Qype: Camping Zeeburg in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

The showers were a bit cold. Thought I’d say that first. It’s the only complaint I have about this fantastic venue.
I mean the Dutch are just so cool. If only every capital city had a safe, secure, well serviced and picutresque camp ground 5 km’s from it’s centre. It’s like being able to camp in Shoreditch!
The staff here were really helpful, the restaurant was large and reasonably priced – they offer everything you could want in terms of tours and bike rental’s etc.
We were there in October so it wasn’t crowded. I guess that could be the only concern. There was a fair bit of land to put your tent on though and it looked like motorhome people were also looked after.
Getting into town in really simple. There is a tram that takes about 15 mins and drops you right in the centre. The only thing is that you have to walk over a really long bride in either direction. I liked it but if you don’t like walking then I guess that might become a drag.
We paid 6 euro’s each to stay here though – so to stay in the centre of one of the great cities for the price of a kebab, I can put up with a little strole at the end of the evening.

Check out my review of Camping Zeeburg – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Madam Jo Jo’s

I wanted something a little exciting to do with my fiancee, after we had recently gotten engaged, so after researching the west end on the net, I decided to take her to the Kitch Cabaret here on a Saturday night.
Now I new that it was a a drag show, but we are pretty open minded and I thought that it might be quite a spectacle.
Really the mention of discounts for hens nights along with the price of strippers – should have given me some heads up about what to expect!
Anyway off we went. Had a little trouble finding the place and we were a little bit flustered even before we got to the door. The door itself was engourged with about 20 already drunk women, all dressed in pink and wearing cowboy hats.
The venue was to be a surprise for my fiancee, and as such unknown to her, so I quickly walked past the entrance and dragged her under a shop front. I do weird things sometimes so she wasn’t that concerned by my odd behavoir and subsequent look of panic.
It was very clear to me that I had accidently booked a specialist hens night venue – not at all as I’d imagined it would be – which was a dark romantic table from the high school musical version of Cabaret I’d seen as a teenager.
I explained this to her and she laughed and dragged me inside.
There were four seperate hens groups, and appart from the waiters and the cast, (who were of course dressed as women) I was the only man – except for the bathroom assistant guy who really must have one of the least profitable jobs in London.
I set about getting really drunk, while each hens group in turn got a different stripper to dance for them.
After the third beer I began to really mellow, and I must say, as advice for single men, there could be no more gauranteed place to pull chicks than a venue like this. You had to wade through the estroegen to get to the bar.
After a while – the main act came on. They were fantastic. I’ve never really seen men dressed as women singing to groups of wild women before, but I thought they performed wonderfully. Genuine entertainment, funny, powerful voices and great dancing and costumes.
The food was late and a bit ordinary and as it was the early session we got hearded out very quickly after it finished.
The best thing though was that my fiancee loved it. She was jumping up and down and taking photo’s and dancing and singing.
I won’t be going back to this night but It was a really fun evening. Just so funny watching so many women, so ecstatic, watching a bunch of blokes dressed as girls singing Abba.

Qype: Alhambra in Granada

Granada – Arts & Entertainment – Landmarks

I used to run daily through the gardens here and gnerally around the Building before I actually went on the tour inside.
Those gardens and the other free parts of the building are equally as spectacular as what you find inside.
Not that it’s not worth going in – because it really is. It’s hard to believe that only a hundred years ago this place was abandened. The spectacular restoration of the mosaic cealings in all their intricate detail and just the scale of the palace are breathtaking.
The is one of the great examples of what the Muslim culture gave to Western europe; so beautiful, so refined and so cultured – at a time when my lot at least were running round in rags.

Check out my review of Alhambra – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Homer Hut in invercargill

