day 4 amsterdam/Utrecht

Hello again!
So today was quite a long day. We woke up bright and early so that we could go on a 3-hour walking tour. Besides the fact that it was -5C (thats in the 20's for all you Americans) and it was allllll outside walking in the cold cold weather... it was very very interesting. We got to learn a lot of the history of amsterdam, like the miracle of the moldy bread which I will not get into right now, and see some really cool buildings. There is so much history and culture to this city it is amazing. It is the most diverse city in the world (only 750,000 people and over 170 different cultures... compare that to NY with millions of people and about 150 different cutures). We also learned that bikes rule Amsterdam, over 1,000,000 bikes and again only 750,000 people... i dont know where the other 250,000 bikes go??? Our tour guide also showed us all the hidden art/porn sculptures... for example there was a metal statue I guess in the middle of the ground titled hand on boob with a lock and chain on it. It was put in by a local who was trying to put out some hidden message into the city, but nobody really knows what it stands for. In a more serious note they also took us to the jewish quarters, which was really interesting to hear about how they used to live during the war and how most of them died from the cold winters of 1944. We also went to the royal palace, some cool monuments, the "old" and "new" churches (both have some cool stories behind them as well) and the amsterdam historical museum. We got a whole lot of history in three hours. Needless to say, after that we were beat and cold so we went to get some hot chocolate and relax before our train to Utrecht.
We got into Utrecht at around 7 tonight and met up with our friend Rosilde (who we traveled with in Central America). It was so nice to see her again and reminise about our trip together. She took us to a really nice Indian restraunt in the main part of the city, then out for a drink. We are now at her very nice house and are going to bed soon so we can get up in time to catch our flight back to London.
Until Tomorrow!