Truly one of Northern Europe’s most picture-perfect cities, Amsterdam’s homes have a dolls-house like characteristic and therefore ordinary practicalities go out of the window (literally!) with tight, winding staircases creating the need for furniture-by-crane hoisting services. So after our 1 night in Amsterdam, we headed into the city for a whistlestop tour of its sights and sounds.

Kicking off our ‘green’ euro trip, sees us 7.30am at the Harwich docks, after a rather rude 3am awakening. The 9am Stenaline to the Hoek of Holland gives us 8 unadulterated hours of free (you have to ask!) wifi access, definitely worth the £12 upgrade for the extra comfort, all you can drink tea, coffee and juice, peace and general ‘in the know’ smugness the stenaplus lounge gives you.

After surfing the net a la ferry, planning all those last minute trip details and finishing off leftover tasks from the past business week, we dock in the ...