invercargill

Homer Hut is not actually in Invercargill. It’s on the road into to Milford Sound, Just before the tunnel on the right hand side.
This is a wild and very exciting part of the world. Climbing here in The Darrens, as they are called, can be a very extreme undertaking. Sir Edmund Hillary trained on the the long granite walls before he attempted Everest, and the potential for remote adventure is still what attracts a range of international climbers every year.
I arrived for the first time in 1996 as an end point to my tour of climbing venues on the South Island. Back then I never had any money so I put up my little shelter, which was a tarp and a bivy bag, about 5o metres from the hut (something you are still allowed to do) in order to avoid the fee’s.
It then rained flat out for two weeks. When it wasn’t raining the mozzie net of my bivy bag would go black with sand flies. (A bivy bag is like a full body gortex condom)
On about the fourth day of this, the hut warden, bless that beautiful man!! let me sneak into the hut – it was empty due to the bad weather – and stay for free if I helped him with chores and renevations.
At that time the hut had bunk accomodation for about 18 people and enough room in the wardens room for about another 6. There is cooking facilities, blankets and an excellent common room with a donated library. Historic pictures of climbers and skiiers adorned the walls and completed a uniquely wonderful New Nealand alpine atmosphere. It IS like Switzerland – but it’s also very different. No one is going to sell you stuff or cook for you – you can’t buy a beer. But it is really cheap. It costs about 10 pound a night to stay, or 7 if you are a member of the Alpine club.
I had met the relieving hut warden – the late Gordon Legge (Gonzo) near the summit of Mt Cook, and I moved into the Wardens room with him and remained a comfortable – if incredibly dangerous – further three weeks.
If you are touring the South Island of New Zealand I really recommend this place. You won’t find it in any tourist brochures – but you don’t have to be a climber to stay. You just have to know where it is.
In 2006 this hut re-opened and looking at the picutres – it is just like it was except more weatherproof.

Check out my review of Homer Hut – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Abney Park Cemetery Trust in Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington – Arts & Entertainment – Parks

I just read in another review of this cemetery that it is the largest wooded area within the confines of London’s Zone 2 area. Very interesting.
It is magical this place, if a little strange.
I just read it’s web site which is a very well developed page full of informtation and activities, particularly for children.
I find the reality a bit different to the web page.
I mean, I would never, ever, ever let my kid go and play in here unsupervised. (That’s if I had one – which I don’t) Encourntering the undead would be the very least of their problems.
It is a largish park – it takes me about 10 mins to jog around it’s perimiter at a moderate pace.
It was abandaned as a cemetary some 21 years ago and judging by the dates on the graves, was in use for a few hundred years prior to that.
Trees and bushes have grown over the graves – a few of which are still tended by loved ones but mostly they are become beautiful moss covered artifacts.
Several trails are well used and well maintained by the council, and the entrance from Stoke Newington high street is edged with impressive gates that open to a path bordered with lushous green grass.
There are many other trails, social trails, that are kept open through the passage of visitors. These lead in asymetrical directions, easily confusing the uninitiated.
The central feature is a metal grate secured, abandoned gothic chapel, with a significant and impressive spire. Inside can be seen dirt and the refuse left by the last gentleman who inhabited it.
These bums, and I use the word with the affection of a reader who counts Mac and the boys of Cannery Row fame as both role models and hero’s, are the main inhabitants of the cemetery.
You live here for a while and you get to know them, by site if not by name. The one with the guitar being a particular stand out. He found some strings for it a month or so back and now I fall asleep to the sounds of him and his friends singing, as well as the usual fights and drunken mutual admiration sessions.
More sinister, at least to my imagination, is the groups of men that are always loitering quietly as I run past. They look equally nervous and confronting and they are always ducking down those hidden paths or seeming to keep a look out. I have no idea what they are up to – if anything – but it’s such a hidden envrionment and they are the ones I would keep my child from.

Check out my review of Abney Park Cemetery Trust – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Camping in Vevey

Vevey

Positioned half way between Montureux and Vevey, this it a gorgeous little campsite, hidden just off the main road. I believe that it is open in spring summer and Autumn – although you might get away with putting a tent here in the colder months.

It is right on the lake front – has plentiful grassy tent and caravan sights and has very private area’s for swiming and sunbathing. It’s set down from the road so it is very quiet as well.
There are bar facilities with tables set right at the water front. The staff are extremely friendly and were fluent in and welcoming to English speakers.
I believe that they have occasional bands playing and small festivals but it otherwise seems like a very quiet and family friendly venue.
Vevey or Montreux are each about a 20 minute walk around the lake in either direction. Busses stop out the front so it would be an easy venue to get to by public transport.
This is a little gem of a place. It’s a tranquil, quiet and beautiful location. The Alps soaring over the lake are something that have to be seen to be appreciated. But from here you can also enjoy all the night life and other adventures to be had in two of Switzerlands most cosmopolitan towns. (Well Montreux is anyway – but Vevay is also cool!)

Check out my review of Camping - I am gotiges7 – on Qype