London Trip, Day One

Well, the day started early, at 5 am. We needed to catch a 6:23 train from Amsterdam Zuid. I got up, finished packing, ate, and went down to get the other two people, Deborah and Andrew.

Deborah was up and ready when I came at 5:45, our agreed upon time. Andrew wasn’t answering his bell or his phone so we thought he might be outside. Well, he wasn’t. We went back in, this time, knocking on his door while calling him. At this point, it was about 5:55. We were planning on biking down to the station, but Deborah’s bike had a flat. She tried riding on the back of my bike, but I couldn’t get going. At this point it was 6:05ish, so we went to the tram stop, and decided that she should take the next tram instead.

Meanwhile, Andrew and I biked to the station…

When I showed up to the station, I couldn’t find Andrew or Deborah, and it was already 6:19. Our train was leaving in 4 minutes, and there was no sign of either of them. Andrew called me, and it turns out he was there and was just on the wrong platform.

At this point, it was super close to when our train was leaving. We started discussing options if Deborah didn’t get there in time. What do we do?? AAH! The train came, and Andrew got on. I was standing on the platform, and just as I decided that I should wait for Deborah and take the next train, risking missing our flight, the doors began to shut. The train started to leave as I looked down the platform to see Deborah running towards me. I was so helpless! Andrew tried pushing the button to stop the train, but it just kept going.

The next train didn’t leave for another half hour. We were already nervous about the timing of the earlier train, and we didn’t know if we would enough time with that one. It was such an awful feeling.

The whole train ride felt so long. Andrew called with details about how to get on the right bus from the station to the airport which was helpful. After the 1 ½ hour train ride, we took a bus for another 20 minutes, arriving at the airport at precisely 8:44 am, and our flight was leaving at 9:25 am.

It was a little tight, but the Eindhoven Airport is tiny, so the lines for everything were really short. When we finally met up with Andrew in the boarding line, it was 9:23. Just a little bit close. But we made it.

Once we arrived in London Stansted, we had to take a bus from that airport to Central London. We had booked it in advance, and it was rather uneventful. Just a long bus ride through traffic.

After a long morning of travel, we finally arrived at BAKER STREET!

After we got to this point, we needed to get to our hostel. We decided to walk so that we would see more of the city. Thus begins our walking days.

After going a little bit too far, we finally made it to Russell Square, which was right by our hostel.

The hostel was nice: decently clean, large rooms, basic beds. It wasn’t fancy, but it didn’t need to be. We went there, and planned the rest of our day.

But the plan was diverted right away by the sign for 1.99 pound Subway sandwiches. We put off our plans for fish and chips and ate cheap American food instead. We did eat it in the square though, so at least we absorbed a little more culture that way.

We had purchased Oyster Cards in the morning so that we could take the Underground if we wanted. All of the travel things I read said that this was the best way to get around London.

The Underground is so efficient! I loved it. You could go anywhere in zone 1 for 1.80 pounds, which is a decent deal for longer trips. We took it our to St. Paul’s to begin our touring. St. Paul's was impressive, with it's massive dome and steps. I took a lot of pictures there.

As we walked down from St. Paul’s toward the Thames, we spotted this old looking place called the College of Arms. The sign’s description made it sound like a museum type thing where you could look at old coats of arms.

In reality, it was a place where you could go to look up your ancestry or coat of arms. Still cool, but not really anything to see.

After the College of Arms, we crossed the street, and then crossed the Thames on the Millennium Bridge.

The best part is, Andrew and I knew all about the bridge from Differential Equations! We studied it one day because on it’s opening day, it started swaying uncontrollably. Apparently, it had to do with the resonant frequency of the bridge and the pace and step of the thousands of people walking across the bridge.

Across the way, you can see the Tate Modern, an art museum that we went to later in the trip.

Well, the stress of our day wasn’t over. Right after we walked by the Globe Theatre from the bridge, Deborah realized that her wallet was missing. We still don’t know if she was pick-pocketed or if it fell out of her purse while we were taking pictures/walking.

In any event, it was gone.

We discussed the options and decided to look for an internet café so that she could cancel her debit/credit cards. It was stressful. We looked around for a while, and Andrew bravely asked in various shops for directions, but no one really knew of any. Finally, Deborah just called her mom using Andrew’s phone. It was a bad time.

After the call, we moved on toward the next site: Tower Bridge, crossing the London Bridge to do so.

On our way to Tower Bridge, we saw the Southwark Cathedral. After reading a few signs, we learned that it is super old. Pretty cool, I think.

We saw that the Evening Prayer started at 5:30, and since it was around 5:00 anyway, we thought we should stick around to go.

While we wandered around, wasting time, we stumbled upon this ship. Kind of cool, but it’s just a reconstruction. We stood and talked for a while by the river, though, which was fun.

Evening Prayer was fine. It wasn’t the best service ever, and I was running on only 2.5 hours of sleep which makes it hard to pay attention to anything. Andrew took a nice little nap (accidentally, of course), while Deborah and I fought back sleepiness to appreciate the prayers being offered.

It was nice to sit down though. We had been walking for a long time by this point. But that’s kind of the story of all of our days.

After the service, we headed toward the Thames again to get a good view of Tower Bridge. We had to take some classic tourist photos, you know? It was just starting to get dark, so the lights were all on, but we didn’t need to use the flash on our cameras yet. In other words, picture-wise, I think it was good timing.

