A final night of tour group fun!

For our final full day with the Top Deck Czech Mate tour, it was up fairly early for an included bike tour around the city of Amsterdam. This was fantastic and our third bike tour for our entire trip. Our guide was a young English guy, who gave us a very entertaining commentary as we went around. The bikes here are everywhere. It is the main mode of transport and you're more likely to be hit by a bike than a car.

Once handing the bikes back, 14 of us had a hankering for pancakes. We should have gone for poffertjes, as our pancakes resembled more of a crepe but were still nice. The waiter was a really poor listener and stuffed up our order at least 5 times. It was actually really funny, rather than stressful.

Next the group's size dwindled a little more and six of us headed to the Heineken Experience. This was an absolutely awesome place to visit. The amount of money that they have clearly pumped into it, to be fun and highly interactive was brilliant. We would go back again! The best bit was the interactive movie where we stood on a platform that moved and rumbled depending on what was happening. We were actually the beer itself going through all processes from mixing the four main ingredients, right through to bottling, transporting and being enjoyed - experiencing every moment! There are too many things to mention, but it is highly recommended to all people, even the non beer drinkers would enjoy this place. Yes Myles, even you!

After the Heineken Experience, we took their included water cruise to another part of the city. This was totally unexpected and a massive bonus. The guide on board was fantastic. We got a 20 minute ride around the canals and ended up near the other Heineken merchandise shop to collect our free aviator glasses gift. So in the end we paid 17€ each and did a fabulously interactive tour, with three beers, a pair of aviators and a river cruise! That's hard to beat.

The six of all us decided to head back to the Botel to rest and freshen up before we headed back out to dinner. We all tried Febo along the way, which is massive fast food vending machine service. The curry croquettes and burger were pretty damn tasty. The dinner tonight was at a floating Chinese restaurant on one of the big canals. This was the included farewell dinner, albeit a strange choice of cuisine for Europe. It was ok...but we have had MUCH better.

Next was the optional boat cruise with included drinks. It was only people from our tour group on board, so it was really fun. Our tour theme songs really pumped people up, the cameras were out and it was a good chance to get some group shots on our final night.

Some left after the cruise, but the majority of us headed out to some nightclubs. Unfortunately Carmella's efforts doing limbo on the slippery floor led to a dislocated knee and a trip to the hospital. She is still intending on committing to her travel plans after our tour, so luckily she is cruising with two friends in a car. We're assuming she'll call shotgun for the back seat! An added bonus was that the hospital did the cast in the colours of the Dutch flag, which was a nice touch.

The incident didn't seem to stop people too much though. Once Carmella and some of the others (including our tour leader) had left, we all resumed our dancing. Another fun night with such a brilliant group of people. It will be nice keeping in touch and meeting up in the future. The only good thing about departing from these guys, is the opportunity to catch up on sleep. That's what travelling is all about - good times....no, friggen awesome times and a truck load of memories!