Adventures in Amsterdam

Shortly before Thanksgiving we were looking around at places to go for a quick weekend trip and realized the Amsterdam Light Festival was going to be going on and would be neat to check out! Both Brian and I had been there on our trip in high school and remembered it being an interesting city so we figured it would be even more so to experience as an adult!  There are a couple of ways to get to Amsterdam from London, either the Eurostar train or flying.  We found flights to be quite cheap so decided to go that route! Also it was nice to be flying from the Heathrow terminal which is easier to get to then Gatwick which we had been flying from on previous trips.  Shortly before the trip our friends David and Amy mentioned they were looking at going the same weekend although they were hesitant about "crashing our vacation."  We definitely did not feel that was the case and were very excited to take our first trip with another couple! Brian and David work together here at PwC and David and his fiance Amy moved here about 2 months after we did from North Carolina.  

We landed about 5:00pm Friday Dec. 13th.  The flight was only 45 minutes which was great compared to the 4 hour flight a couple weeks earlier from Tenerife! For this trip we had taken advice on a place to stay from a friend that I had met through the American Women's Club which turned out to be wonderful! It was a bed and breakfast located in a canal house right along one of Amsterdam's pretty canals which was a much more unique experience then just staying in a hotel.  The accommodations were very nice and the breakfast was wonderful, complete with pretty plates and tea sets.  If you take a look at the picture below we were located in the black house that the boat is in front of...

My favorite part about Amsterdam is the canals and the canal houses. They are just so cute and unique and give the city so much character.  You never see two that look alike! In the picture below you will see a skinny red house (red car in front of it) which is the narrowest house in Amsterdam. In the window there is a laptop computer and the size of the screen take up 1/3 of the width of the house!  So tiny! 

Another canal view

We met up with David and Amy at the b&b (their flight arrived earlier in the day), got changed and ready to find a place for a drink.  We found ourselves at a pub not far away and I will just say a very interesting man named Yanni decided to make himself at home at our table.  He proceeded to say some very interesting things and at first we weren't sure exactly what his motive was. However it quickly became quite clear and then just flat out weird and hilarious at the same time.  Needless to say we moved on to the next place in a hurry and Yanni became the running joke for the rest of the trip! Here is us having a drink before we were seated at the dutch restaurant we ate at.  

After dinner we decided to walk a short distance to experience walking through Amsterdam's red light district at night.  For those of you who may be unaware Amsterdam is one of few places in which prostitution is legal, along with legalized use of marijuana which is smelled all around the city.  The red light district is where the prostitutes literally are standing in windows along the streets and you will witness men buying their services.  It is certainly an eye opening cultural experience to see.  We didn't stay in the area long and so many questions were flooding our brains.  

The next morning we took a very short walk from our bed and breakfast to tour the Anne Frank house.  We actually went behind the bookcase and into the secret annex where Anne and her family were in hiding for a little over 2 years from 1942-1944.  It is a depressing feeling in the attic seeing how they had to live with black out curtains up at all times and never letting any light in. The picture below is the house itself, the secret annex was located on the top level but toward the very back of the building. Out in front of the house it was also very crazy to think about the Nazi's patrolling up and down those very same streets rounding up the Jews.  Unimaginable...    

Couple quick canal shots before moving on...

After the tour we decided to lighten the mood a bit and head to a brewery we had heard about.  After taking a bit of the wrong way there on the bus we eventually made it! The brewery also has an old traditional dutch windmill there too which was fun to see.  We enjoyed some beer flights and then had lunch at a restaurant next door. 

    

The rest of the afternoon we spent wandering the city... 

That evening we took a canal cruise to see the lights for the Light Festival.  Turns out we were slightly disappointed as there were not as many buildings/sculptures lit up as we had expected. Seemed like parts of the cruise we went for awhile without seeing anything.  There was a walking portion we could have done too but we kind of felt like we saw most of what there was to see on the canal.  I did though really enjoy seeing the canal houses lit up at night and being about to see right into them.  Also fun to see lots of christmas trees in the windows!