Well, after crossing the Tower Bridge, we came to the Tower of London. Due to poor planning, we didn’t know that it would be closed. Sad day. It still looked great though. I’ll just have to learn about it instead of seeing it in person.

By this time, it was about 6:30, and we were hoping to go to a show that night, so we hopped on the tube to Leicester Square.

Well, we got to Leicester around 7 and found the half price tickets place. After waiting in line for another 10 minutes, we finally got tickets for The Phantom of the Opera! It was starting at 7:30, so we booked it to the theatre, found our seats, and enjoyed the show!

It was incredible!!!! I love live performances so much more than movies. I was so impressed by all of the voices and acting. Definitely worth the 30 pounds.

After the show, we found a place to eat and drink, then headed back to the hostel for a good night of sleep.

An Interesting Weekend

This past weekend, my friend Bonnie and I went down to the southern tip of the Netherlands to the city of Maastricht. We were visiting a Calvin alumna who lives there. She had been contacted by our professor from Calvin, Prof. Aay, and she then offered to host us. It was a great experience, but it wasn't quite what we were expecting.

First of all, we had to take the train to Maastricht. I don't know how much Dutch geography you all know, but Amsterdam is near the center of the country. Maastricht, as I said earlier, is quite far south, meaning that Bonnie and I had to take a 2+ hour train to get there. Tickets were confusing (and slightly expensive), but once we figured it all out, we were on our way.

When we got to the station, Trudy, our Calvin alumna, was there to pick us up. A few minutes drive, and we were at her house. Now the...confusing? part: her "lady friend" Isabel lived there too. We really never knew their relationship, but obviously, we couldn't ask either. In any case, they were both very kind people. Trudy was 72 years old, and Isabel was 58. The first night, we didn't do that much, but they certainly fed us well. Delicious pasta with a cheese sauce made with fresh Italian goat cheese, plus mushrooms and some kind of meat; heaps of broccoli (to keep us healthy!); a salad with fantastic toasted walnuts. Oh, it was so good, and they had a lot of it! Even I was full, and that's a pretty rare occurrence anywhere!

The next day, we got up to a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs (which were cooked in the bacon grease...so good), bacon, and bread. Oh man, we ate so many buns and slices of bread. It's all so fresh! I'm forgetting the fresh squeezed orange juice too. All "lekker" (nice/good).

After breakfast, we took a little trip to Germany. Just like that. No big deal. I was struck by the contrast of taking a trip across a EU border instead of one of our borders. You don't even have to stop driving; all the sudden, you are just in a different country! It's great. We went to a city called Achen, which is the city where Charlemagne was crowned and ruled over his empire in the late 8th century (I think, I'm not great with dates). It was a very historical place, and I was once again struck by the youth of our own American country.

The most striking historical landmark, at least to me, was the cathedral where Charlemagne was crowned. The inside of the dome area is covered in intricate mosaics, depicting saints, as well as complex designs. The floor is a work of art itself--all varying shades of marble set in geometric patterns. The pulpit was overlaid with gold and precious stones; the gold was shaped into pictures and images as well. The height of the dome was impressive as well. I'm terrible at height estimates, but there was another story, and the ceilings of both were quite high. Part of the cathedral was undergoing a renovation/excavation, so we did not get to see the throne of Charlemagne or a statue of him, but the rest of the cathedral was worth the visit.

Other highlights: the town hall, which was where Charlemagne ruled; apple kuchen (a German apple pancake, coated in butter and cinnamon sugar...yum!); a cool statue where all of the parts are movable like puppets; fountains; and of course, it would not be a Dutch excursion without a cup of coffee at the end.

I should note that I now know why at family gathering we have coffee before, during, and after meals. It's a Dutch thing! Since I don't like coffee very much, I consumed a lot of tea over the course of the weekend. I did have a cup of coffee once or twice though.

After Achen, we returned to their home for a nice lunch (sandwiches and soup); then we were off on a bike ride! They live in a little village, so after about two minutes we were surrounded by fields and farms. It was beautiful. I took a few pictures while biking (so skilled, I know), but they don't really capture the beauty of the landscape. In Maastricht, there are actually hills too! We visited the farm where Isabel grew up; now it is part living space, part gay sauna. Yup, it's the Netherlands all right.

Dinner was served when we got back. Potatoes, super tender beef of some sort, and beans. So delicious. At some point, we tried the local pies too. One was gooseberry and the other cherry. The cherry pie had the most wonderful crumb topping I have ever tasted. mmm...can you tell that the food made an impression on me? It's a lot different when I'm cooking for myself. I can't rationalize making things like pies or even huge meals when I'm just cooking for me, so everything seemed even better than usual.

That night, we watched a Dutch movie, "Bride Flight", which was very good. I really liked it. It was "Dutch" in some of its liberal themes, but more than anything, it was just a good movie. Then it was off to our warm beds, complete with down comforters and hot water bottles for our feet.

Sunday we toured the city of Maastricht after another hot breakfast (I had HAGELSLAG, the delicious chocolate sprinkles you put on bread). Maastricht is another old city, and the walking tour that we took led us to several old churches and the city wall. It was interesting, but the intense wind made it a little less fun. After a cappuccino, we headed back to the house for a quick lunch, and we were off on the train home! Oh, and you know how I was kind of mad that tickets were expensive? Our kind hosts gave us 50 euro for our travel expenses. Pretty nice, huh?

Overall, it was a great weekend. A little bit different, but filled with good food and great company!