- and home

via Amsterdam and Singapore. They seem to have finished renovating Amsterdam Centraal Station and it now looks nothing like the old one. Confusion. New smart card ticketing system  for trams, trains and buses. And can you easily buy a ticket?   No. We eventually asked for help and were told, 'Look, just pay the tram driver.It's easier' Being in Holland the driver speaks perfect English and being in Amsterdam he's used to helpless foreigners and is most gracious. Once we get off the tram we have no clear idea of the direction of our hotel despite me printing out Google map instructions. Enough said about them. Let's just say that the next 30 minutes were the closest we have come to parting company - ever. Thank goodness for Dutch people who speak English and are keen to sort you out and set you on your way. You just need to swalllow your pride and ask. Anyway, we eventually find our hotel, which seems ok, park our bags and go out for dinner.
I really like Amsterdam - for lots of reasons. It has beautiful streets and canals, interesting museums and art galleries etc. and at the same time it's a bit seedy. It's always been a 'place to go' but nowadays it's a cheap place to go for a weekend and the weekend we were there happened to coincide with the 'pre-going to university/college for the very first time' revellers. Mostly British but joined by enthusiastic antipodean backpackers. I'm sure they were all having a very jolly time - at least in the early part of the evening - but vomiting your way around town is unpleasant both for the person doing the puking and the rest of us who either have to dodge out of the way of the projectile spew or pick our way  around the puddles in the cobbles. It says a lot for Amsterdam that these kids all seem to get back home in more or less one piece.
By contrast Singapore, where we had a couple of days stopover on the way back to Australia, couldn't be more well behaved. I dread to think what would happen to you if you threw up in the street here, there not being one single scrap of rubbish blowing around. Alcohol is much too expensive for over indulgence and the alternative carries a death sentence so there's no evidence of that. I'm not sure if it's so clean and well behaved because of the laws or whether it's because of the 'education' of the populace. The underground (MRT) which is a safe, cheap and fabulous way to get around has little jingles that play as the trains arrive in the stations 'Train is coming, train is coming, train is coming! Start queuing, love your ride!' (queue on lines painted on the platform). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5eY43Ewh9A&NR=1
And whilst you're waiting for your train they show very graphic safety videos showing the after effects of being run over by a train which seems a little difficult to me as the train lines are behind closed doors.

Fountain in Singapore Botanic Gardens.  A far gentler way to pass on a message (below) than that employed on the MRT.

click to enlarge

Anyway, we are now back home on the Mornington Peninsula in Australia. Spring is here, the grass is chest high and apart from the birds singing it seems so very quiet. Also after living in the confined space of the boat for 5 months our house seems huge! (and so much more to clean....)
Thank you to all of you who joined us on the boat over the summer. I am going to attempt to put up pics of all of you. Thanks also to the many wonderful people we met on our travels. We had a fabulous summer and we hope to see many of you again next summmer. And if you haven't been aboard L'Avenir as yet - well, what about next year??
I'll sort some pics shortly....