It was supposed to be chocolate heaven.....

After passing up a chance to grab my favourite hot choc from Cafe Nero in London I have been dying for a good hot chocolate, European style. All attempts since then have been disappointing - hot watery drinks with a layer of froth just don't cut it when you've had the thick chocolatey delight of the Cafe Nero Hot Chocolate Milano. So when we stumbled upon a chocolate bar in Amsterdam airport I just had to try their version which looked just like Cafe Nero's. Here your given a mug of hot milk and you select a chocolate spoon that then melts into the milk (its really just a wooden spoon with a block of choclate on the end)

I wasn't able to wait until the chocolate melted completely into the milk, I just needed to try it! The chocolate tasted good but the final product was just as disappointing as all the others. They also had these parfum bottles with different types of choclate in them, which of course I had to try

Fortunately theres a Cafe Nero at Heathrow Airport and we have to fly through there anyway, maybe I'll pick up a hoisin duck wrap from Pret while I'm there

What's Dr Dopey doing now?

Baby went to Amsterdam

My first visit to Amsterdam and my list was ready....

#1 Canals (actually canals was not on my original list as I didn't know there were canals in Amsterdam, but there are, heaps, which was great. The buildings lining the waterway are all slightly crooked as they slowing sink.

#2 Visit the red light district at night: No photos of this one but it definitely didn't disappoint. Narrow windy cobbled streets lined with window prostitutes of every variety. The tiny rooms behind the window where the lady was on display had just enough room for a bed and probably not much ventilation as we saw many of them trying to air out the room by fanning the door or spraying cans of air freshener....noice

#3 Dykes: For this we ventured north of the city and decided the best way was on bike. This sounded like a great idea until we realised Dutch bikes are a little different to the ones at home. I'm sure there great for your posture but they can be difficult to balance on and manouever due to the wide turning circle. Fortunately Holland is extremely flat so no major issues

The dykes are great though, with bike paths running along the top so you get a fantastic view of the large expanses of water on either side

Amsterdam 9 kms to the left, Marken 3 kms to the right (and below)

#4 Giant Clogs: They were there, it had to be done, say no more

#5 Windmills: After searching high and low for windmills we finally found one on our ride back to Amsterdam. The guy even let us inside and gave us a run down on how it all worked. Its the only working windmill in Amsterdam and its used to break up and grind rock and chalk into fine dust

Windmill from the outside (above) and inside (below). The large wheels are made of stone and their rotation driven by the windmill is what crushes the rock

Overall, Amsterdam gets 2 thumbs up, its a great walking city and very bike friendly with the coutryside only a short bike ride. Plus there's lots to see and do during the day and into the night, what more could you want?

Enough fun, back to work tomorrow and more travel. Next stops....Turin, Italy and Dusseldorf, Germany before heading over to the US

Around the World in 18 Days (Part 1)

Another work trip but there's always time to sample the local cuisine and do a bit of sightseeing. First stop, sunny Scotland....not. Wokka (work colleague and travelling companion) and I had preplanned to spend our afternoon off driving around the Scotish countryside in search of the Falkirk Wheel, the worlds only rotating canal boat lift. It functions to connect 2 different canals that are at different elevations by lifting boats from one to another. Also it only requires the same amount of power to run as boiling 7 electric kettles.

The Falkirk Wheel in its stationary position with a canal boat (blue) moving into the bottom gondola. When its ready to lift, the gates close keeping water in the gondola and it starts to rotate around (images below)

Pretty impressive but is it worth the £17.5M spent to develop it?


We also drove to Loch Lomand and stumbled across some highland cows and discovered a new taste sensation at one the country pubs

Aberdeen Angus beef burger with onion rings - yes they are eaten in the burger and it tasted great!

Next stop, Amsterdam