Travel Destination
Guest Post by Hannah Copues
I must admit, I never pictured myself enjoying a city break in Prague. Paris, Rome, New York, Istanbul, even local London would be on the top of my list any day, certainly not the Czech Republic’s capital. However, after being forced by a friend to spend a long weekend in Prague, I left with only amazing and fun memories of the city. The truth is there is far too much to see and do in Prague. Where do you start? Castles, museums, stunning architecture, the historical Jewish quarter, restaurants, fabulous shops and not to mention an insane nightlife, all make this place well worth a visit.
Our first day in Prague involved a lengthy trail of all the cultural sights and delights. A trip to the city would be incomplete without witnessing the hourly movement of the world-famous Astronomical Clock. Situated in the Old Town square this amazing clock was built in 1410 and attracts thousands of tourists each year. So much for wear and tear! A trip to Prague castle was next on the agenda. As one of the biggest castles in the world, this historical site certainly doesn’t disappoint. The history of the castle stretches all the way back to the 9th century and boasts impressive, Gothic architecture. If you simply can’t get enough of Gothic features then head to the Old New Synagogue in Josefov. Built in 1270, it is one of Prague’s first Gothic buildings.
Enough culture. Where should you eat in Prague? The Kolkovna restaurant is a favourite amongst locals and serves traditional, Czech cuisine. For a true, sophisticated afternoon tea overlooking the Astronomical clock, the Grand Café Praha is the place to be. Just don’t get too carried away with all the delightful cakes! Perhaps a weekend shopping is break is what you are after. Prague certainly delivers on this front. Since the 1990’s the city has drastically improved its retail and shopping environment, with far more on sale than ever before. ‘Obsession’ is one of many beautiful boutiques situated in the Old Town. Luxurious (and slightly pricey) it is hard to walk out of here empty handed. For an abundance of shops at your finger tips, head to the Solvansky Dum shopping complex in the New Town.
What better way to round off a trip in Prague than with a memorable night out? The Duplex Club and Café provided the perfect end to our visit. Right in the centre of Wenceslas Square with incredible music and reasonably priced drinks, this club certainly didn’t disappoint. The Bombay Bar and Music Club in the Old Town is also a must and serves delicious cocktails in a lively environment. Just don’t get too wild, you have a flight to catch in the morning… 
– Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog
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One of the most exciting destination in my Europe travel last year, Amsterdam has actually a lot more on offer than its famous red light district. It was the last city to be included into my last Spring Europe travel itinerary. We went there merely for the blooming season of tulips in the nearby city of Lisse and Amsterdam was actually our starting base for the day trip. But after 1 day 1 night we spent in this capital city of Netherland, I personally felt that we should have stayed at least 3 days in Amsterdam. Why? Please read on…
Still remember when I talked about the fast and comfortable Thalys train that took us to Amsterdam from Paris in 3 hours? It was really a fantastic start of our Amsterdam travel. We left Paris at 8AM and reached Amsterdam’s Central Station at 11AM. It was a lovely sunny day in Amsterdam with temperature in the region of 12-15°C, which was perfect for tulips viewing.
Don’t be fooled by the rainy scene in above photo which was actually taken on the next morning when we were about to leave Amsterdam. I cut and pasted here merely to show what you would see once you step out of the station. We were in quite a hurry to leave the station since our day trip to Keukenhof Tulips garden departs at 1:30PM, so we needed to check into our apartment in Nieuwendijk area fairly quickly and come back out again to Damrak, albeit not very far away from each other. This is how I normally book my accommodation on travel, just to make sure we stay near to where we arrive at, or where we depart from.
This is another photo being cut and pasted here from what I took in the next rainy morning. This is the Nieuwendijk area or the famous shopping street in Amsterdam city centre. We came here to check in but soon realised our apartment was in another place! Fortunately, it was not too far away in Red Light District, minutes away from Damrak street.
In fact, out of my expectation, our apartment exact location was even better with a very nice view to the canal, next to the red light district. Facing us, the cafes across the canal, are actually 2 of the famous smoking coffee shops for tourists and celebrities called Green House and City Hall. Don’t be confused with cafes selling coffees and cakes, coffee shops in Amsterdam are meant for those smoking joints selling soft drugs such as grass, cannabis or marijuana, choose from a menu! Under Dutch drug law, coffee shops are allowed to sell a maximum of 5g of cannabis per person to their customers. OMG!
As you can see from the above photo, our rented apartment is just above the another famous smoking bar, Rock Planet, on the 1st floor of the building in Oudezijds Voorburgwal 246. I didn’t shoot any photos inside the apartment but what I can say the apartment is brilliant for the money with fully equipped kitchen and 3 large and clean rooms. We hoped we could stay there for more nights!
We didn’t stay long in the apartment as we were catching our next bus to Keukenhof Tulips garden. We walked back to Damstraat. The streets were so busy with tourists and there are many shops and restaurants along the streets. Watch out also those bicycles on the road!
After the long Winter time, people are rushing out for the sunshine in Spring.
From Damstraat we came to the National Monument square. I was kind of excited when I saw the monument. According to my maps in hand, Royal Palace of Amsterdam is right behind the monument at the Dam Square. I grabbed my camera and walked quickly trying to snap this gorgeous architecture! Hold on a second. Where is the palace? Oh my god! What happened to it?
