Bon Voyage!

It didn't make the boat on the 10th, but it did get loaded today on the "Elektra." 20 days until she makes port in Brunswick after stops in Gothenburg, Sweden; Zeebrugge, Belgium; Southampton, UK; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and New York, NY.

Some bad news...

Just got some bad news. Turns out my car will not be leaving on the big boat today. It looks like it will be leaving on the 16th, arriving in Brunswick on the 5th. Dammit!

I got an interesting phone call while in the McD's drive through line

So I was in the drive thru line at McDonald's this morning and got an interesting phone call. It was Doug, the gallery owner back in Winchecombe. We talked about that painting that we liked so much and he allowed as how he would get back to me regarding finding a shipping agent.

Sweet!

I really miss BA Club World

Our vacation is over.

Today was about as much of a waste as our adventure to Andechs was two weeks ago. Since our flight out of Heathrow wasn't until 3pm, we decided to get one more sight in on the way to the airport. Since we didn't get any word from the art gallery about that painting, our morning got freed up a little.

We had two choices: Blenheim Palace or a city walk around Oxford. We chose Blenheim Palace since we didn't want to get caught up in finding city parking in Oxford and whatnot.

After breakfast (have I mentioned the fried bread?) we loaded up and headed out. Blenheim Palace wasn't too far, but when we got there, it was complete chaos. Evidently, they host some huge triathlon this weekend every year. There were mobs of people trying to get into the grounds (both tourists and athletes) and people were parking in the fields. We made a strategic decision to give Blenheim a pass and head to Oxford instead.

Oxford wasn't very far from Blenheim, and since we weren't really prepared to visit here, I was completely unprepared for finding parking or what there was to see or anything. We drove into the center of town and made an attempt at parking in a public garage, but ultimately decided just to bail out and head to the airport. That way we wouldn't be rushed to find a place for lunch or to return our rental car or to check in.

Turns out, that we bumbled around a bit finding the car rental return (our EuropCar supplied SatNav system had issues finding the EuropCar Heathrow location, who'd a thunk it?), so having that extra time really helped out with the stress factor.

The only drama we had getting home was that Angela forgot to put her little picnic knife into her checked luggage. The people screening the carry-on baggage looked at her like "what were you thinking trying to bring a knife on the plane?" Of course, the had to confiscate it. The fight was OK, but after having come over in BA's Club World cabin, anything less is just plain uncivilized.

Our reentry into the USA was very smooth, by Hartsfield International standards; with the exception of the jar of jam that Angela bought at Heathrow that she tried to get through in her carry-on bag. See, in ATL, you have to collect your baggage, go through customs, then recheck it to the main terminal. Because of this, you have to go back through a security line with x-rays and metal detectors like when you first check in. Since the jam counted as a liquid, and since it was obviously more than the 3oz you're allowed, they took it, too. Thanks, DHS. Hope you enjoyed your toast with jam.

Another vacation over. This one was really fun because the weather was so good the whole time. We were able to do almost everything we set out to do.

I got word that our car is set to be shipped on the 10th; with a Brunswick arrival on the 24th. It's looking good that I'll get my car back by the 4th of July weekend.

Why are all of these villages so pretty?

Damn that Fried Bread is good! We had a full house in the dining room this morning and it was nice to chat with all the other guests over breakfast. The other Americans staying here were going to Stratford-on-Avon to do the Shakespeare thing, and the couple from Essex (who were visiting the Costwolds for the first time) were going to do like us and just go whereever their car took them.

Our first stop this morning was another National Trust property called "Hidcote Manor Garden." The garden was huge and segmented off in various themed "rooms" based on the flora planted in them. Thankfully we got there before the crush of people. Before we knew it, it was almost noon and we headed out towards Bourton-on-the-Water for lunch and more cute golden stone buildings and creeping rose bushes.

We enjoyed a couple sandwiches along the "-on-the-Water" part of Bourton with apparently the rest of the entire county of Gloucestershire. It was cute; with kids playing in the little stream throwing rocks at the ducks and whatnot. Ice cream was the treat du jour, with no less than 10 ice cream parlors along the High Street.

We went onward to the very small town of Bibury. Man, this was the quaintest little town we'd seen so far. And you know what? That same busload of asian artists that we saw yesterday in "The Slaughters" was there with their little stools and sketch pads and watercolors. Bibury is evidently a popular spot, since there were cars parked everywhere. We discovered that there is a rather large trout farm and there were tons of people fishing in the trout ponds. One guy was fishing downstream of the trout farm and caught a fairly good size fish. One woman asked why he didn't throw it back, and he politely said "because I'm going to eat it." Not unlike most every other Cotswold village, there isn't much more to Bibury than just the cuteness of the cottages, so once we took another hundred or so photos of the creeping rose bushes, we headed out towards Burford.