Our last day Sunday Dec 15th we walked through the flower market, visited the Van Gogh museum, and capped off a great trip with a large piece of dutch apple pie! Amy and I had to laugh because in the pic below you will see how the guys were normally seen on this trip (most of them actually)... with their "man bags" or "murse" aka camera bags! Yes the guy in the yellow pants is quite interesting too! Just noticed that now! :) We all really enjoyed Amsterdam!

Tenerife, Spain: It's not all sun in the Canary Islands...

For Thanksgiving/My Birthday we booked a trip to Tenerife, Spain! Tenerife is the largest and most populous of the seven Canary Islands and is located only 186 miles off the coast of western Africa.  We were most excited to be headed somewhere warm to just relax for 5 days after our other recent trips being so busy sightseeing and on the go... But let's be honest we were hoping to soak up at least a LITTLE sun and enjoy some warmth being that it gets dark around 3:45pm in the UK right now! Unfortunately that isn't quite what was in store for us...  The dates of this trip were Nov 28th- Dec 2nd.  We left early in the morning on Thanksgiving day and the flight was about 4 hours to get there. Traveling on Thanksgiving made our first holiday away from home a bit easier, although we still didn't get to have any turkey! 

Once we arrived in Tenerife and got to our resort we quickly changed into shorts and short sleeves/tank tops and went to explore a bit in front of our place.  We immediately thought it looked very similar to Hawaii with all the lava rocks in front from volcanos that erupted and formed the island millions of years ago.  As you can see from the pics it was partly sunny and the temps felt great (around 72 degrees) little did we know this was the most sun we would see during our 5 days.  

                 

A beautiful Spanish Sunset for our first night! 

    Our lovely resort

We celebrated the morning of my "Golden Birthday" turning 29 on the 29th with a HUGE crepe from a cafe next to our resort. We ended up going there 4 times during our stay for various breakfasts and lunches... think we each had 3 of these before we left! They were just too good! 

As you can see from the picture it was cloudy... However the sun did manage to pop out for about an hour or so and it sure felt nice when it did.  We spent most of the day lounging around and relaxing.  Once happy hour rolled around we found ourselves near the pool bar for 2 for 1's!  We met a Scottish couple that was talking to another American family who are currently living in Germany.  It was pretty funny because they found out it was my birthday so decided to sing to me... just before they got to the part where they would say my name the one guy was motioning to me what my name is since we hadn't even exchanged names yet! Then the Scottish couple gave us a recommendation of nice French restaurant to go to for dinner.  We were able to get in and it was fabulous! There was a British couple beside us who ended up helping us read the menu since the entire special board was in Spanish.  Here is a picture of the yummy chocolate birthday dessert! Only one more year until 30... YIKES!

Saturday morning we decided to take out our rental car (never got a pic of it but it sure made some interesting noises, it was old and sounded like a spaceship) for a drive up the center of the island to Mount Tiede which is an old volcano and the highest point in Spain.  On our way through some of the small villages we kept seeing police cars and policemen standing around and along the roads.  We were starting to wonder if we should be concerned but just kept continuing on our steep drive with the road winding back and forth.  Eventually we got to a point (45mins in) where all the cars were backing up and officers were talking to each car.  We then started to wonder if they were searching for someone or something... Turns out they were closing the road due to a bike race that was going to be happening! Funny that they didn't post signs or anything and crazy to think people were actually going to bike on that road! So we had to turn around and never made it up the mountain to the park that was at the top.  We did see some nice views though on the way up and down.  No pictures though.. I was about to be car sick by the time we made it back down.  

The next few days continued to be cloudy, cloudy and more clouds... with a sprinkle of showers here and there.  Just bad luck really... We talked to the Scottish couple again who said they had been going there for 20 years and they said they never seen it so cloudy!  We hardly took any pics on this trip, on our last morning realized we didn't even have any of Brian yet, here is one...  

Our flight wasn't until late Monday night so we had all day to hangout but it turned out to be a full out rainy/thunderstorming day. Nobody at the pool...

Here is how we spent it... 

Even though it wasn't the sunny vacation we had envisioned we still were able to relax, read books and rest! We may give the Canary Islands another try sometime... still determined to find sun there!

Belgium: Chocolate! Waffles! Beer!

