Bali Bound

This is finally the last of the pictures.  Hope that you have enjoyed the journey along with me.  I've now adjusted to being home and getting back in the routine of things again.  And now to plan the next vacation!! Razor wire around Buckingham palace to keep out the commoners Very interesting pub, sadly the location of the phone theft The view from our hotel door, look it really is Big Ben!! View from the London Eye, this is a new park and I really liked this building Houses of Parliament and Big Ben from the London Eye Shot of the Thames river from above The London Eye, yeah, it's really high up Westminster Abbey, now that William and Kate were married there the lineups are insane Monument along the Thames river Cleopatra's Needle, only they placed the sphinxs the wrong directions and never changed them.  I guess they are supposed to face out to watch for danger The olympic countdown clock in Trafalgar square ...

Now that I'm home again vacation is starting to just feel like a wonderful memory.  It's a little sad how fast it can end.  But the trip didn't really feel like it flew along at a crazy pace.  And now it's back to real life! Our last day in London we had extra time in the morning to wander around but we still had to have our bags out at a specific time and that threw the schedule a little bit.  But I was up early and walked down to Trafalgar square.  I'm still a little awed at the sheer size of London but how incredibly walkable the city is.  Also it was really nice to get there before the tourists and take pictures when it was just me!  And of course I fit in one last waffle.  That's a delight I will miss. We did survive the plane ride.  Air Canada had a far better crew on the way back home than on the way there, I might consider traveling with them again for an international flight.  The one thing I did find amusing is Heathrow air...

In less than 24 hours I shall be leaving on a plane to come back to real life.  Oh swanky vacation I will miss you.  We've all been missing our tour guide, Mama Lia, who kept us all in order.  But now we have to do things by ourselves.  Imagine that.  We've been spoilt with not having to do anything with our luggage aside from drag it in or out from the hotel room door.  What a wonderful perk.  I did think that the trip was a little pricey but all the tipping and such for dealing with the bags is even included.  And you know, now when I go home I'll have to carry my own bags around.  Life is so hard! But we did have an adventurous day in London.  Our morning was spent with a city tour.  Now of all the city tours we've done this was the best.  Our local guide was funny and informative. But not droning on and on and on like some of them.  Or at least not as much.  We rode the bus around and toured St. Paul's cath...

We've arrived in lovely London.  The weather isn't too bad, it's been a little misty but that is to be expected.  We did take the high speed train (only business class, not first class) to London from Paris and we went through the chunnel.  That was an experience.  All of a sudden our ears popped and things stayed dark for awhile.  We tried not to dwell on the fact of where we actually were. But we made it out.  Our hotel is incredibly huge and impressive only there are no real windows in the rooms.  The pictures boasted big promises of location and they were delivered.  We are a two minute walk to the London Eye and the Thames which is fabulous.  Also from the front entrance you can see Big Ben.  I was impressed. After we settled in we walked down and took a ride on the London Eye.  You can see an impressive distance.  It was a nice start to get us a little bit orientated on where things are.  We did walk down...

This will be a quick update. I had to laugh because they always say in the movies that in Paris you can see the Eiffel tower from any room and people carry baguettes in their grocery bags. Well,if you look out the window here we can see the entire tower! I guess the road we are staying on goes right there, or at least looks like it does. It gave me a good laugh!

Today we had our day to ourselves. Mostly. The planned excursion was to the louvre museum. We were planning on going but didn't want to pay the 45€ to go when it only cost us 10€ each instead. We did end up taking a ride with the group and then ditched them and went in alone. Also, I'm not sure that I am that into art and statues to want to follow someone around for almost three hours telling me what to think. That museum is insanely huge. I knew it was big but wow. We toured a little bit of it. The Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo were easy to find. The Mona Lisa is fairly small and there were swarms of people fighting to get in line to see it up close. Paris is an interesting place to visit. I really wouldn't want to drive here. It looks like it is complete chaos. Our replacement driver spent a lot of time honking at other drivers. It's also very frightening to cross the street. We've had a few close calls. And that is with following the lights! The...

This is the point of the trip that I'd like to say I've used my little bit of French, but I haven't. Most people speak far better English, and my French is really limited. I did have to laugh that our tour guide thinks that French is the hardest language. And it is the one I feel most comfortable with! Today was mostly a busy travel day. We left Montreux for Lausanne so we could catch the high speed train to Paris. Wow, first class train travel is fancy. We had a little breakfast meal served to us. It was like being on the plane but far more comfortable. I did have to laugh when someone asked before we got on and out tour director told them that "of course we are traveling first class'. And even traveling speeds up to 280 km an hour it was still a four hour ride. But a comfortable four hours. But we arrived safely and started our city tour. That is the one part of this package that is a little lackluster. The city tours. It mostly consists of us ...

