I realised that my Amsterdam coverage was a bit sparse, and seeing as I went on about the Botel a lot before we went it only seems right to talk about it now.

It wasn’t the prison ship that everyone had expected, although when we turned up in the rain, there were a few cries of “where have you taken us Bone?” which annoyed me because I’d often made the case that they couldn’t complain because most of them did bugger-all towards the organisation. To be fair, we all changed our tune after a bit of a nap (the joys of flying at 6am). The the staff were friendly, and chatty when we rolled in at about 5am only semi-coherent, joking about giving us a wake-up call at 7am. The rooms were fairly small, but this was to be expected since it is a boat, and apparently most rooms in Amsterdam are small, even in expensive places. They were very clean though, Tigg worried a bit about securityy, his fears were laid to rest when the cleaner left a penny on his bed that had been found on the floor.

There was a wide variety of tv channels available (I didn’t realise that ‘in-house movies’ meant porn 24 hours a day…), the view canalside was lovely, the bar was well stocked and reasonably priced. Whilst it isn’t exactly situated in the heart of amsterdam, the walk to the main areas isn’t long, and even my feet managed okay so pretty much anyone should be able to handle those cobbles.

If you’re young, or in a big group, I would defintely recommend the Botel, as long as you’re not expecting five-star accommodation, remember, you get what you pay for! (we paid £60 per room per night)