The Royal Palace was covered! It was still under renovation! 
Disappointingly, I snapped the surrounding feature in the Dam Square instead…. Luckily, they are equally interesting!
Then I found this guy, playing around a wooden long horn, the same musical instrument I saw in Eumundi market in Sunshine coast.
This was classic! A tree man who only moved and played around a crystal ball in his arms when coins being dropped into his bowl by any donor. When he stopped, the crystal ball stayed on his arm!
On top of bicycles, we had to watch out trams passing by also. Look at these tram tracks on the main road of Damrak…
Damrak is the main road of Amsterdam to connect its Central rail station to Amsterdam city centre. All kinds of transportation use this road… including this No.113 ‘motorcar’!?
There is also wide pedestrian avenue along the Damrak, with restaurants, hotels, cinemas and casinos operating here.
One of the local snacks in Amsterdam is this special frites, french fries with mayonnaise topping. Look at the crowds! Let’s try it ladies!
Souvenir shops can be found here also! What would you buy from Netherland as a gift to your girlfriends? A pair of clogs or wooden shoes apparently.
What about a gift for your boyfriends? Let’s try to carry one of these cheese home! Don’t quote me on this if your customs stop you.
Lindbergh travel agency was our Day Trip organiser to Keukenhof Tulips Garden. All of us joined the trip so there are 5 boarding passes in my hand.
Once on board, the tour guide also distributed our entrance tickets to the garden. €14 per adult.
After about an hour, we reached the small town of Lisse where is the centre of tulip flowers cultivation. Tulip fields could be seen everywhere. Dutch really likes to cycle… same with Danish I heard. So I will sure rent a bicycle in Copenhagen this coming May!
This is our excursion coach of Linderburgh. We spent 2 and a half hours in the garden.
A beautiful tulips garden must not be missed if you are visiting Netherland in spring between March and May. This is when the tulips blooming. I have written a separate and dedicated post on Keukenhof Tulips Garden and another post featuring many more photos in the tulips garden.
The coach sent us back to Damrak after the day trip in the evening. We strolled back to Dam Square for our dinner. No, sorry, we didn’t dine out in Amsterdam. We have been told by the hostel receptionist that there is a supermarket around Dam Square where we could get some stuffs back to cook ourselves dinner.
We followed the same way back along Damrak but this time we were at the opposite side, so I could snap some photos on those slanting and tilted buildings beside canals as seen above.
There was another Vlaamse Frites kiosk in Damrak. It was equally crowded as the one called Manneken Pis frites we tried earlier. They really like fries!
So there we reached Dam Square again. It was this ambitious street performer singing in the square. He even has his own recorded album CDs!
Have you been to Madame Tussaud, the world’s renown wax museum? Originally in Marylebone Road, London, Madame Tussaud can also be found in Hong Kong and here in Dam Square, Amsterdam, as seen above.
And the supermarket we were looking for is just behind it. It is called the Albert Heijn supermarket. I forgot to take some photos inside as we were too busy hunting for our dinner’s ingredients! Price is cheap and with full varieties. We bought pastas, steaks, minced meat, frozen pizzas, and even chilled fired rice! Oh gosh! We missed fried rice! We then went back to cook in our apartment and had our great time chatting, watching TV and I was checking emails for the first time since I was away from home a week ago.
When night drew in, we went out again. Where else to go? We headed down to the next street, where the Red Light District is! Famous for its sex orientated businesses, Red Light District has so many shops along both sides of the canal including sex shops, adult cinemas, brothels, restaurants, gay bars, sex museum and off course those red colour lit windows. Prostitution is legal in Amsterdam. Sexy prostitutes in eye-popping underwear posing behind those red colour lit windows to attract customers. Whoever interested may approach them to negotiate price. Once agreed, he may walk in for the ‘business’.
If compared to what I had seen 13 years ago when I first came here, those girls behind the windows now are much, much more sexy and attractive, and there are now less girls from Indonesian or Thailand… an eye-popping experience. Don’t let Jean reads this please…
Taking photos to those red lit windows is prohibited. So I didn’t take the risk and no photos could be shared here. I took the surrounding scenes instead… Frankly speaking, this looks like a church, but I’m not sure if it is a church. Just like the colour combination of the scene and took this photo.
Crowds started drawing in later at night. There are many pubs and hotels in this alleyway next to the canal.
Kebab house could also be found here. Not to mention those ‘coffee shops’!
>> Click HERE to view all photos in full resolution via Flickr
Sorry, we didn’t give any business to those sexy girls, but we did enjoy our ‘night excursion’ in the Red Light District. After all, we went back to where we stayed and had a few pints at Rock Planet downstair. They played really good rock songs from our age such as ACDC and Guns n Roses! A great night out in Amsterdam!
In the next morning, we woke up to have our own breakfast. We spent times in the apartment until check out. At noon, we left Amsterdam for its Schiphol airport. from Amsterdam, we were going to fly to Venice! Until next time… – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog
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If you want to know more about the travel stories and facts of the garden, check out my Keukenhof Tulips Garden travel Part 1 and also The Reason why you should visit Keukenhof. Or if you haven’t plan anything for this year yet, check out Travel tips on why you should start planning your next [...]
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