SO I am finally back and have taken care of things that didn't get taken care of. Well rested and fed. I know this might be a little late coming, but I just got around to DL my pics and UL them for my friends to see.

Europe was great! Of course it was a trip of practically 4 cites in 10 days with my partner sprinkled with a little terrorism...Good Times!

We got to London as our First stop. We were only staying over night, so I didn't really book a great hotel. Yeah I learned my lesson on that. Cheap is cheap. Shared Bathroom, No Phone and I needed one. Broken Payphone. I needed to call Natisse so we could meet up. Casey got me a phone card, but I didn't know how to dial her or my other friends that we were travelling with. Pain in the butt that phone number system!


Casey waiting for the plane.


happy to be going!


Finally hooked up! And had beers and food.








Then we were off to the Big Chill, which is a Music festival focused on all kinds of music, but more on the "mellower side" as opposed to Glastenbury or Love Parade which is more dance music and ravey. They did have a dance tent. The music was OUTSTANDING! The food was quite good too, for festival food. My friend Dylan was spinning there...hence why we were going to Europe to begin with. We got our CD's to the right people as well, hopefully thay will like it enough to have us play next year.


that'd be DFTram.










Mr Scruff, Dylan, Trout (scruff's wife)




we have pirates they have knights!


Ursula Rucker








Bikini Beach Band played surf covers of popular music like Smells like Teen Spirit.

Very Nice.

Looks like you had fun.


You two are cute together.

awesome

And so after 4 days of sitting in the grass and listening to music, it was time to go onto the next portion of our trip...Amsterdam.

We ended up going cheap with easyjet flying out of Luton near London. LUTON SUCKS!! Getting our bags check was ok, but when we got to the sea of people at Security...that was really bad. Eventually they sent ticket folks out yelling for folks for our flight, so we dashed under all the ropes nd crap and cut to the front. We get through only to find out we were delayed an hour...wait then it was a half an hour as we are dashing to our gate to wait in yet another line. UGH. So were cranky, unshowered (big chill is camping), hungry, tired. Casey and I had a tiff on the plane during all of this. THAT escalated to the train and out on the streets of Amsterdam...the night maze! Taxi would have cost 15 Eu and it was 2 blocks away from the station. I certaianly could ask someone where my street was as I couldn't pronouce it. SOme guy was asking me if he could help blah blah blah (no no and NO), however Casey wasn't as hard on the NO as I was and the guy follows us to our hotel into the hotel and proceeds to badger us for more money that we did not have. Thank god for the Hotel attendant who got rid of him. We went to our rooms, screamed at each other, showered apologized and met our friends for a midnight cap at one of the coffee houses. Siiiigghhhhh. I made a note to not fight with Casey upon entering a new country that is unfamilliar. I'd save it until later.




Casey aka Mr Scootles!














Hotel across the street. Below is a close up..Oh and we had HUGE ASSSS spiders in our room and outside the window. I had casey take care of it.







Some Tavern...everything comes out of a cask!






I got to see Herman as well...in my very short time there. We had lunch at this little faboo of a place with yummy sandwiches! Herman was unable to get the tuna salad that day

He suggested that on my final day to go out early and check out this lil park/church thing. They close it early but he said it was very peaceful. I went out looking for this...and circled and looked and finally found a tiny little alley that took me there. It WAS beautiful...check the pics below....








FEBO - some fast food joint where you put money in and open up a tiny door to get your food. It was quite tasy actually!

Yeah I LOVED amsterdam. I can certainly see myself living there. LOVED the bikes. It's Like the pecking order is Bikes, People, Public Tramsport...then Cars. Good times! And so easy to get around too. Food was good. SHops were great. I didn't see a lot of "local life" like supermarkets etc. though I was there high tourist season....and stayed in the city center a bit. We paddleboated, rented bikes...everything was so beautiful. And the people and tourists seemed calm for the most part.

Nice pics

Fabulous! I wanna go!

That pic of you and Nat is precious!

applekisses said:

It is! SHe was like the first and last thing I saw on my trip. We hooked up when I had to go back to London to catch my plane home. We found this cute and inexpensive resturant.

superspaceboy said:

AWWWW
I think that would make for a happy trip in itself

applekisses said:

it made for a great start and finish! I am hoping she makes it to the states again soon.

superspaceboy said:

Yes, please.


Great pics, looks like it was fun!

superspaceboy said:

I hope so too! I'd love to meet her!

Where are the drug pics?

superspaceboy said:

ahhhh.... you're making me sad. i loved Amsterdam! riding on the back of dawntreaders bike from the van gogh museum. and bitteballen (sp?) and fries from Febo w/Herman, Carrie & Muse. then rotterdam & !!!!! (i blanked on Alf's hometown--arrgghhh!!!!) anyway -- i just felt so at peace the entire time i was in the Netherlands. could imagine living there as well. glad you had such a great time, SSB!

althom said:

no pics allowed in coffee shops

Who told you that ?
Joking right ?

yay the pics!!! they're awesome... I love that one of you and me was SO good to see you again and to finally meet Casey!

that restaurant we went to I took my Brother for lunch to again on Sunday

thank you for meeting up with me while you were here, hon, I can't wait to see you back on U.S. soil next year ROAD TRIP!!!!

Can't see the pics but glad you had such a great time!

Herman pointed you to the favorite place he took Karen and I when we were there.


Looks like a wonderful trip!!

Oh my. To be able to see Natisse and Herman again.....

and Petra and Aksel and...the list goes on and on.


Great pix!!!!!


M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

I miss you hon... but I will see you in the middle of next year on your side of the pond

Natisse said:

Woo hoo!!!!!

M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

have a look at my road trip thread hon... I'd love your advice

hehehe, the lunch was waaaaay too short!

You two need to be back PRONTO and I will give you the grand tour! I am glad you like the courtyard we know as het Begijnenhof. I love that place lots. Glad you did too.

It is also great to see my own city through the eyes of visitors! Thanks for making me love my city all over again!

And the rest of the pics look AMAZING! I talk in exclamation marks!!!!! Hehehe. But I am so excited you had such a great time. It sure was an honour and pleasure to meet up with you, but like I said, waaaay too short. I was SO tired, lol.

Say HI to Casey from me.

PS

This bar certainly looks familiar to me... GRIN