Burford was the furthest point we got from Nineveh; which is to say it was only like 35 miles away. It was also probably one of the larger villages/towns we visited. While we were enjoying our afternoon tea and scones (OK, Angela had the tea and scones and I had a really good strawberry sundae), we came to the conclusion that we really wanted to get that painting we saw in Winchecomb yesterday. We hopped back in the car and made a mad dash for the gallery, but got there just a couple minutes after closing time. Angela had the bright idea of asking one of the neighboring shop-owners if he had a cell number for the gallery owner. One of them took my mobile number and said that he would try to get a hold of him. Maybe he'll call and agree to open his shop tomorrow. Who knows?

Anyway, feeling a little dejected that we might have missed out on the painting, we headed back to Nineveh for a glass of wine before dinner. The sheep behind the hotel were baying very loudly today. They won't come very close to the fence, but they do all look up when you try to "talk" to them. It's amazing the different number of voices they have.

We had a really nice dinner back in Mickelton; and actually ran into the couple from Essex.

We head back to the states tomorrow. We're going to try to see Blenheim Palace since it's right on the way back to Heathrow. Our flight's not until 3pm, so we have a little time in the morning.

My God, it's full of sheep!

Damn it got cold last night! No A/C in the house, so we had all the windows open and it got pretty chilly overnight. Breakfast was traditional English style, including the mushrooms and stewed tomatoes (I opted out of the mushrooms and tomatoes) and something called "Fried Bread." Now, I was thinking something like French Toast, but in fact it was more like two pieces of white bread soaked in butter and oil and fried in a skillet. Mmmm....

We set out around 10:30 for the town of Broadway. Our hosts provided us with a suggested circle route through several of the more picturesque Cotswolds villages, and the first stop was Broadway via Mickelton (so we could make reservations for dinner at the "Three Ways House Hotel").

Broadway was a lovely little town with a very nice "High Street" of shops and tea rooms. We peeked into several galleries looking for a nice painting to bring home but didn't find anything that "spoke" to us. I am afraid that I will become completely desensitized to all the "cuteness" of the crawling rose vines and the gorgeous golden limestone buildings and the thatched roofs.

After a "down and back" of the hight street, we set off for Winchcombe by way of the "Snowshill Manor" and the small town of Snowshill. Snowshill Manor is part of the "National Trust" and up until the 40's it was an occupied residence. The gardens were stunning (and I don't even think this is a "big" garden by National Trust standards). We didn't get tickets for the house itself, but we were able to peek into a couple of the outbuildings, including the owner's residence cottage.

We had lunch in the small village of Snowshill at the pub that was about 50 yards away from the house, but required a long walk back to the car park and out in order to reach. Angela had what looked to be a very yummy baked camembert with raspberry jam and crackers while I had a delicious bacon burger with chips (fries). The Cotswolds is famous for its hard cider, so we tried some that was not very refreshing; it was hand-pumped and served cool but not cold.

We rolled out of town after a couple more pictures of creeping rose bushes and cute cottages and headed for Winchcombe. Winchcombe was a little more "working" than the other villages, and therefore not quite as picturesque. We did however manage to find a gallery that was showing a local artist's work that we really liked. We waffled around a bit and decided to walk around some while we thought about it. Not being able to make a decision on where to actually hang it, we left without buying anything.

None of these small villages is more than 10 or so miles from the next, and so we left Winchcombe and hit some small country "lanes" on the way to "The Slaughters" (Upper and Lower). We must have passed 2 or 3 villages so small that they weren't much more than a main square, a post office/general store/pub, and a small church.

Upper Slaughter wasn't much bigger, and our hosts back at the B&B strongly encouraged us to walk from Upper to Lower via one of the numerous public footpaths that criscross the country. It was a fairly short walk through a couple fields, past a burbling stream and fields of sheep making a terrific racket. There are actually quite a number of sheep everywhere. Lower Slaughter has a little more going on and when we got there, there was a whole busload of asian folks on some sort of art adventure with their sketchpads and easels find inspiration in the architecture of the Cotswolds. Still and all, there's really not that much to "do" here, and it wasn't long before we headed back to the car via the footpath.