Our hotel was so cute in Zermatt, it was almost hard to leave. We did have a nice morning. We all headed up the worlds highest cogwheel railroad up to Gornergrat. The views of the mountains were spectacular. We went up at least 5000 ft to the peak where we got amazing views of the Matterhorn. Which is impressive, although I must admit that by the time you are actually up there it isn't too much higher than the rest. But we did wander around the mountain and climbed right up to the top of the viewing platform. Of course after we climbed the one section one of the other ladies popped out of the elevator that the rest of us didn't see! After that we went back to Zermatt to wander around and have lunch. The thing that I found so funny is that everyone was so saddened that in this cute little village up in the mountains would have a McDonald's. We felt a little sad going there but there weren't too many other options that were in a realistic price range. And we f...

I must say, most of our traveling companions are starting to look a lot more tired. But honestly, it doesn't feel like its already been a week! We did have another bus day, however we will be moving onto train travel soon. I think that it should be a nice change. Although, our bus driver is entertaining. He's Italian and speaks five words of English. But his job is to drive and haul luggage so it's all good. But he has gotten us out of some tricky spots due to other drivers. Today he was especially important as we left Venice on our way to Zermatt Switzerland. We did have an early afternoon break in Stresa, along lovely lake Maggiore in the Italian lake district. We could have gone for a ride to one of the little islands but after awhile all the extras start to cost a lot so we took a break and wandered the street. And had more gelato. It's on every block in Italy!! The town was very lush and beautiful but a very expensive place to stay. All the hotels lo...

Oh Venice. I don't know entirely what to say about you. It feels sad to compare it to the las Vegas version but there is a little bit there. The entire island exists because the tourists want to go there. It's a strange place to wander what with the combination of tiny little alley ways, canals and bridges. It is also crazy busy. Even on a rainy morning. By the time we left there was 4 cruise ships. But we had a good day. We started out with taking a boat from the mainland to Venice. Also, did i mention that it was pouring rain and windy, it was cold, even for this tough Canadian girl. We did also get to visit the Doge's palace. It was the Venetian dukes palace. We did a guided tour and he gave us a lot of information. A lot of information. But it was ornate like every other palace we've seen. We made a little group with a few of our fellow travelers after the tour. We did have a bad learning experience with lunch but were happy to learn that at least ...

It has been both a laid back day and a busy day. Today we hit three countries in less than eight hours. Crazy times. We started out in Germany where we were woken up to a crazy rainstorm. We did have good timing and it was finished by the time we were off. We then made our way south through Austria. What a beautiful area it is. They call it the Tyrol and it is lush and mountainous. We had a mid-morning stop in Innsbruck. We had a bit of time to spend in the old town area. Sadly, the golden roof was covered for cleaning. I'll admit this is always the risk of traveling in the off times. Many areas have been nice and quiet but it does mean that this is the time of year that maintenance is done. But there was plenty other things to see and it was a nice spot for the morning. After our morning stop we made it through brenner pass into Italy on the way to Venice!! It was quite the drive. I understand why my travel agent thought I was a little bit nuts to do London-Pari...

I must say I didn't really know what to expect with the bus tour experience but it has been pretty good so far. People tend to mostly keep to their pairs but we don't really have any objectionable members. The driving is also nice because the bus lulls you to sleep so you never really feel that tired during the day. It is really fast paced but we are still seeing a nice highlight of the places. Today we decided not to go on the extra dinner but are the only ones who didn't. So it's pretty quiet around the hotel tonight. I think that the biggest issue is keeping organized. Having to pack up the suitcase every day or so takes a lot of preparation. Especially when we need to have them outside while we are having breakfast, no time in the morning for organizing. But we are almost half way through and it's not too bad. And because our group was too cool for name tags I barely know half of the names, but get the impression that it isn't just me! The weat...

Welcome to beautiful Bavaria! Today we had a full but entertaining day. We started out our morning in Heidelberg, not too much was happening there. We have discovered that it is far less of a 24/7 world here. Stores open around ten and close by six. So it does curtail the shopping a bit. But the weather was fantastic today. We hit high 20's by the time we were in Munich, it was pretty warm. Glad I prepared with capris, and tomorrow is supposed to be the same. I think that I got a lot of color today. After Heidelberg we had another day of travel through Germany. Our first stop was medieval rothenburg. It was so cute. Maybe that isn't the best word to use but nothing within the walls has changed since the 14th century I want to say. It is all filled with cute cobblestone roads and beautiful churches, I even found the stairs and walked along the top of the wall. We also saw their display, I would best describe it as a giant cuckoo clock. It depicts an old stor...

