocolates and start exploring. Walk past lots of cool dive bars and cute Irish pubs and for the first time in our 14 days away, the idea of alcohol is not at all appealing so stick to wandering the streets.

Mellows bridge over the river Liffey

As night starts to fall we find a pub called Parnell's, have dinner here and our first drink free night. After dinner walk around a bit more before going back to the hotel for an early night as we have a big day tomorrow.

The rugged Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty castle and the rocky Burren are the reason we are up at a sparrows fart. We meet our tour group at the train station and board our 6.30am train to Limerick. Get a city tour while learning of its viking heritage before driving out to Bunratty castle. Once we arrive in Bunratty village the castle is its centrepoint, with historical type houses and farms surrounding it.

Walk around the village and into Ireland's must complete medieval fortress. Once inside we see where they hold the nightly banquets and walk up the winding stairs to the top of the castle.

Then it's on to Gus O'Connors pub for lunch before arriving at the Cliffs of Moher. It's super windy and cold, walk as far as we can but considering these amazing cliff faces go for 14km we know we aren't going to see the whole length so just appreciate what is in front of us.

Spend a good hour exploring before piling back into our bus to head to the Burren - a glaciated karst landscape that looks like you are on another planet.

Make good time and arrive in Galway with time for a drink at the Galway pub before catching our train back to Dublin. Finally arrive back at our hotel around 10.30pm... 'twas a long day!

Have a bit of a sleep in, get some Maccas for breakfast and then do some shopping. Drop our shopping off and opt not to pack our stuff as we are planning on having a night in at the hotel after going to the Guinness factory tour.

Learn about how it is made and the family behind the brand, the tour was way better than what we were expecting and alot of fun.

Get taught how to pour a pint the proper way and get to sample it after- not a fan though haha

As we are walking back we stop for lunch at a lil pub that is offering soup and toasties specials. This place is definitely a locals place that probably doesn't get many tourists, they don't seem overly welcoming but we stay anyway. While here we decide to go to the Mercantile which was one of the places recommended by the brazilians.

Have a drink here but then decide since it's still early we should also check out Temple bar since that also came highly recommended. Once we arrive we can see why everyone raves about it.. place is packed and has a great atmosphere. Stay for quite a few drinks and the place keeps getting more packed so decide to try find another place that was apparently worth a visit.

Leave in search of this rooftop bar with the map given to us by the brazilians.. none of them could remember the name or the exact location but they marked the area out on the map and said you can't miss it. So there we are looking for this mysterious bar, it is now about 6pm(ish) and is already dark. Walk a few blocks and according to the map the bar should be around here but we don't see anything like how they described.

It's starting to rain and we both need to pee real bad. We give it to the next block and if it's not there we will cross the bridge, back to our hotel side and go use the bathroom at the place that has a red door. As we approch the end of the block it is apparent there is still no bar so over the bridge we go. As we get closer we can see the red door is the entrance to The Chancery Inn, it's starting to rain heavier so hurry inside.

We make quite the entrance and can tell straight away this is another locals pub - everyone is staring. Quickly try to find the bathroom and despite wanting to leave straight away we buy a drink instead as to not look rude. We are served by a surly bartender and hide in the corner, near a jukebox with our ciders. Try and ignore the staring bartenders and patrons while finishing our drinks.

When we have drunk half our ciders, two baby guinness shots are brought over by the surly bartender. He tells us they are courtesy of the manager and the guy at the end of the bar gives us a nod, we say thanks, do a lil nod back and continue finishing our drinks. Just as we are about to finish our last mouthfull, surly is back with another round of ciders and shots for us, compliments again from the manager.

When this round of drinks are nearly finished, the manager comes over bringing another round along with him. He introduces himself as Dennis, he is from Russia. Once our drinks are nearly done he calls the bartender- despite the bar only being 2 metres away and orders another round that surly brings over.

This happens a few more times and we take turns putting on songs on the jukebox. We stay until the inn closes and then Dennis takes us to another club he manages, after a couple of drinks here his bartender mate knocks off so now we all go to yet another club that he manages.

We are well sauced by now and do a runner from Dennis and his mate, not sure how/why our drunken selves thought to do this but it was probably either because it was now super late... or because there was a woman who had a problem with Michelle... or if we were ever going to be in Taken type situation it would be now with Russian Dennis!

Anyway somehow we make it home at who knows what time and next thing I'm waking up at 11.50am... our flight leaves at 1.30pm, none of our stuff is packed...."Michelle! You need to get up NOW!!" Run around frantically chucking everything into our suitcase while calling reception to call us a cab, literally fall out the door with our cases and hurry downstairs thankfully a cab is already waiting.

