a ride down the Thames...

I know this is almost a week late BUT 

on Monday we took a boat tour down the Thames to Greenwich!

It was a beautiful day but windy on the water. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my camera so I have limited pictures from the adventure. 

After the boat tour we went to Greenwich and stood on the Prime Meridian!

Adventures in Amsterdam

Our Adventure began early Thursday morning with a speedy Tube ride over the Heathrow Airport. The hour long ride was actually shorter than the flight over to Amsterdam (only 45 min!) When we arrived in the Amsterdam airport we got thoroughly confused by the train system and spent a good 20 min running around, up and down escalators trying to find the train to central Amsterdam. Eventually we gave up on our own "good sense of direction" and asked someone at an information desk. 15 min later we had arrived! We immediately picked up a map, circled the street our hostel was on and off we went!

There were bikes everywhere in Amsterdam. We originally were going to rent bikes for the weekend but we decided we were probably better off walking. 

I feel like I've been on a canal tour of Europe, Venice, Bruges and now Amsterdam. The canals make for beautiful cities but they are also very helpful when trying to find yourself on a map! 

Me and Emily on a bridge on our walk to the hostel

After we found our hostel and dropped off all of our bags we set out to explore the area. We didn't have any agenda for the afternoon- we experienced the local culture wandering in an out of stores, cafes, and coffee shops. Even though it was bitter cold we spent a while just sitting on a bench by the canal and chatting as we watched people wander (or speed on their bikes) down the streets.  

On Friday we woke up early and went to the Anne Frank House and took the tour. It was, of course, an emotional  and powerful experience. At the end there was an interactive section that I thought was a particularly good way to tie it up. They had a video loop playing of different current day questions about freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and other humanitarian questions. At the end of the clip you're asked to vote (on little buttons next to your chair) on if you agree if certain things should be allowed or outlawed. I think the genius of this was that when we left the museum we weren't talking about how depressed we felt but rather about our interpretations of those last questions and what we believed was fair and just. After that we wandered south and found the I Amsterdam sign and obviously had an epic photo shoot! (The rest of these pictures are up on facebook if you want to see!)

The building behind the I Amsterdam sign is the Rijsk Museum which was the next stop on our adventure. Things to remember for the future: read all signs before entering a building! We were going to go to the Van Gogh museum but thought the Rijsk, which is Amsterdam's main art museum, would be all encompassing and thus everyone would get to see something they liked. It wasn't until after we paid our 12.50 euro that we realized everything but one wing (the Rembrandt and Dutch history section) was closed for renovation. Oops. We still saw some amazing things and had a great time but it was disappointing. On our way out we saw the big red sign on the gate saying that most of the museum was closed for renovations. Shoot! Next time I'll remember to read first, pay later. 

Later, we went on the Heineken Brewery tour. It was really fun and we got to see how the beer is made and of course drink some along the way!  

Our last day we wandered around Central Amsterdam and the Red Light District- not so freaky in the daytime!

We found our way back to the train pretty early and got the airport with plenty of time. It was quite and interesting airport too. There were comfortable chairs and fake fireplaces and bookshelves (with books!). We ended up taking a short nap before our flight since the couches were so cozy! 

After our nap we found our gate- at this airport they don't do security when you walk in. Instead, they have security at each individual gate. It was bizarre and didn't make much sense to us. It was also unfortunate because if you got a bottle of water in the airport you had to finish it before you got on the plane. Our flight back was quick and easy but when we got back to London we found out that part of the Tube was closed. It's always doing that! Anyway, we got directions about which bus to get on and where to get back on the Tube. It ended up being easy to figure out and we made it home in just over an hour. Another adventure where we traveled by plane, train and automobile!



Today we're going to see the new [P]Opera about Anna Nicole! 

Belgium!

Even though we spent less than 48 hours in Belgium we saw a lot....

Our coach got picked up outside of our flat at 6 am on Friday morning and drove a few hours to the Chunnel. I was really confused about how we were going to drive to Belgium but it turns out that they have enormous train cars that buses and cars can fit in. So we drove onto the train and then the train took us over to France! It was pretty cool. I tried to take pictures but they didn't really look that impressive.

We spent the first day touring WWI sites.

When we got off the Chunnel we drove the rest of the way to Belgium and went to a small town called Ypres.  First stop was the WWI museum. Ypres along with many other places in Belgium were complete decimated during the war. I mean flattened. Want to read about some of the war history? Click Here!

The museum was beautifully put together. Interesting, informative, and indescribably upsetting. This museum shows both the large scale impact that the fighting had in Belgium, Ypres, and the individuals.  It's impossible to understand the magnitude of a war that terrible. Then again, I have trouble grasping the horror and tragedy of any war. But we as a group found this especially hard because of the lack of attention placed on WWI in most of our educations. We knew the basics of what lead to the war and how America got involved and the post war effects but only a few of us really knew much beyond that. We were all extremely depressed as we walked out of the museum to find our hotel and eat lunch.





We had a nice lunch full of beer and waffles ....sooo delicious! Then headed out for our bus tour of town. We had a tour guide this time who came on board with us and pointed things out as we went while explaining more of the war history. We stopped at a few cemeteries and one of the restored trenches. It was intense but really interesting. I'm really glad we did it and got to see all of the locations. It helped me start to understand what actually took place in Ypres during the war.

After the tour we had another yummy meal and then went to a WWI memorial ceremony that takes place every single day at 8 pm. 

Then a group of us wandered around Ypres and found a bar and went to get some drinks and hang out for a while. It was nice to get to spend time together as a group since we hadn't really done much of that before this trip. 

Day two- Bruges 

Market in Ypres

We woke up and wandered around the town market until our bus left for Bruges at 9:30am

Both Bruges and Ypres were the same size up until World War I. Bruges, unlike Ypres, was untouched in either war so it was neat to see original 14th century buildings. We climbed a big clock tower with 300+ steps with the smallest winding spiral staircase I've ever seen. It was scary going up but walking back down was kind of terrifying! I meant to take a picture but I was too afraid haha! 

After that we just ate chocolate and waffles until the bus picked us up at 3 to go back to London!

House in Bruges

This is the clock tower we climbed

view from the tower

wall of Belgian beers!

Chocolate Ducks!