More Fun than you can shake a stick at......

Hey guys,

So much has happened since I last wrote that I don't even know where to start!
But I'll try from where I left off. The Jungle Animal party that we had went off I have some cracker photo's from that night. Everyone got into the swing of things with plenty of thanks going out to the girls working hard in the sweatshop producing ears, tails, manes and the like.
One of the guys on tour (the guy that drunk 9 black absinthes and 20 odd bundys and cokes, Jase you know who you are) went round the world which in 28 seconds which is basically 20 shots from around the world and walked himself to bed unlike the guy from the other tour that got carried home by his tourmates.

The next morning we left Lauterbrunen, Switzerland. Its a little out of the way but boy was it worth it. Imagine if you a will a village like atmostphere with a camping ground in the valley surrounded by the swiss alps. With Eiger in the background and waterfalls running of the cliffs every 50 -100m. I went on the highest cog railway to the top of the Jungfrau mountain passing through the Eiger and wandered round the observation decks there for a good couple of hours. A few of the guys on tour had never seen snow before and had purchased these plastic plate looking things that had handles so you could sit on them and slide down the hill a little bit.
The two nights spent in Lauterbrunen were spent at a bar called the Bomb Shelter. I'll tell you now it got pretty messy. I ended up playing drinking foosball for about 2 hours and pretty much drunk every goal. I went to the bar after finally getting knocked off the table and proceeded to do a few more torpedoes which impressed the bar maid and a couple of the Contiki reps there. I followed up with a good second innings the following night and due to the previous nights effort and the fact that I had made it back to the bar I got a few freebies.

The next morning we packed up the bus again for a travel day (read recovery) back into Germany with a few site seeing stops on the way. We did our drive through Lichenstein where the hi light for a lot of the group was getting there passport stamped there for 2 Euro. We had to leave in a hurry due to the riots and lynch mobs forming as I caused a mass downturn in the local economy by not getting my passport stamped. We stopped In Heidelburg where I checked out the castle there which was pretty cool although somewhat of a hike to get to but the view was great. I quite liked Heidelburg it was quite picturesque and managed to get a few good pics. we arrived in St Goar, Germany for what was called our sleep stop before the big bash in Amsterdam (aka The Dam or The Damage) . St Goar is by the Rhine so it was pretty cool to see all the old castle / toll places. We had to go to this beer stein factory and have a look. I left as soon as I could as I could see myself going to pick something up and dropping it. Although I did have to go back in the store when one of the americans on tour came and told me he found an Operation Iraqi Freedom stein. We had a good chuckle. Also I went over and had a look at the Steir Bear shop for Alexis which was pretty crazy. Alexis you need to make those kind of bears they were going for minimum 100 Euro.

After going to bed early and feeling well rested, actually thats a lie, my body didn't really appreciate a proper nights sleep and the previous 35 odd days worth of damage seemed to catch up on me we left for Amsterdam. On the way we stopped in Edam for cheese tasting, a clog demonstration and to ride a bike on a dike ( I almost called this post Ride a Dike on a Bike). Anyway we went for a leisurely ride round Edam over some dikes and canals on an omarfitz, a granny bike. We all wished the ride had gone on for longer it was such a fun, cruisy day. After we finished there we went off for some demonstrations and finally made it into the dam. Later that night after I had my first steak in some 6 odd weeks the majority of the group went to experience the cultural side of amsterdam. As soon as i put my name down on the sheet I was regretting it! We went to this live sex show which was pretty funny. Some of it was like aerobic / dance porn and then they had some real fat guys up there as well. The highlight of the evening was defintely the audience participation which i won't go into here but remind me to tell you. And yep I did have to get on stage but i got off lightly (no pun intended, jeez you guys are filthy).
After the show we wandered round the red light district which really does bring a new meaning to the phrase window shopping. I can't really put into words what its like but there was definately some culture shock for me and a lot of the other people on tour. We went to the Grasshopper after that were a lot of the guys had a medicinal smoke, I ended up watching the Argentinians getting robbed by the Lions before returning to see the aftermath of decriminalised marijuana. One guy got carried home and the other whose 21st it was spewed on the balcony at the Grasshopper and me being the good sort that i am took a little bit of his eyebrow for his trouble and to celebrate his birthday.

The next day I went to Anne Franks House after pedalling my ass off on a canal bike. Having had a near miss with a Canal ferry. God knows how I do it? It's not like the canals are that big that you can't see them, perhaps I was too busy taking in the sights or something. If you ever get a chance to go to Anne Franks House you should, its one of the most well made museum / monuments that I have ever seen. I bought a copy of the diary to read afterwards as I'd never read it and had to know more after wandering through the exhibits.

Our last night in Amsterdam we had pre dinner drinks on the canal, where a lot of people took the opportunity to get last minute photos of each other. We had dinner on a floating Chinese pagoda restaurant which seemed rather fixed to me. Anyway a lot of people really enjoyed the meal it just made me crave Shanghai. Our tour manager got up and made a speech about what a great group we were which set a bunch of the girls off crying. After dinner more drinks and smoke were had at the grasshopper before we all returned home for the night.

The last day on tour was a complete contrast to the first. The bus was dead silent as everyone was pondering bout the previous 36. We lost 3 Canadians and an American at the airport in Amsterdam which set all the girls on the bus off even the ones that weren't that close to them.
When we arrived back in London a few more goodbyes were said and a few more tears were shed. The survivors all skulked off to the pub for one last hurrah and a few drinks later slowly everyone started to leave. The few harcore and mainly the No More Sober Nights Pact were left and we were the ones that found it hardest to go to bed as nobody wanted to say goodbye. Its funny i'd read travelogues where people had said that the girls had had a cry and thought how bloody stupid but when you've been on the road that long and in such close confines and have made so many new good mates you do feel a little sad. For the record I didn't have a cry because real men don't cry but at the same time I really wanted to stay in London as so many of my good mates were staying on.

This morning felt a little lost as I wasn't sure what to do but hey....

Anyway more adventures to come when Tintin goes to America so stay tuned and make sure you email!

See ya
Matt