Around the World

Sunday If you don't know this about Lola, she's a big Disney fan. She grew up going to Disneyland with her family almost every year and it's a massive touchstone for her whole family. It's her childhood summed up in a place. So when Paris was discussed, going to Disneyland Paris was the first big box on the bucket list. My perspective is less Disney-centric. While I did go to Disney World (FL) once as a kid, it didn't have the same connection to me. For me, my favorite vacations as kids were the exploration type visits. One of the big ones was in my early teens my father decided we'd go hunting for information on his favorite pastor from the early 1800s, Charles Finney. I can vividly remember (now almost 30 years in the past) going into deserted gravesites, scraping moss and sticks off graves, looking for familiar names. I can specifically remember going into a church where the pastor had spoken and seeing his pulpit. It sounds weird now, but that was exc...

Saturday Today was a travel day. After packing everything up last night, this morning was pretty easy. We slept in as late as possible, close to 10a, with our 11a check out time out of the Airbnb. When we scheduled the flights we hadn't taken this part into account. Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave till 455p. Sooooo, we had a quandry. The prospect of walking around Amsterdam with a suitcase trailing didn't appeal to either of us, so we both agreed that just going to the airport early was better. I'm the type who hates to be late and the airport is the worst! I'd rather be 2 hours earlier than sprinting through an airport trying to make it to the gate on time, particularly in an airport in Europe, full of people who don't speak English. So we called an Uber and headed to the airport. When we arrived, we checked in our bags and headed to the terminal. We were so early that our gate wasn't even posted yet. So we grabbed some Starbucks and chilled. W...

Friday Today was a rest day. We spent about 80% of the day in bed, watching RuPaul’s Dragrace. We left the apartment once, to find a Ajax soccer kit. It took a two stops, but we landed a beautiful kit from the fan shop. After we did some window shopping in the area, but didn’t buy much. From that area, we took the 17 Tram back to the FoodHallen. This time we went to a place called “The Butcher.” We had burgers, they were excellent. While I waited for my food, I started a conversation with a couple at the bar. He had a black eye and I asked him how he got it. Rugby. I said we don’t play much of that in the states. We discussed how much more relaxed Amsterdam is than London. Both he and his partner expressed they didn’t like London, “too busy.” They might be right. After we walked home, relaxed a bit, packed around 1130p (jet lag leads to weird bed times), and eventually went to bed. I think packing the night before, no matter when your flight is, is a good idea. - Dan

Thursday I will not lie to you, it's been a long run already, and we've still got another 6 days to go. How terrible, right? 6 more days in Europe. I'll stop complaining. Anyway, we woke up this morning a little late. We had booked tickets into the Van Gogh Museum for 10a and when the first alarm went off at 830a, I assaulted the snooze button. Jet lag has really pushed my sleeping time back late, typically between 2-3a. So when we finally got rolling, we stepped outside to find it raining. Not as bad as London, but bad enough to slow everything down. We got to the tram station and the first tram didn't show up, so we were delayed by close to 5 minutes. I was a little worried they wouldn't let us in. I'm always worried about that sort of thing. It was no big deal and they let us in without complaint. The Van Gogh Museum is the largest collection of the artist's work in the world, I think I remember it being close to 275 of his paintings under one roof....

This was a day late, sorry, ran out of time last night. Wednesday We woke up this morning and had scheduled a tour of old town Amsterdam with a guide from the "Airbnb Experiences" tab. We weren't sure what to expect, but figured at around 40euro, no matter how bad it was, it couldn't be a waste of money. Well, I'm happy to report it was fantastic! We met with Florentin outside a pancake shop near the main train station. It was windy, so we went around the corner to describe what we would do and what we would see. He was absolutely charming and so funny. He is actually from France originally, but met his American husband in London. He walked us through the streets showing us the oldest house in Amsterdam, the red light district (right across the street from the old church), and a host of other interesting places in the old city. He had handouts to illustrate his stories, showing us old maps and indicating where we were standing on those maps. It was so enrich...