The title of this post pretty much sums up the highlights of our trip to Belgium however I'll go into more detail then that! :) We loved Belgium! I've never seen so many chocolate shops and types of chocolate in my life... and not to mention delicious!!! We realized it was easier just to tell ourselves calories don't count in Belgium! Where else do you get the chance to eat truffles one after another like chips right?!

Ok from the beginning... We departed London on an early morning Eurostar train to Brussels. (Fri Oct 25th) The Eurostar travels at an average speed of about 106mph and passes under the English Channel "Chunnel" linking the UK to mainland Europe.  The ride took about 2 hours and about 20 mins of it was spent in the Chunnel.  One thing I've learned is that my ears pop more on trains then they do on planes! When traveling at high speeds through tunnels the pressure creates a mess in my head being that I have touchy ear drums. Brian laughs at the amount of gum I chew and faces I make nearing the end of tunnels... And there are a lot of them when exiting London!

Once we arrived in Brussels we found our hotel very close to the city's enormous square called Grand Place. This is known as one of the "prettiest squares in Europe" and we could immediately understand why! The pictures below cannot capture the size and beautifully detailed architecture seen all around when standing in the center of the square. This is also where a "flower carpet" is created every 2 years to fill the square with millions of begonias. It will be done again in August 2014 so we may need to make a trip back! :)

 

 

 

Branching out from the square are many cobblestone streets filled with the endless chocolate shops I mentioned earlier. Doesn't your mouth water just looking at it?!

 

Upon arriving we were hungry and it seemed only appropriate to get belgian waffles right away! We ordered Brussels waffles which are the light and airy kind similar to the typical Belgian waffles in the states. However once we tried the more traditional type known as leige waffles these quickly became our favorite! They are richer, denser and sweeter (almost like a mini donut!) Especially good when doused in fresh Belgian chocolate!  They can also be found at various stands and food trucks around the city! The rule "calories don't count in Belgium" also applied to waffles as we consumed a few! ;)

   

Brussels waffle

Leige waffles

We also had to go check out the famous Brussels statue Manneken Pis. It's a bronze statue of a little boy peeing into the fountain below (Can't really see the water "pee" in the pic.) The city has really taken it to the extreme with him as you can get endless Manneken Pis souvineers and even chocolates! Kinda random!

 

 

On Saturday we took the train to Bruges (pronounced rhyming with rouge) for part of the day. It was about 1 hour 15min train ride to the northwest of Brussels. We found it to be quite a charming little town. It is known as "Venice of the North" since there are canals which run through most of it.  We took a canal cruise which was a great way to see the city!

 

Don't think there wasn't chocolate in Bruges... There were plenty of chocolate shops there as well! I had heard before going to go to a place called Bittersweet and order one of the "chocolate tulip things" Having no idea what this meant it was quite interesting what it turned out to be! The pictures below describe it... Basically a chocolate tulip that you float in steamed milk! Once it melts you have a delightfully rich hot chocolate! We should have shared one... we were in chocolate comas once we finished!

 

Like Brussels, Bruges has a very nice city square on a much smaller scale. The city center has a centuries old clock tower which we climbed 366 stairs.  At the top we were able to see beautiful views over the Belgian rooftops since the sun decided to come out! We even heard the bells chime and saw the mechanisms behind the huge clock!

       

         

               

 

               

 

We finished the night back in Brussels with a beer tasting flight (plus a couple afterwards since they were so tasty and we had a perfect people watching position at a table outside the pub we were at!) We also enjoyed seeing the square lit up at night making it even more beautiful!

 

 

 

 

On our last day we decided to go see the Atomium. It was built in 1958 for the Brussels World Fair. The structure is designed after the atom of an iron crystal magnified 165 million times.  It has said to be Brussels' "Eiffel Tower or London Eye" as it offers great views.  There are exhibits in the spheres dedicated to science with escalators between some of them and then a high speed elevator to take you to the highest sphere.  We again lucked out with it being cloudy when we arrived but it cleared up by the time we went to the top!

 

 

            

 

               

 

            

             

 

 All in all we enjoyed Belgium very much... No matter how many pounds we may have gained!