The Go To Girls Blog & The Secret Sender….

Our second day in Amsterdam we had booked something a little different. While looking on Viator for trips we came across The Mystery of the Secret Sender. This is a kind of scavenger hunt across Amsterdam. You meet a stranger he gives you a locked box and a book. From here you are on your own. Solve the first clue, open the first lock, repeat until you have opened all five locks and solved the Mystery of the Secret Sender.
I know it sounds corny but if like Chris and I you like a good mystery where you are the detective you will love this trip. We met the stranger at the main monument in Dam Square. We did not know how to recognise him and there were several trips all leaving at the same time. It was then we spotted a man with a red feather in his hand and a bag over his shoulder. He had to be the stranger. We approached him and introduced ourselves, we had the right man. He quickly explained the rules of the mystery gave us the bag, pointed us in the direction of the first clue and off he went. He disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. Off we went eager and excited for the mystery we had just entered. Inside the bag was a crude map with a couple of street names and a line drawn, which we were to follow. We figured out roughly where we needed to be and with a bit of help from a passing local set of towards point one on the map. It turns out it was a church in the heart of the red light district. I heard there was a church in the red light district but I presume the church was here long before the red light district came about. I am not sure it is right to have the two things in such close proximity to each other but I suppose the church has for a long time tried to save lost souls. According to the clue book, we were to find four clues around a church and they would lead us to the numbers of the first lock on the box. After some investigation, we began locating the clues and therefore the numbers. Obviously, we can not give you the answers or locations of the clues as then you would have no need to do the trip your selves and we could not deprive you of such a fun activity.
We were quite quick finding the first set of clues and thought we were great detectives and then we set of in search of the second locks clues and the location. When we opened the first lock we were so happy and really excited for the rest of the rest of the trip. This is were it all went Pete Tong (wrong).
We actually got lost trying to find every single location left on the map and it was truly by the kind hearted locals we found each and every one of the remaining four locations.

The second location was a tower again with a list of puzzles to solve around the area.  We had to call the stranger for a clue at this point as we just could not figure out this clue.  It turns out we just had the clues in the wrong order and if we had them correct they would spell out the numbers we needed for the second lock.  Aaaaarrrggghhh!!!

It seemed so simple when he told us we needed to spell out the numbers and we finally worked it out and that was lock number two open Yeh!!
The third location turned out to be a museum, oh yes there are lots of museums in Amsterdam so have fun trying to figure out this one.  We must of passed this street five times before we found it.  Our feet were already killing by this time so when we did find this location all we could do was sit and have a break and a drink.  The clues for this set of numbers were relatively easy to decipher, we spent more time finding the location on this one.  Third lock open.
The forth location was a row of houses, yep you heard me right.  A row of houses!??? As you know in Amsterdam you don’t see many rows of houses…… Every street has rows and rows and rows of houses and everyone of these houses are different.  You get the wrong street, you get the wrong side of the street, you get the wrong bridge…….. OMG!!  How are we ever going to find this one.  I very politely showed my old map to a very lovely local man who took us to the actual location on the map.  I actually don’t know how we would have found this one without help.  Tip…… If you do this trip don’t be afraid to ask the locals for a bit of help.  They are lovely…….. and very helpful, thankfully.  Forth lock open. One to go…..
The fifth and last location was another church, yes there are quite a few churches in Amsterdam as well as museums.  This was the killer puzzle and we had one thing against us from the start, the lock on the box was dodgy.  The final set of puzzles were hard and I have to admit we ‘googled’ .  We had too these puzzles were killer and we solved a couple of them but even after ‘googling’ we still did not have the answers so we did what we always do we researched and when all else fails, we asked a local.

Turns out he was a tour guide and knew quite a bit about the final church.  We were so grateful I really could have kissed this stranger for helping us out.  We finally figured out the last code or so we thought but even when we did finally think we had the correct answer the lock would not open.  We called the stranger explained what was happening and told him what we though it was the correct answer.  Well you are right he replied.  We can’t open the last lock.  You have the correct answer so it must open the lock.  We tried again and again and finally the last lock opened.   Fifth and final lock opened.
We were so happy and then inside was the final puzzle was there inside the box.  We can finally find out the puzzle we had been searching across Amsterdam to find out…..
Who was the Secret Sender of the Letters…………..
Drum roll please…………
It was…………
Another puzzle……..
Thankfully the answer was already in our memory banks as we had been researching something earlier that day at the hotel which rang a bell and that was it.  The answer to the question, Who was the secret sender of the letters?
Who was it you ask…….
Well come close and I will tell you…….
Closer…….
No closer…….
……………………..
 
As if we are going to deprive you of the best 3 hours of fun we have had in years…..
Do the trip yourself and find out who is The Secret Sender?
All in all an amazing day so thanks to the stranger who lead us down this path and made us members of the small group of people who know who the Secret Sender is!
As always loving being me and thanks so much for reading and I am so proud to announce I have today been nominated for The Sunshine Blogger Award by Theatreandart. Thank you so much and my response to this will be following in the next few days and another momentous occasion today I reached 1,000 followers………
Can you believe it!  I have not even been blogging for seven months yet and I have hit so many milestones and I am truly, truly grateful to everyone of you who helped reach these huge milestones.  Again Thank You All!!!!!  Please keep reading.
Love always The Go To Girls Blog. xxxx