Spijkenisse Again

Troy and I got back into the Netherlands last night. So we are back to driving on the right side of the road, which is a big switch for us after Thailand/England were its left. They speak Dutch here however about 90% of the people also speak English so its easy to communicate here. We are staying at the same hotel as last time the Carlton Oasis but we did get a suite this time. Its like a little apartment. We are tenativly here until Dec. 26th so we will not be at anyone's Christmas celebrations this year. Sorry. Once he find out when he is officially done we will decided if we will go back to the states or do some traveling around here. Maybe some New Years Eve in Paris. I will keep you posted. Otherwise nothing interesting happening here. Spijkenisse is a small town so not alot of activity. We are hoping to get some time up in Amsterdam before we leave, i guess we will see.

London Town

Troy and I headed to London this weekend. We had been there before so it was much more calm that the last trip. We got into town on Friday after troy got off work. Friday night we went walking around the Piccadilly area, the Parliament building, and the London Eye. Which is one of the most ugly things I have seen. There is the beautiful architecture around it then WHAM here is a HUGE Bicycle wheel with lights on it. It should be called eye sore not London Eye. The there is Big Ben for all of you who think that's the name of the clock your wrong. It's actually the Bell's name in the clock. We found a carousel so of course had to ride on that! Plus we found the phone booth we toke our tourist pictures at the first time there so we got updated one! Saturday daytime we redid the Westminster Abby. But this time we took our time and did a tour. Since seeing the movie The Davinci Code I wanted to revisit Sir Isaac Newton's tomb it's in the Nave if you follow the Westminster Abby interactive map. You are not allowed to take photos of the inside so I could only do the outside. Then we went to the London Tower, which we got there to late so we didn't go inside but toured the outside instead. We also had to do our tourist pictures of the Tower Bridge (people know it as the London Bridge but its not-there is a London bridge next to it). Funny thing is the people we asked to take our picture happen to be from Minneapolis, MN (USA) small world huh? And we bought tickets for The Lion King play that night. London is supposed to be the second best place to see plays. New York being number one! That was Saturday night and was fun. The costumes were amazing and it had a couple good singers. After the play we went to a restaurant that was like a TGIFs but with fine dinning and the decorations were all old plays stuff. Troy drank a whole bottle of red wine on his own-and I did a fine job of getting us home without a map. We found out the hard way the train stations stop at midnight so we had to walk. Sunday we were going to go tour the Tower of London but troy wasn't feeling so good (shocker huh!). So we slept in then flew home to the Netherlands. So next England trip we agreed to start at the London Tower, we haven't seen it yet from the inside! It holds the royal family jewels.

UK Killer

For all of those you watch the news, that's is the international news or whom check the news of the area we are at...Yes I am aware there is a serial killer (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16171063/) on the loose in my area murdering women 19-29 yrs old, so far I think 5 girls this week were found. The police don't want woman on the street alone. So I promise I am not acting tough and that I am indeed always with someone I know when I am out and about. Thanks for keeping close tabs on me! And as of now they think they are all prostitutes so since I am only a working girl by marriage so I think I am fine. But I will be careful anyway. I promise. And for those who emailed me about this. I am very honored that you are really following us that close-I think your great!

Leeds, UK

Today Troy and I drove up to Leeds to visit our friend Ceri and her boyfriend Eric. Now in that picture you think what a cute couple. However what you can't tell is how tall they are. Ceri is 6ft and Eric is 6'8'' tall so here is one of Eric and me. Eric is a Rugby player for the Earth Titans. So Troy and I went to our first Rugby game. Its not quit what I was expecting. I thought it was much more brutal then it really was. The game has very strict rules for the players/coaches on and off the field. An example of that would be...since the Titans coach said a referee was stupid on a website he was kicked out of two games! Anyway the Titans won the game so everyone was happy. Afterwards we went downtown and hit the bars. Those rugby boys sure can drink. And I am proud to say I can keep up! Troy well that's a different story...he isn't so good at keeping up. It was funny though he was the runt of the packed the next shorted guy was 4 inches taller. We drank and danced and slept well once we got back to Ceri's. The next day we hung out with them again and ate and watched Eric's brother's Rugby game which was on TV! It was funny hanging out with two people who could tell you stories of every one of the professional rugby guys, because they knew them all. It made watching it much more enjoyable. Then we had to drive home because Troy had to work on Monday morning at the Guildford Office (this is one of UOP's many Hub offices around the world).
But on a bad note-the US Dollar hit an ALL TIME LOW for our trip, which made it very expensive. $2 (US) equaled 1 Pound (UK).
And random info fact-did you know that the UK is the only country in the world that actually has enough gold stored to cover every piece of money in the country! Pretty impressive.
And in England tradition I must spread gossip so...did you hear that Prince William had his 5yr long term girlfriend Katie hanging out with the Royal Family during his officer's parade. I wonder if that means wedding bells soon! (This was the only topic on TV!)

Spijkenisse, Netherlands

We are in Rotterdam, Netherlands now. We are staying at the Carlton Oasis. right now but it may change. We are a lot closer to Amsterdam than we thought. So we may move to there and then troy would commute 45min to Rotterdam. I will keep you all updated of course. It rained all day yesterday so we didn't see much. The weather here seems to be about 50-60 degrees. And its cloudy and raining but after my snow storm in Chicago this is wonderful!

Plane Day

Flying out of Chicago to Amsterdam, Netherlands today.