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| A determined Erin emerges from Amsterdam Centraal Station. |
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| Despite the fact that it rains more than 300 days of the year, we had prime weather most days. |
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| Serenading the Night Watch in Rembrandt Square. |
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| This boatload of frat boys was cruising along to some tunes at 7 km/hr - the max speed allowed on the canals. |
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| Amsterdam's many alleyways are home to endless shops, cafes and pubs. |
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| The preferred mode of transport is of course the bicycle. |
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| Dutch children learn to swim at an early age, and for good reason with all the canals and water ways. |
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| With all the water comes rats, and with the rats come shop cats. We met quite a few. |
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| North Amsterdam can be reached by ferry from Amsterdam Centraal. |
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| A 'Botel' and a decommissioned WW2 era submarine greet us at the docks. |
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| There was an odd collection of derelict machinery on the pier. |
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| Dock buildings were decorated with all sorts of stickers and graffiti. |
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| Our destination was "Noordelicht" - a well hidden cafe with a spectacular location in the industrial portlands. |
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| The main building is little more than a large greenhouse structure, but they serve gourmet food and host live music. |
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| Some fireworks erupting from the main city across the water caught us by surprise. |
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| Amsterdam is also home to a beautiful Botanical Garden. |
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| We spent a few hours exploring. |
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| Plant species collected from all over the world. |
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| Despite its graceful appearance, this guy made an awful screech has a flew into the gardens. |
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| I have never seen a Heron perch on top of a tree before, but I guess they do that... |
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| On our way out of Netherlands, we stopped at the Kroller-Muller Museum. You can explore more than 5,500 hectares of parkland on the free bicycles provided to guests. |
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| For some reason each of the 1,800 bicycles they have comes equipped with a child seat. |
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| In addition to boasting the second largest collection of orginal Van Gogh in the world, the Kroller-Muller museum is also home to a sculpture park. This image was taken from an abstract view of one the the many installations. |
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| This "Hunting Lodge" was originally used by the wealthy couple who opened the museum. |
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| Despite being well passed its prime season, the garden still had plenty of colour. |
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| After one night in Hannover Germany, we made a stop in the small Medieval town of Quedlinburg. |
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| Quedlinburg hails from as early as the 9th century, and has remained largely untouched for the last few centuries. |
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| The castle and the stone are in places hard to separate. |
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| Most buildings here had the year they were built inscribed on them. |
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| Dog in the window. Photo credit: Erin Walker. |
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| We arrived in Dresden after dark. |
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| Fountain at night |
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| Dresden was obliterated by airstrikes in WW2, much of what we saw had been rebuilt since then. |
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| It's hard to tell whats old and what's new. |
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| The Elbe River flows through Dresden |
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| Our next stop is the heart of Bohemia: Prague, Czech Republic |
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| We were astonished by the depth and length of the escalators accessing the subway system. |
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| The culinary highlight of our trip: Steak Tartar, the Czech way! |
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| A busy shop |
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| Man Hanging Out by David Cerny. |
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| We made an excursion to Karlstein Castle. |
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| We spent a few hours touring the inside of the castle, where unfortunately pictures are not allowed. Apparently Doorways are OK though. |
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| On our way out of Prague, we were blindsided by an SUV driving off the sidewalk. |
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| Fortunately there were no injuries, and as we were not at fault we were back on the road with a new rental car in about six hours. This is the Audi that hit us. |
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| Despite the unexpected delay, we still made it to Cesky Krumlov that night. Photo credit: Erin Walker. |
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| Everything in this river town looked like a post card. |
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| A fountain within the royal gardens. |
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| Spectacular hedges |
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| We stayed in a hotel near here. |
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| On our way back towards Amsterdam for our flight home, we had a brief stay in Nuremberg Germany. |
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| And on our last stop before returning to Amsterdam, we checked in to Rolduc Abbey, which has opened its doors to pilgrims and travellers since the middle ages. |
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| It was a little bit spooky, but quite beautiful. |
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| It was all we hoped for, looking forward to our next adventure. |
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