Amsterdam Day 14-15: We Bike This City! (To be sung like the song “We Built This City” by Jefferson Starship)

Bikes, bikes and more bikes…

We stayed the first night, out of the city close to the  airport.  Apparently, Ray thought that the hotel was closer to the city when he booked it, but it ended up being closer to the airport than the city.  We were in a big commercial office building complex, go figure.  We assumed that getting to and from the city wouldn't be a huge deal so we decided to just stay put.  I decided to wash some of my clothes in the hotel sink (Thanks sis for the laundry D) so that they would have plenty of time over the next 3 days to dry.  The next morning, we woke up and set our sights on finding a place to do the rest of our laundry (that we desperately needed).  Our hotel had a laundering service, but they wanted to charge 5 euros per shirt and 7 per pants.  Being that most of our clothes needed to be cleaned, this was not going to work.  We packed up a bag, and headed to the city in hopes to find a place to do it ourselves.  But first we had to take a shuttle to the airport to then catch a train into the city.  We get to the airport, buy our train tickets and come to find out that the intercity trains are not running this weekend, so we had to take a bus.  Needless to say, what a train can do to get people into and out of a city is amazing, while buses have to work a whole lot harder to move the same amount of people.  Alas, the line for the bus was atrocious. We waited and waited and waited… This was not going to be as easy as we thought, especially since we were planning on coming and going as we chose. Enter spontaneous hotel booking now.  Luckily we found a spot, right in the city near the Anne Frank house.  Right as we were next to get on the bus, we jumped out of line, rushed back to the hotel, and packed up all our stuff (including all of my still soaking wet clothes from last night’s sink laundering). Got back to the airport to find the line not as daunting as it was an hour ago and continued into the city. We had 2 addresses of laudromats that we checked out on our way to the hotel… Couldn’t find one of them and the other was all boarded up, no dice! We decided to jet over to the hotel.  We stayed at Hotel Clemens, which should have been called Hotel of the Stairs.  We were greated at the door by one of the staff members, who then immediately ran up 50 stairs to the lobby.  Took us a little bit longer to make the trek up.  Not to mention, these were not just regular stairs, they went straight up with a  moderate curve leaving only a few inches in which to place your feet. To get to our room, there was another 50 or so steps, making for a pretty sweet view from the balcony and some huffing and puffing from me once at the top. 

Oh and the guy at the hotel said he would do our laundry for us… SCORE!! We passed off our laundry and hit the city.  We decided to take a canal cruise (recommendation for Eric and Regina who had just moved to Amsterdam a few months ago).  But before we do, we drop in for a ‘ken”. 

The cruise through the canals was fantastic!! We got a great view of the city and learned some history while doing it.  I never realized how big and how many canals there actually were.  

This building made a certain someone come to mind…

Here is the gorgeous Amsterdam Centraal (train station)… On the cruise, we learned that the station is actually built in the open harbor on 3 artificial islands in the IJ lake.  This was done to allow the station to be connected with the existing main lines stations, as well as a projected new line.  Its crazy to think that this massive building is realistically sitting on an island that didn't used to be there.  
 
Here are some pictures from our canal cruise...

These houses are know as the dancing houses,

     since the sediment settled unevenly.

 

An old storage warehouse and a house built by a carpenter (hard to see all the detail).

Definitely worth doing, though in hindsight, I would have rather been on the boats that served wine and bbq too. 

Later we met up with a friend of mine, Hanna who lives in Amsterdam.  She took us to the Brouwerij’t’ij, a brewery located in an old windmill.  

What a cool spot! Not to mention, that the beer was great too!  We tried a few different types including one that is translated into “egg white”.  The people next to us, even got hard boiled eggs when they ordered their drink. Come to find out, that these eggs they are talking about are ostrich eggs.  Well at least thats what I gathered from the label.  

We had dinner at a local spot called the bierliun or beer garden.  It was amazing! It was so fun catching up with Hanna and getting a local’s point of view of the city.  Since we sat at community tables we found ourselves chatting with the people next to us, as well.  We got many recommendations of where else we should go on our trip and everybody said the same… Budapest! Hmmmmm, maybe we make a detour to this place. Anybody ever been there? Thoughts?