By then it had started to get a little late (late by Cotswolds time, which is only about 5:45pm), and we decided to head back to Nineveh for a little vino before heading to dinner. We returned to a full car park and a gathering of people sitting out in the garden. Turns out they're from the states and finishing up their vacation in the Cotswolds just like us. We enjoyed a nice conversation and a little snack and then headed to dinner at "Randalls Brasserie" in Mickelton.

Now, the Three Ways House Hotel is home to the "Pudding Club" and specializes in both sweet and savory puddings. I had an unbelievable pudding consisting of chicken, ham, and sage all cooked in a pastry-type crust. It was so good, I don't even remember what Angela had. For dessert, we shared a portion of a Banana-Cinnamon pudding (that had more of the consistency of a grainy bread pudding than the "snack-pack" style of pudding that we are used to) topped with a warm custard. It was so good and I am still quite full.

More cute villages await tomorrow, after we visit the Hidcote Manor Garden, another National Trust property.

I wish I could be a British Monarch

We got a really nice tour of some of the more obscure places in Amsterdam this morning on the way to the airport. The hotel's airport driver was really friendly and pointed us out several areas of the city where we would have never gone otherwise.

The Amsterdam airport is this huge sprawling place, and our gate seemed to be the farthest one from the ticket counters. Our taxi-out took almost as long as the actual flight to Gatwick.

We rented a car for our couple days in England, and ours came in the form of a Peugeot 207 diesel (with a stick, no less). I have driven in the UK before, but not with a stick, so I did a couple laps around the car park (that what Brits call a parking lot) to get familiar with the different shifting movements and then we set off for Windsor Castle.

After seeing Windsor Castle, I can't decide if I would rather be a European Emperor or a British Monarch. Our first stop was St. George's Chapel since it was going to close at 3pm. Now, I've seen my share of Gothic churches, and this one is maybe the best one of the bunch. There is just so much history in that building; so many Tudor kings and queens are buried there; all of the heraldric symbolism with the Order of the Garter; etc.

The actual tour of the castle included the "State Apartments" and Queen Mary's "Doll's House," which was an amazing feat of art and craftsmanship in itself. The State Apartments were as richly appointed as one might expect from a royal line that extends back through several centuries. The main banquet hall was enormous; the dining table is one unbroken surface and they line up all of the serving pieces with rulers (and probably lasers and hyper-accurate GPS, too).

I think I made a mistake when we parked the car and I parked in a timed lot where they appear to boot cars with religious zeal, so after a quick bite at the McDonalds (purely filler), we headed out towards our actual destination in the Cotswolds. I had this vision of sort of a British version of Provence, and it was basically exactly that.

Our B&B is in this old farmhouse that dates back to the early 19th century, and our hosts remind me of some old family friends from back in my childhood as they served us tea in their very well kept garden.

We ate dinner in the smallish town of Chipping Campden and then strolled around the mostly abandoned streets. See, here in the Cotswolds, everything besides pubs and restaurants closes at 5:30.

I assume that we'll just drive around all of the little villages tomorrow; stopping wherever we see something interesting.

Who would have though you could find such good Indonesian food in Amsterdam?

I could get used to these breakfasts. We're getting fed very well, here. Despite being on a pretty busy canal, we're sleeping pretty well, too. Our room comes equipped with a white noise generator that does a great job of masking the street sounds.

Our canal boat ticket was good until noon, so we high-tailed it to the central station where we were going to catch the "Grand Circle Cruise" which took us around the perimeter of the city along the outermost canal. Most of the canal houses are starting to look the same by now; so the only really interesting part of this water bus line was the old-timey windmill that is now home to a local brewery. One other interesting thing along the canals is all the houseboats. There are over 2000 of them throughout the city. I think they are all pretty much permanently moored to the banks and the narration on the boat said that almost all of them have hookups to city gas and city water. It's kind of like a giant city-wide trailer park on water. Some of the boats look really nice; some of them are complete dumps.

After one "Grand Circle," our ticket had expired, but we decided to just stay on the boat until it made another half-loop around the city and got off at the Albert Cuyp Market. This particular street market had gotten some mention in our guidebook, but the reality wasn't nearly as nice as the description. The food stands were amazing; but the rest was like a big flea market. We had lunch at this little bagel place near the market and then began the long walk back towards the hotel via the floating flower market and the Leidsestraat shopping street. We came out of there relatively unscathed, with just a couple chunks of Dutch cheese.

Probably the most interesting museum we went to was at the "Amstelkring." This was a Catholic church that had been established in an attic during a time when being a Catholic was illegal in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, they were doing quite a bit of renovation to the actual church, so we couldn't see it in all its splendor.

