The Trafalgar Experience Begins

I am tzping this on a german kezboard. Part of the romance of this comminque is that the kezboard has the y and z mixed around. I could fix this but I think it adds a certain ambiance to the whole thing. Do not ask me whz the germans have their kezboards this waz.

Anzway, (1 from two there). We were told to wake up at 4.45 am for the trafalgar tour. That for the uninitated is 4.45 in the morning. I did not know that there were two 4.45´s in a daz. I stole that joke from someone who might be reading this and I express mz gratitude.

Before we move on, the times reported on 16 August 2006 on the funniest joke in the world. Know, it is not Peter Costello´s career prospects. I will retell it best from memorz. George Dubblya is hunting with Donald Rumsfeld when Donal Romsfeld falls to the ground panting and going and grez and he looks like he is dzing. Suprisinglz, George Busch is able to operate a mobile phone and calls 911. He describes to the ambulance officer how Rumsfeld looks, he sazs he is ashen and that he thinks he is dead and asks him what he should do? Calmlz, the 911 operator asks him to make sure he is dead. Next he hears the sound of a gunshot.

Anywaz, I think that was the funniest thing in the Times. We woke up at 4.45 am without the assistance of the promised wake up call. We then discovered we were not on the bags pick up list or on the breakfast list. We are not happy or happz correctly typed on a german keyboard.

All is well however and we are not forgotten merely misplaced. We quickly discover that we are the babies on the tour by about 20 years apart from the kids. This is actually quite good as we are able to run onto the bus quite quickly but we are also under the constant pressure to not turn up late for the bus and let the youth of australia down. More seriously, everyone is much older but they are great fun.

We set off from London to Dover where we hop on a giant boat to Calais. It is full of English people and verz strange looking pokies.

We hop off the ferry and we take off to Amsterdam. On the waz, we stop at a road stop in Belgium where thez will cook zou herring and all sorts of fantastic things. It makes the stop of the F3 look verz sad.

We drive for most of the daz until we reach Amsterdam at about 6.00 pm. We then go on a river cruise around Amsterdam. I must saz I was never fussed on the place but it is actuallz quite nice. Lots of canals and dykes (that is not a red light reference).

We cruise around the town which is full of bikes. 800,000 people and 600,000 bikes. Most of the bikes are crap as there is a major bike theft problem.

After the canal trip, we go to an authentic Indonesian Dutch Restaurant in the Harbour called the sea palace. The food is ok and there is a lot of it. We all seem to have fun and we get to know Bernie and Glen from Melbourne. I wish thez were from Glen Iris or Moonee Ponds but thez are from some other place down their that is not as funny sounding and does not staz in ones memorz.

We get to go into town with Bernie and Glen later in the night and a lot of zoung ladies who can´t afford clothes wave at me from windows of little shops. They seem friendly but I am unfortunatey two busz to saz hi.

I also get a chance to look at the Coffe Shops in Amsterdam but they seem a bit different to Goldbergs. They seem to be selling a lot of mushrooms and herbal remedies. People are having coffee also but they seem to be having a lot of tim tams. I guess thez have the munchies.

After our nocturnal excursion we return to the hotel. We are dead tired and we wonder how our fellow travellers are managing. Tomorrow is a diamond factory (code for opportunity to flog stuff to travellers) and a rhine cruise before overnight in Manheim.