The smell of Christmas is in the air! It seems that the Christmas season kicks in a bit early when you don’t have Thanksgiving to mark the start of the Holiday season. I took a nice walk down Oxford Street in the brisk autumn air and I was astonished at the number of shops that have their Christmas window displays set up and lights have been strung on the buildings. There are massive stars also strung between the buildings on Regent Street. I’m very anxious to see what else develops over the next few weeks. I’ll be sure to make an album for all the Christmas lights in the next few weeks, don’t worry!

Amsterdam!

The final leg of break was an exciting trip to Amsterdam. I’ll pick of the story very early Thursday morning. Now when I say early I mean 2:30am early. We were ready early and then caught a cab to Victoria train station. We caught a train to Gatwick Airport and had a 7am flight to Amsterdam. When we arrived we made our way to our hotel, checked in, and we both were completely exhausted. There was no time for sleep though! We had to keep moving. We walked into town stopping at a small pub for lunch. I assume it was traditional Dutch cuisine, but I’m not 100% what it really was.

The city is on the small side. One side to the other was about 45 minutes at normal walking pace. Thankfully they do drive on the right side of the road and I could default to normal walking habits, which have become not so default over the past few weeks. In reality you did have to worry about cars. The residents relied mainly on bikes for transportation. There were thousands of them running around and chained to anything that wouldn’t move. They had stretched ones with spots in the front for their children and all!

Our first goal for the day was to take a canal cruise through the many canals that make up the city. The sights along the canals were fantastic and actually made my day. Many of the pictures we took came from the cruise. We also did some shopping around. For a touristy place they certainly do hide a lot of the touristy stuff and the tourists!

Did I mention there were a lot of tulips? We walked through the flower market. There were huge amounts of tulips, tulip bulbs, wooden tulips, wooden shoes (who knew they were real?), and various other things (junk).

That evening we had a walk through the famous red light district. I only dared to take my camera out for one picture and that’s all you guys are going to see! At this point I’ve forgotten a lot of details about that trip. I’m sure Jamie can comment on a few things as well.

We finished things up the next morning with a stop at the Heineken brewery and then headed back for a rest and then catching our flight out. At this point we were exhausted, it was raining, and the beds at the hotel were calling our name!!

Status Update

There are 25 days until my mom and dad come over for the week of Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to that. My mom has already scoped out the largest shopping mall, which just opened up in West London recently. I believe they will also be going to Paris and doing the Windsor/Stonehenge/Bath tour. I believe we will also take a day trip to Hampton Court Palace (they don’t know this!). Henry VIII turned this into a royal palace in 1514. It is thought that his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, haunts the palace.

I have 45 days remaining in London. I can’t believe how fast time is passing! I’m going to be home before I know it. I’m trying to pack my weekends full of all I can to make sure that I accomplish everything that I want to.

This week I’m playing catch up and get ahead. I want to ensure a work free week next week. That includes getting a jump on two papers that are due just after break as well as an exam this week. Great fun!

So what do we have planned for this magnificent week? Well Friday I plan to travel to Dover by train to check out the white cliffs and the castle located there. I just can’t sit around on the first day of break. Friday evening I will be meeting up with a friend if the planets align correctly. Saturday morning there is a great big package arriving at the airport!! Jamie is coming!! We will be traveling to Paris, Amsterdam, a few stops in eastern England and a few things planned around the city itself. So stay tuned for all of that.

I’ll be quite busy the rest of the week so there may not be another update until Friday evening/Saturday morning.