Netherlands

I officially started my trip on Monday morning...with a 10 hr flight with insufficient leg room and a very upset, British baby who insisted on screaming at 15 - 30 minute intervals for the entire trip. Still, overall a decent flight.

Here's a picture of Bryn and me at my parents house just before leaving for the airport.



Bill and Dennis met us at the airport! We knew Bill was going to meet us, but Dennis was more of a pleasant surprise. The 4 amigos reunited, we went to Amsterdam for a bit and then made our way to Utrecht, NL.



Here's a picture of me down some random street in Utrecht.



Here's a picture of Bryn, Dennis, and me at the Cathedral Tower (The "Dom" Tower), located near the center of downtown.



We also met up with a friend of ours, Jesse, in Utrecht. Here's a picture of me...and Jesse's Netherlands (feel free to kick me for that line later). Aren't the buildings pretty?

Anyway, we've been walking all over the place. Utrecht is really beautiful...at least the downtown area I've been visiting. Lots of shops and places to eat.

We spent most of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday messing around in Utrecht and Amsterdam. Today we went to Rotterdam, which is much more like a city, and Delft, which is more like Utrecht.

We went to a the Maritime Museum on Rotterdam, the Museum Park, Het Park, and the Euromast. The Euromast is this huge tower where you can pay a fee (8,30 Euros) to go up and look out over Rotterdam and its neighboring cities. Then we went to Delft around 6pm. It turns out that EVERYTHING shuts down after 6 pm. So Delft was sort of a bust, though we did find a few coffee shops open.

Oh, that reminds me. Did you know they don't drink tap water here?? No drinking fountains, except the one I found near the post office in Utrecht. Everyone pays a ridiculous amount of money (about 2 Euros) for a friggin bottle of water. Lame, huh?

We're heading to Amsterdam tomorrow to spend some time exploring the city. I really haven't had a chance to do that yet. I'll be leaving Holland on Saturday for Cologne, Germany on my way to the Black Forrest. We actually have the next 4 or 5 days pretty much mapped out (hostels/hotels reserved, etc.), and we'll be passing through Germany, France, and Switzerland.

I'm really having a lot of fun and the trip has been extremely relaxing so far. AND I got to stay in a hostel for the first time...with 13 other people in the room with me...many snored and did really strange things in their sleep.

It's almost midnight here, so I'm heading to bed. Feel free to e-mail me or leave me comments on the webpage!

I posted more pictures on the "More Pictures"link to the right. Check them out.