And the tour has offish begun!!

DAY 5

Up and at 'em at 4:15 in the morning for the second time this week. Brutal, but oh-so- worth it. I got ready fairly quickly and headed down to breakfast. Two lovely Australian women I met yesterday (Sue and Jeanie) invited me to eat with them so I did. They were about my parents age and  had children my age (like almost everyone in my group).  We finally departed London and headed to Amsterdam. Its not a straight shot there so we drove to Dover first to catch a ferry across the English Channel to Calais, France. We then continued through France, through Belgium, and then Netherlands. Wahoo. (Each new country we reached my phone so nicely let me know with a free texts on the new country's rates. It was kind of neat to get that at each border.)  It was also super nice having only 20 people in our group; our bus was like half full, which was awesome. And our tour guide Andi, who is with us the whole trip, is so knowledgable. 

Most of today was set traveling which wasn't so awesome but you gotta get to where you're going somehow. It's gotta be done. On the positive side, you get to see all the different landscapes and scenery along the way. I enjoy that! (And it gives me time to begin writing this truly amazing blog you all love to read so much. Sure. Sure.)

On our way out of London we drove through what looked like some very low-income neighborhoods which was quite interesting to see. British housing projects (who knew?!)  were def not on my everyday agenda, but to see this part of town made me feel back in NYC. Ha. We even saw some people exiting a club at six in the morning. I had a little tinge of jealously!  Then we drove through the English countryside which was pretty relaxing to see. So green and flat. I loved it. Then we hit Dover and saw the white cliffs and the castle of Dover and the bus drove right on the ferry (which looked like a huge cruise ship). We were able to get off and walk around the ferry during the ride.  It was also very cool to see the French coastline as the ship pulled in.

After the hour and half boat ride, we got back on the bus for another long drive. Two little naps later and lot of green scenery and countryside with many, many cows, we stopped at a truck stop to eat, pee (we had to pay to use the restroom) and stretch our legs/get fresh air for a while. This was much cleaner than an American rest stop and the food was of high quality in the restaurant. (There was also a McDonalds but since I had gotten it at the airport before my London flight, I refuse to get it again while here.) Then it was back on the road. 

When we entered Amsterdam, the first thing I noticed was the canals. So many. So pretty. Also all the bikes. So many. (Amsterdam goes above and beyond being bike friendly. Its actually pretty awesome.) We then immediately went to a place called Gassan Diamonds. Apparently diamonds are big business in Amsterdam so we got to learn about the 4 C's diamonds: Cut, clarity, color, carets. (I took many mental notes for my future engagement ring!!) We also watched diamonds being cut and got to try on some diamonds as well. Kinda neat. At one point I had a diamond ring on each of my fingers in one hand; it was prob worth many thousands of dollars. First and last times that will prob happen for me.  With the few minutes I had extra, I booked it into a little square in town and spotted my first coffee shop and smelled the weed immediately. Oh yeah, we were def in Amsterdam. Then I came back to the bus, hitched a ride back to the hotel and had an hour to kill before our group's "welcome reception." With that time, I spoke to the concierge and got a map of the city. She told me where I could walk to and what to quickly see with my short time. Since I had to be back at the hotel for a "welcome reception" at seven I couldn't spend much time wandering and exploring. I was a little annoyed but that's part of traveling with a tour group and I knew that.  There are many pros and many cons and sometimes having time frames are one of the cons. It's okay because I will have all afternoon and evening tomorrow to do my thang. Also, venturing around up the city today gave me more of an idea of how to plan my route tomorrow. 

The reception was fine. Mostly because everyone is like 20-30 years older than me. Its really okay though. I was planning to do my own thing as much as possible and with the tour, I not only have someone planning all the transpo and hotels (another really nice one tonight again!), but am getting tons of history and facts from Andi as well as having 19 other people looking out for me. Everyone is very nice and even though they are prob thinking I signed up for the wrong trip (I didn't), that I am pretty damn cool myself and bring a breath of fresh air with my youthfulness! Obvs. 

Dinner finished at like nine and since we had been on a bus or a boat most of the day, I had a ton of pent up energy. (My two naps must have helped!) I was wired after dinner. Maybe it was the 3/4 glass of wine I had (doubtful), but I needed to do something to rid myself of the pent up energy. Since it doesn't get dark here until like 10, I figured I would go for a run. And so I did. In NYC I never would consider running that late or after eating a big dinner or after drinking. But this is the new "euro me," so I went for it. It was a gorge run along the water in about 65 degrees. Heavenly. I never got a chance to run in London because I was so exhausted from the time change and all the site seeing. Even though I walked like 40 miles or so in 3 days, I still wanted to run in my head, but my legs weren't having it. I am going to try and do it once in every country for the rest of my trip if time and energy permits. Challenge accepted!

Post run it was time to do some laundry. Ugh. Since we are at this hotel for two days I don't have to worry about my clothes not drying overnight. I have never hand washed laundry before so this was new to me. And annoying. But necessary. On a trip as long as this, it's a must. I brought a bunch of mini travel detergent packets with me for just this task. I also added some shampoo to the mix to clean the clothes. I know I won't feel like the clothes are super clean, but it's better than wearing dirty clothes. I just can't. Hopefully these will turn out okay and be wearable again. Laundry finally tired me out so it was time to get ready for bed. Tomorrow is a our first and only full day in Amsterdam and I have a group tour in the morn of the city, followed by one in the countryside, and then the rest of my day and night to myself. There are two additional excursions tomorrow that many people in the group are doing, but I turned them down so I could not feel rushed exploring myself. I have my map and list of things to do all ready! Of course I do. I can't wait to see my second city on the trip and continue on this awesome adventure!