Trip Highlights

Well, it surely has been a whirlwind adventure and it only

seems to keeps growing! I cannot believe how close we are to Spring Break and I am so excited to see what it has in store for us:)

I must begin with telling you about the adventures I have had over

the past couple weeks:

Amsterdam! I actually made it to the Motherland. Tessa and I traveled to Manchester Airport at 1:30 am which meant pulling an all-nighter, and if you know me at all….. I need my sleep! So that was definitely an experience. After figuring out the maze that is Manchester Airport, we finally found our gate and proceeded to leave for Amsterdam at about 7 am. I was so excited to put in my iPod and take a wonderful “Coldplay” nap, but my plans were interrupted by an extremely chatty British girl about our age, and out of politeness, Tessa and I listened to her ramblings the entire flight. We were so excited to be in Amsterdam and were ready to explore the city once we got off the plane. We met our friend Matt at the airport and he took us around the city. We walked around the city and went to the Van Gogh museum- it was fun to see the paintings that I used to attempt to paint in my art classes (key word here is attempt). We decided it would be a good idea to take a canal cruise, which I really thought would be fun, which it probably was…. If I hadn’t proceeded to fall asleep. In all fairness, I had missed an entire night of sleep, walked all day, and then went on a covered boat- and was extremely warm and cozy- which gently rocked back in forth with a recording of a British man quietly pointing out different parts of the city…. I’m sure it was a lovely cruise…Anyways, after that epic fail, Tessa and I went back to Matt's room and fell asleep for 4 hours because we were so exhausted from pulling an all-nighter traveling! We woke up from our nap at 8:00 pm and were ready to explore the town and get some fries with mayonnaise (cause apparently that is a very Dutch thing to do). On Saturday, we ventured to Zaanse Schans which was a small village about 50 minutes outside of Amsterdam that had windmills, a cheese factory, a place that makes wooden shoes and a ton of cute little shops. I loved it!!! I was so proud to be dutch:) On Sunday, Tessa and I went shopping in the city and walked around. Luckily it was a gorgeous day so pictures turned out great. I loved exploring Amsterdam, even though it was only for a short time!

Next trip…. London! This trip was not planned, but through a series of truly unfortunate events for my good friend Rachel and her family (her parents had planned a weekend with her in London but her mom ended up breaking her knee their first day in York and had to fly back to Michigan)… Rachel’s parents encouraged her to bring 2 friends to London because everything was already paid for, so Tessa and I were invited. We could not thank the Dykstra’s enough for the trip (even though we really wish they could have gone) but we ended up having an amazing time! We arrived in London on Saturday morning and, despite the truly horrific weather (wind and rain), we explored the city to see all the tourist sites. It was so cool to see all of the huge landmarks in person that I have seen so many pictures of! Towards the end of our site seeing, my umbrella (which was definitely overpriced at £7) proceeded to completely break at on London Bridge near Big Ben and parliament. Despite the minor set backs, Friday was a great day and ended with us all seeing (drum roll please…..) the Lion King!!! The show was absolutely spectacular! Definitely a highlight for the weekend.

We woke up on Saturday to a gorgeous day full of sunshine and nice weather! We could not be more thrilled. We did more walking around London- my favorite was walking through the beautiful Hyde Park. It is so interesting how different everything looked next to a blue sky and sunshine in contrast to the previous day. We did some shopping at Portabello Market, took a “quick” run –through the famous Harrods, got pushed around by the massive crowds on Oxford Street, and were excited to relax for a bit in our hotel room late in the afternoon (especially for me after a full day of shopping). We then went out for dinner and explored the city of London at night, which was so fun! On Sunday we were able to go to Hillsong in London and even visited Windsor Castle! Monday was filled with a bit more shopping with so many good deals that I had trouble containing myself. London was absolutely amazing and I look forward to going again over Spring Break!