One of the highlights of the night was watching Ray try french fries with mayo, yes you heard me correct.  FF with mayo is a big Dutch thing and of course, when in Rome… despite his extreme dislike of mayo, Ray took one for the team.  Let’s just say his opinion of mayo didn't change at all, but at least I forever have a picture in my mind (and a video) of him eating mayo.

The following day, Ray and I were determined to see what all this bike talk was about so we rented bikes and putted around the city.  

We had a blast just riding around the city, attempting to not run over pedestrians and not get run over by buses or motorcycles.  We rode to the Rijkmuseum and Pepe was so excited to learn that he was a part of the tour.  

We briefly toured the highlights of the museum aka walked through the gift shop before continuing on our ride.  We rode past the Heineken Brewery and a very pretty park in the middle of the city (though I can not remember the name of it now). Initially, I thought we would ride for an hour or so… 4-5 hours later we finally stopped.  

We walked through the Amsterdam Tulip Museum which was really cool to see all the tulip bulbs and pictures of what all the tulips look like in full bloom.  

Pepe found some mighty big shoes…

By the way, today was the beginning of the NFL football season so of course Ray and I found a pub (3 Sisters Amsterdam) that had on the games.  Well, one game: New England vs Miami.  We watched most of the game there and caught a few highlights from some of the other games.  And fortunately for me, I was able to stream the 49ers game live once back at the hotel, even if it didn't start till 10:30pm.  

London Calling...

London, London, London... You are certainly a unique beast.  We land in Heathrow from Edinburgh and proceed to take the tube into the city and make it to our hotel at around 8:30.  Here's a hint.  If you're ever traveling, in the notes on your hotel reservation, let them know you're on you honeymoon... instant upgrade.

We landed, unpacked, and then went out for a bite to eat.  It certainly has a different feel than the other places we have been so far on our trip.  I'd venture to say that nothing else we will see will be close.  London has 10x the people of Dublin, and 20x the folks in Edinburgh.  I'd hate to see the math on the multiples of Dingle, or Kinsale, or Ballycastle, frightening.

This was a day that I had sort of been looking forward to.  Weird to say that someone would actually look forward to going to work, but it added a feeling of normal to my life to wake up in the morning and head into the office.  Ed, one of our partners in crime from Dublin, stopped by our hotel to get me in the morning.  Sarah had already gone on her way to take care of some things on her own.  We continued to walk through the streets and make our way past the Royal Chambers of Justice (think British Supreme Court) and Charles Dickens apartment, which I guess is an office or something now.  The walk finished in the "Silicon Roundabout" where a lot of tech companies are springing up in London.  Seems like every city now has a "silicon" identity, kind of like Lily Pulitzer.  Regardless... I showed up into the office and got to meet everyone in our company's London office.  It was really great to finally put faces to faceless email addresses.

The other thing that is rather entertaining.  Mirko, another of our Dublin crew, had felt so guilty about yelling at the president of PSU to get him the lion, that he sent an apology to which the guy responded personally.  HA.  I guess it pays to be brazen sometimes.

Everyone is super nice and it’s kind of funny to see an office, that’s part of the same company be so similar.  Similar personalities, similar attitudes toward work and life, just on the opposite side of the planet.  

Ed, Simon and I went to grab lunch, a “proper” English lunch, Meat Pies all around.  We got to  talking about a lot of different things.  I asked their opinion of the Scottish Independence vote.  They seem to think there won’t be much change to their life, but they mentioned that there is fear that the pound and the Euro could see major drops in value should it go through.  That would be great for us traveling, but not so great for everyone living here.  

After lunch, back to the office, and introductory meetings with some folks.  And midway through a meeting, Erik, an old coworker/friend walks in.  Sarah and I had been traveling for about a week and a half, and I had met some of the people from the London office before, and seen them just last weekend.  But, seeing someone that you have known for several years is a refreshing change. 

So we sat most of the afternoon and discussed his travels.  He had been traveling since the Beginning of August starting in Croatia and making his way to London before heading back to the States.  His 5 weeks were almost over, and ours were just beginning.  

