Bonjour!

We arrived in Paris yesterday afternoon. Both of us are extremely tired. I think we have walked at least 100 miles in the past 9 days. The Internet in our hotel is horrible but I will try to post some pictures tomorrow. Otherwise we will see you all soon!

Hallo mijn vriends (Hello My Friends)

We arrived in Amsterdam on Friday around 8AM local time. So far it has been great. It is night and day difference from London. London is a hustle and bustle city where everyone is in a hurry. Amsterdam is much more relaxed. In Amsterdam you can take a canal cruise and in a couple of relaxing short hours see most of the city. Then just walk up and down the streets for some interesting people watching or exploring the museums. Walking you get from one end of the city to the other in about 30 minutes. And since the city is completely flat it is a very easy walk.

Everything is written in Dutch so it has been an adventure trying to decipher the signs and restaurant menus. You can never really be sure what you are ordering. :-) We have been doing our best at using symbolism to figure it out. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. But Amsterdamels all speak English. Several have even stopped to help us without even being asked to. Tomorrow we will take a bicycle tour through the Holland countryside to tour a cheese farm and clog maker. Here are some pictures of Amsterdam.

Last Day in London

On our last day in London we toured the St. Paul's Cathedral. When you walk in the Cathedral you have to stop for a few moments just to take in the beauty of this building, not to mention the religious and historical significance. The paintings on the ceiling, the architecture of the building they are breathtaking. Words and pictures cannot do it justice. St. Paul’s Cathedral has been a place of worship in London since 604. It was destroyed by fire in 1064 and 1666. Inside of St. Paul's is a memorial from the People of Britian dedicated to the American Soldiers that died during WWII.

We walked the 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery. The whispering gallery is about 1/2 way up the large dome in this picture. In the whispering gallery someone can whisper on one side of the dome and you can hear them on the other side. It sounds as if they are sitting next to you. After the whispering gallery you go up another 119 steps to walk around the outside of the dome. It is a wonderful 360 degree view of London. After making our way back down the 376 steps it was nearly time for the Evensong services. We attended Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral. While we were waiting we were invited to sit with the choir. The service was like nothing else. The choir was remarkable. And to have the privilege of sitting next to the St. Paul's Cathedral choir was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.

Mashy Peas

Tonight we had Fish & Chips w/ Mashy Peas. ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY DELICIOUS. It's like green sweet mashed potatoes.

London - Day 2

Oh, what a day.... We have not stopped since 7AM this morning (which, by the way, is 1AM for you guys!)

We had a great day. Even without seeing the Changing of the Guards. We arrived at Buckingham Palace an hour early. I had a spot right next to the fence. I was actually touching the fence. Within 30 minutes we were surrounded by a mob of people. This French B**** started invading my space, stepping on my feet, pushing on my like she was just trying to get a picture. Whatever! She really ticked me off. The crowd was just too much. We moved to the outer circle with a very disappointing view. You can see how many people there were in one the pictures. But that's okay because everything else we saw and did today made up for it.

We had lunch at Sherlock Holmes Bar & Pub. Bruce had the salmon and I had the Bubble and Squeak. I will let you use your imagination but it was delicious. I look forward to experimenting with this at home. Another British favorite is mushy peas. Heather, I am going to try these just for you. :-) I will be sure to get a recipe for you to try.

The rest of the day was just exploring around the Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, and the London Eye. We also toured the Cabinet War Rooms. My new favorite quote by Winston Churchill, "We are all worms, but I think of myself as a glow-worm."

P.S. Yes Deann, This is the same shirt I wore in the pic from yesterday. I promise I won't wear it again until I have a chance to wash it. :-)

Day 1

Day 1 is over. We spend the first day just getting our bearings. It is hard to determine your direction because the streets are so curvy so we spend most of the day just trying to not get lost. I think we only got lost once or twice (okay maybe a few more times than that.) Why did I not pack a compass????? We had to ask for help several times and I have to say Londoner's are extremely courtious and willing to help. Sometime a bit hard to understand but not bad.

Some interesting facts about London.

1) In London you don't need a car. The public transportation can get you any where you need to go and quickly. However, if you plan to use your walking shoes watch out and look twice before crossing. Crazy drivers that don't slow down, skinny streets. Cars & bikes pop up out of no where just waiting for you to be their next roadkill, I'm sure of it.

2) If you thought the US was the melting pot, you were wrong. At any given time you will see at least a dozen different ethnic groups in just one block.

3) On the tube I heard, there are more Japanese banks in London than there are in Japan.

4) The people are so extremely friendly and helpful.

Well, that was Day 1. Tomorrow we are going to do the Double Decker bus tour.

Here is a slide show of the trip so far. There are tons more pictures but I have had 3 hours of sleep since Saturday night and starting to be a little delirious. Good Night All.

Hello Everyone!!!

We are here!!!! What a long day. We arrived at 3AM Missouri time and 9AM London. The plane ride was uneventful but offered no sleep. Just as you are about to sleep some baby would start crying or we would hit turbulance or the pilot would start talking. But, enough complainging. We have napped and are now on are way out exploring.

TTYL

The Reservations

We did it. We hit the confirm button. The reservations have been make. I still can't believe we are just a few weeks away from leaving. Here is where we will be staying during our trip.

While in London we will be at the Radisson Edwardian Kenilworth.
http://www.radisson.com/hotels/gbkenilw. We will spend 3 nights in London before traveling on to Amsterdam.

Our hotel in Amsterdam is not quite as nice, but it is affordable, or should I say, cheap.... All I'm hoping for is that it is clean, we don't plan to spend a lot of time in the hotel anyway. http://www.hotelplantage.nl/

In Paris we will be staying at the Hotel Paris Prince. http://www.hotelparisprince.com/ The pictures on the website look nice, but the reviews say you get what you pay for..... But, I could not bring myself to pay more than $150/night for a hotel room. I do like the location of this place though. We will be within walking distance to the Eiffel Tour and the Sienne River.

I guess now it is time to start packing....

35 Days & Counting

So we have 35 days and counting before we're off to Europe. As of today, we have made zero, nilch, notta reservations other than our plane tickets. Even if we have no place to stay albeit we ARE going, even if we have to sleep on the streets.

Okay, so I am being a bit dramatic. Bruce has talked to a travel agent several times and not once did she call back. I decided to take the bull by the horns and start planning our itinerary myself. We all know this is one of my specialities (Black Friday Shopping Schedules)

So far I have only planned out what sites to see in London. Maybe this weekend we will get snowed in and we can start planning Amsterdam and Paris.

The scary part is making the reservations. Making the reservations for visting a foreign country is nerve wrecking. We are both having a hard time pushing that CONFIRM button on the website. What if we book something in the wrong place or the place next door would have been better or accidentally book a train going to Budapest. Some things are better being left up to the people that do it everyday.

We did contact another travel agent yesterday to help make reservations. Hopefully this new travel agent is not too busy to help us out. What is it with travel agents anyway. I had no idea the travel business was so booming that they are too busy to help a new customer.