Since there really is no such thing as "Dutch" cuisine (besides the omnipresent pickled Herring stands), we decided to have Indonesian food. Our plates (called "Nasi Rames") were just huge sampler platters of all kinds of dishes. My favorite one was the chunks of pork on a skewer that had some sort of barbeque sauce marinated on them. The whole thing was amazing.

Our final "tour" in Amsterdam was a semi-guided tour of the Grand Hotel Sofitel. Apparently, the hotel is located in a fairly historic building, and the concierge is all too willing to expound on the history of their "Marriage Chamber" and "Council Hall." They are rightly proud of their property there.

Early morning tomorrow so we can get to the airport in time to fly over to Gatwick. Pepijn is getting up early with us to cook up another yummy breakfast.

They don't call them the Dutch Masters for nothing.

We woke up to sunny skies and pleasant temperatures this morning. Breakfast was delicious with fresh cooked eggs and bacon and some of the best bread (or "brood" in Dutch) I've ever had.

Since Amsterdam is crisscrossed with all these canals, we decided what better way to get around than by a canal boat? We got a 24hr pass and proceeded to the closest stop before hopping on a boat for the "Rijksmuseum." Even though they are renovating probably 85% of the museum, the works they put on display in the "temporary" museum were amazing. Rembrandt and his contemporaries and students were truly masters of lighting and texture. The landscapes were stunning and Rembrandt's portraits were so lifelike; even up very very close. There was an amazing scale model of an old Dutch warship, made from small wood timbers and completely rigged out also. The only thing missing were the little guys manning the deck. If the "temporary" exhibit was this good, I can't imagine how good the whole collection is.

We were good and hungry after the museum, so we set out to find a sandwich shop. I can't believe how hard it is to find something that's not McDonald's or Burger King or a Falafel stand. As it happens, we ate at a falafel stand. My "Doner Kebap" was very tasty, but Angela's bratwurst was not and she only ate half of it. We spotted an "Australian Ice Cream" shop and had a couple waffles with chocolate sauce and fresh whipped cream. Yummy!

Not satisfied with our street art purchase from yesterday; we perused the artists selling their pieces on the "Leidseplein" and noticed something very curious. It appeared that they weren't "real." In that I could not see the brush marks on the paper; nor could I see where the water in the water colors actually deformed the paper. Some of the artists didn't even sign their pieces. Very curious... Unfortunately, we had to race to catch the canal boat so we didn't have the chance to look at them very closely.

We took the canal boat to the end of the line and switched back to get back to the Westerkerk and the Anne Frank House museum. After walking around the Jordaan neighborhood (and getting pretty cold doing it, since the clouds moved in and the wind picked up), we took our tour of the Anne Frank House. I don't remember reading her diary when I was in school, but I need to now. Her family's story is pretty amazing. I will say that their "hiding place" was bigger than I had envisioned it.

Walking through the Red Light District on the way back to the hotel was a trip. There are so many sex shops, sex theaters, and women posing in their little private fishbowls that you become completely desensitized to it.

Amsterdam has so much potential, and a goodbye

We must have gotten luck yesterday afternoon, since when we woke up it was raining and gross again. We decided to try to drop the car off today to give it a little head start, so I emailed the agency in Amsterdam to make sure we could. Angela hadn't gotten any post cards of Brugge yet, so we set out in the rain and wind to find some (and to find that waffle from last night, too). While we were out, the weather started to break just a little, reminding us a lot of yesterday actually.

We said goodbye to Brugge around 11:30 and made haste for Amsterdam. I had to get to the dropoff agency by 3pm and our SatNav told me we would get there around 2:30. Pretty close should we hit any traffic (which we did). I wound up getting there just in the nick of time at 2:45. We got all of the turn-in documentation filled out and had a taxi take us to our hotel; right on the back side of the red-light district and facing a nice, quiet canal near the Neuwe Markt.

By the time we checked in, the weather was awesome: predominantly blue sky and a nice temperature. We decided to do an exploratory walk down the "Damrak" to the Dam Square and down a small shopping street to the floating flower market.

We ate dinner on the "Zeedijk" at a hole in the wall Chinese (chinees in Dutch) place. Apparently, there really is no such thing as "Dutch" cuisine, since the only restaurants we can find are Asian, Italian, or Argentinian steakhouses (or all 3 in one).

My initial impression of Amsterdam is that if they would care that it looks like a dump with trash all over (including floating in the canals) and do something about it, that this would be the prettiest city in the world.