Anxious cab ride to the airport as we stress about the fact we are probably going to miss our 2nd flight of the trip. Run to the checkin counter and we're in luck... it's still open! Lady behind the counter must of taken one look at us and known we were in state so doesn't hassle us about our overweight bags. Rush to security and there aren't many people so pass through fairly quickly and arrive at the gate just as they announce they are starting to board.. Phew!..That was close.

Flight to London is just over an hour. We realise we are both still drunk and can't believe we managed to make our international flight in the time we did!

Once arriving in London the plan was to catch the train but since we hadn't reseached that the night before we try catch a cab. The price quoted for own cab was ridiculous!... we were told we could share a cab with one drop off point to a main train station. We are grouped with another two people and our cab will drop us off at Victoria station.

The ride takes forever... no wonder it was going to be so expensive! After more than two hours we finally arrive. Once here, we have no idea where our hotel is and after walking around in circles, we give up and hail another cab that takes us directly there.

After the bellhop struggles with our large, heavy cases up the very narrow staircase of the Hyde Park boutique hotel, we head straight out for dinner. Only have to walk to the end of the street before we come across a quaint little pub called the Leinster Arms.

When we see the Sunday roast on the menu complete with Yorkshire Pudding and it being an actual Sunday - we know we have to get one.

Roast is delicious and puts us in an instant food coma fortunately we don't have far to go to get back to our hotel. Rest of the night is spent chilling in our room - no drinking for us tonight!

Wake up feeling refreshed... the drunkeness and hangover of yesterday are now a distant memory... now it's time to explore. Have to pick up our London passes which we go via Oxford Street, doing some shopping on the way. Collect our passes, book tickets to see Billy Elliott instead of the Lion King cos the guy raved about it so bloody much. Check out some museum, art galleries and Trafalgar square then lunch on our way down to Buckingham Palace. While walking back from the palace we see lots of cute little squirrels running around. Two particularly cheeky ones are chasing each other round the tree and I decide to get closer for a better look... while one is keeping me distracted the other comes from behind and runs up my arm!

Meet up with my friend Christine in Convent Garden, walk to Soho where we have dinner and drinks. Michelle and I top it off with a couple of nightcaps at our hotel bar.

On today's agenda we are catching the hop on/off bus for bulk sightseeing potential. Traffic is so bad though by the time we get to the Tower of London we have already wasted over an hour out of our day.

See medieval torture devices, old armours, the crown jewels and the six ravens that are believed to protect the crown. If any of these ravens were lost or to fly away it was said that the crown would fall with it.

Now it's on to the tower bridge, catch a lift to the top, walk acoss its glass walkway above the traffic and a tour to see how it all works.

Next is the HMS Belfast - the most significant surviving warship from the 2nd world war. Explore all 9 of the decks while trying to imagine what it really would of been like to be on this ship back in the war. Starting to get dark, so take a token Titanic shot before heading back to get ready for our show on Broadway.

Well Billy Elliott lived up to the hype of the guy raving bout it at the London Pass office.... we laughed, we cried... it was great.

Since we are staying right near Hyde Park we figure we should check it out, stroll through making our way to Kensingtin Palace. Stop and admire all the swans in the lake before visiting Princess Diana's former home.

Kensington Palace

Visit her memorial fountain aswell then make our way to Westminister Pier to catch a loop ferry to Greenwich. Drink Proseccos while enjoying the view once back on land catch a train to Christine's place to have a farewell dinnner for one of her friends.

Dinner turns into a late night bender, starting at Mitre down the road and ending up at a Notting hill penthouse with an unexpected visit from an old friend... Charlie.

As soon as we enter our hotel around 5am, we are told to "Keep it down".. Stumble up our narrow staircase probably not very quietly, pass out as soon as we get into our room. Wake up around 1.30pm... so much for the big plans for today - the zoo, Camden and Shoreditch. Get ourselves together for a very late brunch, make it to Camden do some shopping, then return to the hotel.

Have dinner with Michelle's friend, Michelle at the Swan before retiring at our hotel to pack and chill the f@#$ out. This is our 3rd non drinking night.

Sleep in as this is the most organised transit day of the whole trip. Have breakfast and catch a cab to St Pancras train station. It is weird for us to arrive early, with our bags packed properly not stressing about missing our train/plane! Have time to get snacks, check out the shops before our 1.30pm Eurostar to Paris!!!

If you are still reading, hope you enjoyed this saga.... promise the next edition won't be as long - Paris, Frankfurt, Rothenburg ✌