Home!

I am home safely. Sleeping till Tuesday!

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a quirky city with its own je ne sais quoi. It's very expensive by US standards with near-extortion prices on food & drinks. The city is very old, with some buildings dating back to the 13th century. Almost none of them were easily accessible to Joleen's walker. The public transit system is very easy to use, and reasonably priced.

We stayed at a B&B on the 7th floor of a block of flats in the middle of Rembrandtpark, which was absolutely gorgeous this time of year. The grass was lush and green, water fowl were swimming in the canal, and several people were taking advantage of the beautiful weather we enjoyed for our entire stay. As a matter of fact, the only time it rained on us for the entire 3 week vacation were the two times that I went on errands without Joleen. Anywhere we needed to go was a relaxing 5-10 minute walk through the park.

Getting downtown to the Centrum in Amsterdam was about a 20 minute tram ride, but once there, everything was on foot. I'm not sure what the ideal footwear is for the rough cobblestones, brick roads, and long, crowded, winding routes to wherever we wanted to go, but I'm sure my Doc Martens were not the right choice. After 3 days, my feet were blistered and bleeding. But it was worth it! Most shop owners were very pleasant and polite, and I didn't run into anyone who didn't speak and understand English. There's not much in the way of English signage, but my passable knowledge of German allowed me to make a fair enough guess. When things were unclear, asking any random passer-by on the street was able to direct me.

I'll definitely be visiting Amsterdam again in the future, once I figure out the right shoes to wear!

Starting the Dutch leg of my tour

I really have no discipline for blogging, and I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while.

I'm on the ferry out of Dover, heading toward Amsterdam and I have some time to compose a new update. 

Joleen and I got a lot of London tourism accomplished. We met a friend in Shoreditch for the Jack the Ripper tour and a pint at the pub where he stalked his victims. Then we walked up Brick Lane to take in some edgy graffiti. 

Next day, we took an open-top bus tour through historic London followed by a brief and uneventful river cruise, finishing with a coach tour out to Stonehenge. 

Nothing could have prepared me for Stonehenge. It is a pile of rocks that looked like they could have been stacked by a giant. When I considered the state of technology pre-Bronze Age, I can't fathom how they got the lintel stones placed, nor why they would feel the need to arrange them as they did. 

After a day of rest, we left our host in Ladbroke Grove to do some contract music production and stayed with our new friends in Shoreditch.

We went over to Baker Street looking for 221B, and finding a new bank in its place. There was, however, a Beatles store next door where we picked up a couple mementos and gifts. Then we headed over to an umbrella store where we picked up a couple of properly sturdy London umbrellas in a 130 year old shop. Unfortunately, the umbrella-cane didn't hold up under Joleen's first use, and the handle snapped off.

Rosslyn Chapel

We were very interested in what we read in The Da Vinci Code about Rosslyn Chapel. The Templar and pre-Christian imagery and the encrypted references to the Holy Grail and Freemasonry were intriguing, so we put Rosslyn on our must-visit list for our trip to the UK.

It was just our luck that our host in Scotland lives so close. We took an afternoon trip down to the outskirts of Edinburgh, following a country road through some quaint towns to the chapel.

The experience did not disappoint. Rosslyn Chapel is full of intricate carvings depicting haunting visages, macabre stories, and a wide variety of religious belief systems. The stained glass was detailed beyond anything I've ever seen.

Have a look at today's pictures in the Flickr photo set in the link in the right bar.

Northern Scotland madness

We just got back to the Edinburgh area after 2 days up near Aberdeen. We went up to the Culloden battlefield and around Loch Ness, but we didn't get up to the whiskey distilleries before they closed for the night.

I've put pictures up, and I'll keep adding to this set.
Scotland Trip Flickr Set

First day in Scotland

We were picked up from the bus station by our gracious host and had dinner, then settled into his cozy house in Cardenen. We stayed up talking until well after the sun came up, then got a few hours of sleep. Started the day with some tea, but Joleen isn't feeling well after all the travel. She's getting some sleep.

Landed!

A bit of a bumpy flight, but all went well. I'm in London!