A Wonderful Fall Break

My great buddy Lydia and I embarked on an ambitious voyage to London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Amsterdam during our 10 day fall break last week. What an amazing travel experience it was. I loved each city! We were blessed with great weather despite the UK's reputation for gray skies and ran which made it even better. In London, we picnicked in the beautiful Kensington Park, rode in the huge London Eye ferris wheel for amazing 360 tours of the city, dined with Lydia's british acquaintance in Shepherd's Bush in their cute london abode, visited the awesome collection at the Tate Modern, and rode around on a double decker tour bus. We had one mishap at Luton Airport, where we spentour sunday because we didn't get our passports stamped and were not allowed on the plane ... so we waited 8 hours for the next flight.

But we made it to Dublin safely. This was my first student Hostel experience... not to bad. A fun lively atmosphere with no added frills. But that's all we needed really: a bed to sleep in and a toilet. We took a day excursion on a tour bus to see a bit of the Irish countryside. We had a great irish tour guide named Kevin who had a great sense of humor :) There was no rain, the leaves were all changing and all the funny sheep were out grazing in the fields. The landscape was very beautiful and very diverse. We drank ciderbites at the oldest pub in Ireland that night when we got back. The next morning I visited the Guiness Storehouse --- irelands famous beverage and then were were off to Edinburgh.

I loved this medieval scottish city. We arrived right at sunset and the city which gave the city a great majestic first impression. This hostel was super fun too. They rented VHS so our second night there we watched Braveheart. We took a free walking tour offered which was nice. We learned that Edinburgh was a huge inspiration for JK Rowling when dreaming up Harry Potter. Our last night there we ate at the cafe where she first scribbled her first ideas on a napkin. One of our tour guide labeled Harry Potter fans as "Pot-heads". We took another bus trip out to LochNess. Our driver was great and played lots of bagpipe music and told lots of scottish folklore. Everything was so green. We had breathtaking views during the scenic drive. Edinburgh was a great place to be during near Halloween. We took a ghost tour of the old underground passages of the city. Spooky! The scottish are very superstitious, which makes their history so intriguing.

Our last stop was a quick stay in Amsterdam. Lydia and i visited two great art museums, the Rijksmuseum (the dutch had some amazing artists in the 17th century) and the Van Gogh museum -- I love Van Gogh!! We rode around on the canals and walked through the flower market. It really is a unique city. By the end of the trip we were ready to go back to Paris. I said to Lydia "Man! We've practically traveled by every means of transportation: Plane, Train, bus, boat, Metro..." and she replied "But not by camel!"... maybe someday on our next adventure ;-D