We cut out from the office, and started Happy Hour and getting to know the team in London.  Funny enough, four of them are traveling to LA to visit our office next week.  A shame I’m going to miss them, since I’m sure they would love to see a familiar face as well.  

Sarah came to meet us after her interesting day, I’ll let her fill you in on that, but yeah, sounds interesting.  And we proceeded to discuss what we would do in LA for the three free days they have.  I think we got it figured out, but I still have to write them and let them know… so guys please remind me!!

We made it back to the hotel, and slept in the next morning.  Erik came to join us for some proper touristy goodness of London.  We only had a couple hours to kill before our flight, so we met up with him right at Parliament and wandered over to the London Eye.  For most of the last decade the London Eye was the biggest ferris wheel in the world, until beaten out by one in Vegas, of course!  I’m sure there are better views from this one:

We just walked around the city discussing with Erik his travels, and what he’s learned along the way and what we should look out for.  He had just come from Amsterdam, our next stop, so he was filling us in.  And we were commiserating at how good it would feel to stay in our own beds. 

He mentioned that our trip from here will only get stranger, which kind of made us excited and a bit fearful.  

So we made it back to the hotel, got our stuff and took off.  We had to catch a train to a train to the airport.  Well we get to the airport about an hour before takeoff.  So we rush through the terminal to find our gate, only to find that we are in the wrong terminal.  It’s now 3:10 and our flight leaves at 4.  So we catch the tram to the North terminal at Gatwick.  Find British Airways and start the self check-in process.  Name in passport does not match name on the ticket, try again, and again… 3:20.  Go to  the ticket counter, “Well, your passport says Raymond Putt III and the ticket says Raymond Putt, So of course they don’t match.”  Really?!? We run off to get through security.  The line wraps around a couple of times.  So, I ask the guy, “Our flight leaves in 30 minutes, the gate closes in 15, can we get through the line?”  So, he lets us cut, and we get all our stuff into the bins.  On the other side, two of our bins get to be gone through by hand.  3:25.  They sure do like to take their sweet time in England.  They just kept dillydallying while we sat there waiting.  So, I had a water bottle in my backpack, and we had yogurt in our food bag. 3:35.  We go through the doors into the terminal looking for gate 109.  Look up at the sign, we’re at gate 36.  We just start running.  Follow the signs to 100-115.  Go around the corner and more signs, around another corner and there’s an escalator up.  Get to the top of that and there’s a 200 yard long hallway to another escalator down.  Get to the bottom of that, and we’re at gate 100.  We’re running through the airport, trying to get to the gate.  We’re sweaty, and hustling and we get to the gate, and I slam the boarding passes on the desk, the guy looks at me puzzled, “You’re not business class, we’re only boarding business class at the moment.”  Turns out we were a little delayed, and for once we were thankful for that.  

It’s funny since last time I was in London 10 years ago, a similar thing happened at Heathrow.  We went to the wrong terminal and ended up running like OJ through the airport to get to the gate. 

So here we are on the plane, flying to mainland Europe.  Entering the land where speaking English is now a courtesy.  Ah London, we certainly have a love/hate relationship.  But all in all it was a great time.

So, we haven’t looked at a map in a bit, so here’s where we’ve been since the last time we posted a map:

England Day 12-13: London..."I feel like a sardine!"

Today I took to the city, but this time I was riding solo.  Ray had gone into his company's London office so I decided to go do my own thing... Easy right?  I had scheduled a few meetings with some local professionals, one being way north of the city and one on the more western part.  Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me.  Trying to navigate the underground, as well as some above ground trains was relatively easy.  I found it much more difficult to maneuver my way through the people, buses and cars.  Every step I took, every move I made (just like the Police song), I was dodging people left and right.  I avoid one collision to be faced with another potential one.  And that wasn't even rush hour… Coming back this evening was even worse.  I boarded the train when there looked to have only been a handful of people seated and by the time I got on, I had managed to barely sneak my way into an area right in front of the inner car door.  Luckliy this meant, I got a little fresh air; but realistically it meant that at every stop, I would just get squished deeper and deeper into the nonexistent side of the train. A few stops later a man boards the train. He looks around at all the madness; people squeezed every which way, the temperature inside the train increasing exponentially with every passing second.  I could tell he was not a local Londonite… He then blurts out, “I don't know how people do this everyday… I feel like an f***ing sardine!!!”  He was so right, it pretty much smelled the same too.   That being said, some of the sights I saw throughout the day, helped make up for this madness, at least a little. 

