Old Buildings in Even Older Countries

Well I left off in Switzerland ready for a snowboard trip. Instead of
going to Austria I went to southern Switzerland. The snow was
incredible, the weather was incredible, the terrain park was
incredible but after traveling for about an hour up a mountain, by
gondola, you would think that the run would be longer than ones found
in Manitoba ski resorts. Ah well at least I can say I boarded on a
glacier in October!

After Cara had emotional goodbye weekend with all of her friends we
headed by air to London. We managed to hook up with one of Cara's many
contacts she has made through work and crashed in her apartment for
the duration of our stay. We manged to take in a show (the Producers)
which was great as well as she almost all the sights there are to see
including my favorite the London Eye, a big frigging Farris wheel.

After Cara made a few calls...

I was bumping elbows with some world leaders (at the wax museum).

But actually almost all of our time was spent in and around Piccadilly
Circus which is kind of a bustling central point in London where you
can begin and end every day.

As we were trying to get everything together to go back to the airport to leave we went to our favorite Internet cafe. Cara left a little bit before me. The guy working behind the counter approached me quite awkwardly and asked if Cara was my girlfriend. He continued to ask if we would be inters ted in having her pose for a foot fetish website for some good cash and said she would only have to do a few poses. After some verrrrrry serious consideration I told him that we were leaving for Holland in an hour and had to go. Ah well that is one missed opportunity! All I can say is "only in London".

Next we were off to Amsterdam.

After nearly missing our flight we
arrived in Amsterdam with no place to stay. After calling 60 hotels and hostels, one of which told us quite sternly that "Amsterdam is full", we nearly gave up entirely. Our last resort was to call the luxury hotels. Some how we managed to find a room for about the same price as a hotel. After being driven in the opposite direction of Amsterdam for about 25 minutes we arrived at the hotel in the middle of nowhere. We were very sceptical and were sure we'd been had. When we arrived the hotel and room were the nicest either of us had ever been in. Needles to say this is where we stayed for the rest of out time in Holland.

Amsterdam is amazing....... once you give it a chance. The first street we walked down was the main red light district street. After deciding that Amsterdam was the dirtiest, scuzziest, and creepiest city we had ever been to (including Bangkok) we were both more than willing to go back to the hotel and spend our days by the pool. Before making any rash decisions I convinced both of us that there must be something good about this city. And there was, it can be summed up in one word... fries. The fries are so amazing it is impossible to explain. They load a paper cone with about 10 full sized potatoes worth of golden goodness and then slather them with more mayo than I have consumed in the last year and send you on your way. With these fries readily available we couldn't leave so we gave it another chance. We both agree now that Amsterdam is a wonderful place to visit and I recommend it to everyone (just don't make the red light district your first stop). It is simply amazing how their canal system works and the buildings are all leaning slightly against each other. The churches and government buildings are very unique and the streets are packed at all hours. And if you really want you can get a hooker and some dope but oddly enough no foot fetish website offers at all.

Just now Cara and I arrived in Rotterdam which is a city that was completely destroyed during WWII and has since been restored from the ground up. We have seen nothing yet but soon enough I will update you all on it. After Rotterdam we are off to Barcelona. Not sure what exactly to expect.