The mere mention of a weekend in Amsterdam always results in your fellow workers nudging, winking and discussing the possibility that you could in fact be a sex-crazed, drug addict. Of course you do nothing to allay their fears and I always take the opportunity to mention the fact that our chosen hotel has a waterbed, a jacuzzi and.....oh yes, a wonderful canal view. :-)

Upon arrival at Schipol airport you can be excused for thinking you had landed in the middle of a city....the urge to shop in the airport is quite overwhelming, but curb that urge and make your way to the ticket office (return ticket to Amsterdam around £7) and then to the railway terminal, underneath the airport. The double-decker trains are quite a novelty and run every 20 minutes. After a 30 minute journey you arrive in what can only be decribed as bike city. The number of bikes parked outside the station has to be seen to be believed.

We visit Amsterdam on a fairly regular basis and always stay at the Hotel Maas, very centrally located. This hotel charges around £120 pn per room. You can have much cheaper accommodation but should remember that you really do get what you pay for and hotel grading is
somewhat below that in the UK, It really is worth paying a little extra... We always book far in advance to ensure that we have the room with the waterbed and jacuzzi...forget the canal view because almost every hotel room has one:-).

Historically, this city cannot be beaten. The museums are breath-taking, the buildings alone are spectacular and the works of art contained therein are beyond description. The Dutch townhouse itself is quite a feat of engineering, 3-4 storeys high, narrow but very long. Most of the hotels are housed in such a building and you can easily get lost in a warren of corridors and stairways. One such house not to be missed, regardless of queues is Anne Frank's house. There is a very strange and oppressive feeling as you climb the stairs and re-live the fear and horror of the family. It is quite sobering and life really does take on a new meaning after this visit.

Food is so varied that I could not begin to list the variety. Most hotels provide a very adequate breakfast consisting of bread, cakes, cold meats, cheese and eggs together with cereals, toast, tea and coffee. We always ate so much at breakfast that lunch was never really necessary. Eating out costs roughly the same as the UK but the food is so much nicer, fresher and somewhat more healthy.

Oh yes.....the naughty bit......well, that's the part you don't tell your work colleagues on Monday morning:-). You cannot go to this city and not visit the red light district. What you do when you are there is entirely up to you...lol but you have plenty of choice. I was initially wary of going, thinking it would be full of men leering at ladies in windows but it was nothing like that at all. It is a genuine tourist attraction and we noticed more couples wandering around than single men. Oh the men still leered at the ladies in windows but it was such an unusual and interesting place that no-one seemed to mind. Offers of sex shows and strip shows are in abundance and you can take or leave it, although it has to be said that most of the customers appeared to be couples.

I cannot explain the magic of Amsterdam but I have never known anyone go there only once. Wandering aimlessly for hours at a time, off in tangents, stopping for a beer and setting off again over the canal and on to wherever is an absolute joy......and having a jacuzzi to come back to at the end of the day......that is luxury .....still being in the jacuzzi three hours later...that is well, whatever you want it to be...lol.