We would like to take a moment to acknowledge a few of the unsung heroes of this webite, namely those whose thoughtfulness make it possible for the rest of you to enjoy yourselves while actually visiting Amsterdam, by the facilities we provide via this website, or in the months that follow such visits, by your frequent visits to this site.

We are wearing a red fake poppy on our lapel for the rest of the week by the way, a wreath will be laid later, with due ceremony by Mr Withnail (who unfortunately isn't aware of this yet.) One hour of silence will follow at precisely 15.00hrs (3:00pm) , Amsterdam time. The message board will be taken offline for that time to observe an hour of silence---perhaps allowing a few of you to contemplate the sacrifices these unsung heroes make on everyones behalf.

Who are these unsung heroes, you may well be wondering?

We would like to acknowledge:

1. Our supporting members, those who are, in fact, not really unsung; they receive the special words, "supporting member", which is attached to their names, as they post. They donate financially to this site, for no other reason to keep us going, thank us for the work we do here, or if we're not actually working, by fixing things as they break.

2. Our occasional advertisers whose faith in us allows us to bring you lovely advertising, and those members who click through to view and perhaps purchase those advertised goods, services, and bus trips.

3. Finally the real unsung heroes, those who are never acknowledged at all: those heroes who choose to support this site, by making use of our hotel booking facilities. They quietly and without expectation of additional reward, book rooms through us, and keep us online. These fine people never refer members to other hotel booking sites, and cause us to watch with chagrin at the frequent mentions of bookings.nl or hotels.nl, AND although hotels.nl is actually the service behind our own service, IT DOES US NO GOOD AT ALL if one is referred directly to them. To those whose only purpose here is to take, take, take, and derive enhanced pleasure for their visits to Holland, we issue a loud raspberry, and a bit of advice: "Never lose your usernames or passwords because we never intend to answer your cries for "HELP!"

We propose that anyone who books rooms through us, if these members would kindly supply us with some evidence of their confirmation details, we'll also consider them supporting members, and acknowledge this formally, with the "supporting members" tag.

We'll add this information to the hotel booking page, in due time.

One final thing, we remain fully independent, we can do or say what we wish. We write them as we experience them. We expect this benefits everyone who intends to visit here. No public relations rubbish, no corporations or injections by investors are behind this site, compromising it.

The site is supported by our unsung heroes, they keep us independent and free. (You normal members do too, by posting your trip reports and other items, but please keep in mind the large amount of money this all costs to allow you to do so:-)

Symbolic silence will commence at 15.00 hrs.