I can't believe that we are already in Germany.  Also, this keyboard is strange.  I am going to assume it is a German language thing.  We had a crazy day today.  We really spent most of the day traveling but it did not feel like that at all.  We departed rainy Amsterdam and headed south.  The highways here are all very nice and well planned.  Good deal for us. We spent a few hours driving to Köln, or Cologne as we have changed it to.  We did not have much time there but we did get to tour the cathedral.  It is crazy big.  It is a huge gothic cathedral covered with stained glass.  I was impressed.  Also, it was free.  Then we had a bit to wander at will and find some snacks.  Of course I found a few bakeries.  I feel like it is my responsiblity as a baker to check things out and see something new.  Of course I have no idea on the names but I found some very delicious stuff.  And it rained on the way ...

It was our last full day in Amsterdam today.  A little sad but now I''m getting excited for the next leg of the journey.  Today we had our first city tour.  We got to take the giant tour bus around Amsterdam and saw some more of the city.  I'll be honest, most of the sights are all together so there wasn't too much to see.  We also took a canal cruise which was interesting.  The water looks icky but apparently that is because of the layer of muck and bikes.  I guess people enjoy tossing bikes in the canals.  They end up with quite a few when they clean out the canals.  Crazy world.  We also went to a diamond factory.  It was pretty lame.  Because yes, I"d like to purchase a ring for 5000 euros and carry it around with me for the next 2 weeks.  Pass.  Afterwards we skipped out on the evenings optional exursion.  We could have gone out to Volendam, it's a touristy village outside of the city.  However, it ...

(Note from Nicole:  we found free internet at hotel.  keyboard is terrible so grammar and puncuation may be a little dodgy.  just to warn you.  now onto blogging.) We had our first real day in Amsterdam.  I am still looking for the elusive pancakes, we can see a sign from the hotel window but have not made it there yet.  Todays agenda was Netherland fun.  Sort of .  Well it was fun but it is hard to describe walking around a dead girls home fun.  We started the morning out at Anne Frank House.  Wow that was a teeny tiny space for 8 people to live.  It was a really somber sort of day but it is good that you can see the experience and suffering of one to stop it from happening again; it makes it all feel that much more real and terrifying.  We had a bit of a wait but the house was along the canals and its all so picturesque.  We did wander around the area a bit and took a ton of pictures!  Perhaps when I g...

We've officially arrived!  The hotel is really nice and in the middle of the city so we should be able to get around easily.  Bess, you were totally correct, everyone speaks English which is delightful as I never did find a Dutch phrase book.  But a lot of the words are obvious so we'll make it through.  Haven't done too much interesting today as it feels like we've been traveling forever!  But tomorrow we officially join up with the bus tour.  And we are off to Anne Frank House and Keukenhof before the orientation dinner.  Should be a good day. 

It's starting to feel more real now. I'm currently at the airport waiting for the flight. I'd also like to say that the airport got real fancy in the last few months since my last trip. I'm a little sad that the international area isn't open yet. It's still surreal that this time tomorrow we will be in Amsterdam, probably heading to Keukenhof. Home of the bulb fields. Or maybe we'll be sleeping off the jet lag I'm still a little off with the time change. I'm hoping that it doesn't hit us too badly as we leave at night and in theory can sleep on the plane. And it'll be night time by the time we get to Amsterdam. Either way I'm getting used to the lack of sleep with my weird work schedules so I have hope it'll all be good. Our plane has arrived!! In a few hours well be in the air on the way to excitement and adventure.

Hello again, If you were wondering, we leave on Saturday the 5th in the evening and we return May 20th. I'm sure it wil be a real whirlwind of a trip but I couldn't decide on just a few places. I chose the trip that gives a few nights in each places so we'll be seeing a lot of Europe! I've also discovered in the last bit that while looking up information my cereal box French (as I like to call the little bit of the language I've picked up over the years) is far better than I thought. I guess I'll have to wait and see how it goes once we make it to Paris. But I'm off to continue packing as we're gone in less that three days!

In less than a week Cindy and I will be on our way to Europe for a two week extravaganza.  So here's my attempt to share the travel stories and keep in contact. Here I have a lovely map for you to see where we are going (we're starting in Amsterdam and ending in London): View Europe Destinations in a larger map