Argh! The plague!

Cee and I arrived in Brussels on Thursday. We met a lovely gay couple on the train from Amsterdam to Rotterdam who were also going to Brussels so they helped us catch all our connecting trains :)

The first afternoon in Brussels we went on a self-guided walking tour of the city center which has beautiful medieval churches and many run down Art Nouveau buildings. 

On our second day we went to the Atomium a 30 story tall giant atom sculpture from the 50's  that you can go inside, and also visited a planetarium to see a cool 360 degree hi res star scape view!  After that we tried to visit an Art Nouveau museum but we weren't feeling so good so we turned in early.

We spent almost the entire next day in bed as we are both coming down with a cold! And now we are off to Brugges.

We had originally planned on heading to Ghent first but we may just end up back in bed :(

Photos from Amsterdam

Waiting...

At centraal station in Amsterdam waiting for our train to Belgium! Yesterday I got 3 lovely dresses while shopping. We then walked back to our hostel in pouring rain and got dinner at an Italian place opposite. Then some packing and an early night before today.

The ride to Brussels is about 4 hours then I guess we'll find our hotel!

Amsterdams!

So after a very early start and a very short flight we landed in the Netherlands on Monday to brilliant weather and tulips in bloom. After crepes for lunch we attempted the Anne Frank house (museum) but the line down the street and round corner put us off but the museum was open till 9pm so we checked in at hotel (a tiny rickety affair built in the 1670's with a broken window!) and opted for a canal tour first. Took a little longer than we expected so had to leg it to the museum before closing without stopping for dinner! After the museum we grabbed a Dutch specialty to eat on the way home - a giant cone of french fries smothered in mayonnaise!

On Tuesday we started out by heading to the Hortus Botanicus, the worlds oldest botanical garden. It was smaller than expected (like most buildings in Amsterdam!) but had a cute butterfly house and some 300 year old cycads that Julian would love. We then made our way to the Van Gough Museum, which has a large collection of his original works. Afterwards we met Cee's friends Natalia 'let me just get my bearings' Kirwan who came out for dinner with us and took us of a tour on the red light district.

Today we started with the Rijksmuseum (pronounced Rikes- Museum), the queue was epically long and Cee had some trouble but she was determined to get through it! The museum houses a large collection mostly of Flemish Masters like Rembrandt and Vermeer but has a small range of other artifacts like a collection of early firearms and a room full of miniature ships. After having lunch at Natalia's Kiwi-themed cafe 'we' are now shopping. Amsterdam has lots of vintage shops so Cee is in her Element - and I have time to have a coffee and update the blog!

A couple of quick London pics

Just a couple of quick London photos from my phone - not camera - to keep you updated until I can post a bunch!

Bath and the week been

Finally I'm posting! Celia here. What a busy and tiring week we've had. Daniel had updated you up until Friday so I'll tell you about our weekend.

Yesterday we went to the portobello road market which has a lot of antiques and amazing vintage clothing. We didn't buy anything other than food however as it was quite pricey. In the evening we met up with two of Daniels old colleagues from when he lived in London for drinks.

Today we are on a coach tour from London to Bath and Stonehenge. We just saw the Roman baths and accompanying museum and tasted some of the water. It wasn't that tasty but apparently good for you, I guess it has a lot of minerals from beneath the earth. We're currently on the bus to Stonehenge so I thought I'd type this all out now and post it once I'm back to an Internet connection.

We've had a great time in London. We have missed out on a couple of things she to time constraints that we originally planned on seeing; Harrods, selfridges and the natural history museum and national gallery but we have seen an awful lot considering.

As Daniel mentioned in the last post we spent a good few hours at Kew. We were lucky that spring has sprung a little later than usual over here (about 4 weeks late apparently) due to he cold weather so we have been right on time for blossom trees, magnolias, bluebells and daffodils. It's also been sunny every day except for Saturday morning when we had a tiny bit of drizzle that turned into sun in the afternoon.

The Victoria and Albert museum was also amazing. It's an art and design museum and we enjoyed the furniture, fashion, mosaics and architecture the most.

I have conquered a lot of difficult situations in London I think. I took the elevator up to the top of the new tree top walk at Kew, but I didn't walk around like Daniel did! The walkway is see through! I've also been on the tube countless times including shoulder to shoulder peak times. And today when we went on it there was a message asking for all passengers to evacuate the station. That was scary but I'm glad I didn't start freaking out and break into a run! Daniel thinks it could've been someone pulling the fire drill.

Right I think that's about it for now. We are off to Amsterdam tomorrow morning. Later I will try to post some photos and also maybe post a bit more about Copenhagen.

Busy busy busy!

Thought I would post an update,  we have been having trouble finding the time and when we do have time we just want to sleep!

We landed in London on Monday and took the express train in from Stanstead, Cee worked out that the slightly overpriced train journey cost us $1 NZD a minute! But it beats sitting on s bus for two hours I guess...

We left out bags at Liverpool street station and headed off to Madame Tussauds wax museum. Fun place for a visit crazy overpriced at £30ea but luckily we found a 2 for 1 voucher!
After that we headed to Gwen's quaint Victorian house in East Putney. I think Cee had somewhat underestimated how compact living spaces are in London :)

Tuesday we spent the entire day at Kew Gardens, had a look through the Victorian palm and temperate houses,walked over the treetop walkway and saw the fash new climate controlled house with 10 different climate zones (and an aquarium!) And saw a range if plants I have no idea about :)

On Wednesday we started with a walk through the city, through Green Park and past Buckingham Palace where we saw the change of the guards, then past Whitehall and Westminster (unfortunately the Abby was closed for a state visit but we did get some snaps of Big Ben), after that we headed to St Paul's cathedral and across the Thames to the Tate Modern gallery. We then managed to sneak home before rush hour to cook a nice roast dinner with Gwen.

The plan for Thursday was to catch the Victoria & Albert museum and the Natural History museum but after five hours in the V&A we scrapped the Natural history and took a double decker bus around Hyde Park to Oxford St for a spot of shopping.

Friday was a bit of a fail (or a failure for you older folks ;) we had intended to take a bus trip to Stonehenge and Bath but there was signaling failure on our local underground line so we had to run (or 'leg it') to our nearest rail station and take a train to another station so we could get the underground to the coach station.... We got there in the end but missed the bus by five minutes!  So we opted to relax and watch film at the Odeon cinema in Leister square (where all the premieres are held in London) and catch up with some friends and have a proper 'English' curry and a pint for dinner.

Today, if Cee ever wakes up, we are off to Portobello Road Market :)