Here’s two from Whitehall Gardens, where I picnicked for lunch. 

Couldn’t miss the London Eye view from the street.  

An Air Force WWI monument.

 The big guy… Big Ben & Parliament

And Westminister Abbey

Despite the tube mayhem, I did manage to 

find my way home, just in time for Ray to get back.  We head off to grab a pint and dinner with the London crew.  

Here’s some of the London crew, plus Erik from home.  I can’t even begin to explain how nice it was to see a familiar face after being out with the masses all day long.  

Pepe made a lot of new friends, including Spud the dog…And I must say, I love the name. Though Pepe had a hard time with all the smoke in the air.

The next day, Erik, Ray and I head off to 

do a little sightseeing, before we leave 

London and head to Amsterdam.  

We meet up at Big Ben.

 And walk to the eye. What a cool experience that was! Some of my friends did it that last time I was in London and I chose not to.  Ever since then, I have been really wanting to do it.  It was so worth doing.  It takes about 30 minutes to get around, but you get to see an amazing ariel view of the city.  

We say our goodbyes to Erik (who btw gave us some great travel tips on some of the places we were headed next) and hopped on the train to Gatwick Airport. Apparently, we should have listened a little better to Erik saying we needed to leave way before we did.  We got to the airport and literally had to run to catch our flight.  It didn't help that our bags got stopped in security, using up a precious 10ish minutes that we didn’t have to begin with.  As we were sprinting to the gate, I kept thinking this is how it must feel on Amazing Race, except that there would be a cash prize at the end. I could totally do that! We get to the gate just as they begin boarding…Phew! Made it.  Once in Amsterdam, we had our first real true test of a new language.  Up until that point, say like when we were in Ireland, there was Gaelic but always the English equivalent right next to it.  This time it was all Dutch. It was really cool, but also a little eye opening.  Everyone could understand what we were saying, but we didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about.  

Day 11-12: Anyone for a DFMB?

Our time in Scotland is quickly coming to an end, but luckily we have a few more hours to enjoy the city before heading to the airport.  Since yesterday we did the Castle, which is at one end of the Royal Mile, today we decided to head the other direction towards the Scottish Parliament and the Palace of Holyroodhouse.  Pepe thought the Parliament building was really neat... and from afar also Holyrood.  

Holyroodhouse is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland and has served as the place od residence for the queens and kings of Scotland since the 16th century. It was originally founded by David I, King of Scots, in 1128.  I also learned that Queen Elizabeth spends one week in residence at Holyrood Palace at the beginning of each summer.

Speaking of Scottish traditions, Ray had his heart set on trying a deep fried mars bar from one of the local Chipy shops called Bene.  Unfortunately, we arrived before it had even opened yet.  But Ray was not giving up on this deliquesce.  We came back a wee bit later and snagged one...Pretty much exactly how it looks, is how it tastes... HORRIBLE!!! I should start by saying that I am not much of a chocolate bar/ Mars candy bar person to begin with (unless, of course, it is Kinder), but this concoction with just gross, Ray and Pepe didn't care for it either.  I much preferred the deep fried bacon wrapped jalapeño poppers or pickles at the county fair to this.  

We continued our walk around the city, this time heading down to Princess St, to get a view of the city from below.  We came across the Scott Monument towering over our heads (200', 6" tall).  This monument is a Victorian Gothis monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott and is the largest monument to a writer in the world.

 

We even got a really cool view of the castle.

              I feel like this picture helps show how big it actually is. 

We finished up our stint in Scotland and headed back to the airport, this time to head to London... As we were in route, I could not stop signing Estelle's song American Boy... "Just another champion sound, Yeah Estelle we 'bout to get down, Who the hottest in the world right now, Just touched down in London town"