Today was a more laid back kind of day. Went over the la place de Concorde and tried desperately not to get trapped in the many round abouts there (I can’t imagine trying to drive in them). Then I walked up Champs Elysees towards the Arc de triomphe. On the way I stopped in at…

Only one thing on the agenda for today: the louvre. I got there around 9:30, just after it opened and it was already swarmed with tourists. Despite this, the museum is so big that I did find myself totally alone more than once when wandering through some of the exhibits (and perhaps just a little…

Started the day off at the Eiffel tower today! I went right the way up to the summit and had a look around and then came back down to the second level to have a pain au chocolate and a hot chocolate (that they put so much whipped cream on they gave me a spoon…

Happy Birthday Dad! Your birthday started a lot earlier for me than for you, I hope it was a good one! I started my unbirthday with a trip to St Chappelle. It had full airport style security to get in, but it was beautiful once inside. In the lower chapel there’s some pieces of the…

On the road again! Well in this case the tracks I suppose. Today’s travels took me from Amsterdam to Paris. I took two trains and all the travelling went very smoothly. I arrived in Paris mid afternoon and made my way to my hostel. When I got there I checked in at the same time…

Started the day off with breakfast with Anita and Brooke who were both leaving for home today. We wandered about for quite awhile in the rain trying to find somewhere that wasn’t full to eat and settled on a pancake place. It wasn’t a traditional ducth pancake place but they did offer quite a variety…

Today’s main activity was probably one of the more unique items on the agenda, alpaca high tea. Took me a second to get to it (it was out in the middle of nowhere in the Dutch countryside) but once I was there it was exactly what it sounds like. Basically for the first hour, we…

Started the day with a trip to the market. Yesterday a lady with a dog in her bike basket (that we got to pet) told us about a little market on this side of the canal so I thought I would check it out. It was pretty small and was mostly produce and fish and…

Started the day off at the Van Gogh museum today. It was a really cool museum with his works organized in chronological order such that they could show the progression of his work but also the story of his life. The audio guide for this one was really good and overall it was a very…

Starting the amsterdam week off with a bike tour! The tour took us through the bike paths and backstreets of a few of amsterdams bigger neighborhoods. We went across bridges, through a park and generally tried to stay out of the way of the locals (we did not succeed, we were yelled at in Dutch,…