Tuesday Today was a travel day through and through. We got up around 7a and hopped on the underground. District line to Picadilly line to Heathrow. It was pretty convenient to have the subway run all the way out to the airport. When we arrived, it happened to be way too early for our 1055a flight. So we had some Starbucks in the airport.When we got to our gate, the flight was delayed by 2 hours due to the weather in Amsterdam. But they loaded us on the plane anyway and waited for the ok. Less than an hour later we were in the air. It was a bumpy flight, to say the least. The winds beat us up on the way into AMS. Once we arrived, the pilot got us to the ground. The airport was pretty easy to navigate. We exchanged money, picked up our Iamsterdam visitor cards, and called an uber. The weather was madness. Super cold winds just whipping us around. Our uber driver didn't speak all the way to the apartment, which was a big change from our previous drivers. The apartment...

Monday Today should be a short one, it was a short day. With the weather funkiness continuing in England, we made a late start this morning, not getting up and out till around 10a. We walked over to a bank in hopes of exchanging dollars for euros, but were told we needed an account. Went to an exchange place, but were told they would have to exchange it from dollars to pounds, then pounds to euros. Charging both times, of course. We decided to wait till Amsterdam tomorrow. Word of caution for future travelers, if you're taking cash, exchange it BEFORE you travel. It's a pain. So we went into a couple of shops in the area, a stationary shop and a Boots (pharmacy chain). Then we headed back to the apartment. I did several work-related things, then we got ready to roll out. The weather was cold, windy and spitting rain, so we made a short list today. Just Westminster Abbey. So we hopped on the bus and headed that direction. When we arrived, we walked several blocks befo...

Sunday When you plan a trip you can't take into account what the weather will be, especially 6 or 8 months in advance. With Ciara battering England, the weather we woke up to this morning was absolute garbage. Temperatures in the 40s with gusts of wind and rain hammering the windows of the house. We got up, at a small breakfast, got dressed and prepared to head out into the storm. Originally, Lola had planned to meet with an old college friend from college who lives in London. That plan had gotten cancelled because it wasn't exactly walking weather. The plan change had come late in the evening the night before so we didn't have a strong sense of how the day would shape up. So we picked several items off our list and figured we could play the rest of the day by ear. First place we planned on hitting was the Natural History Museum. To get there, we had to ride a bus, which I was worried about. I've gotten more confident with the underground over the last two days a...

Saturday After the National Gallery, we decided to walk north to the British Museum. Google Maps had it just under a mile. Unfortunately, after close to three hours of walking (hour and a half before the Gallery and another equal portion in the Gallery), it was a longer walk than we intended. Along the way, we passed through the theater district, full of flashing signs pushing upcoming plays. It was a fun, relaxing walk, though taxing for us (due to not being used to walking so much). The British Museum When we arrived at the Museum, there was  another protest  going on, one we had read about the night before, but there was no delay getting in. The size of the Museum is not to be trifled with. It's not the Louvre, but what is? But it is a massive building spanning thousands of years of human history. While the North American and Central American collections were a little thin (maybe because the British did less conquering in those areas?), the Greek and Roman...

Saturday We set our alarms for 5:45a and didn’t get out of bed until 6:30. Jet lag was kicking our butt still, so hitting the snooze was too easy. After both showering and eating some eggs and toast, we finally got out of the house around 7:45 and headed to Putney Bridge underground station to head into the city. We didn’t have a super clear plan on what we were doing today, but we definitely needed to get our London Pass and this morning was the first chance to do that. The pass pickup wasn’t open till 10a, so we had time to kill. The tube ride wasn’t bad, though we had to make a train switch to get to where we wanted in the city. We eventually exited at St. James station and began walking to Trafalgar Square. Walking anywhere in London is crazy because there’s this ridiculous mix of super old and super modern side by side on every street. The city has continued to function while also managing to hold on to so much of its history. That has led to the funniest o...