Egypt so far

Loving Egypt except for our night train.  As it was towards the end of Ramadan the trains were packed with city  workers leaving Cairo to head home to their families to begin Ede celebrations.
I am borrowing my tour leaders laptop while Nath kicks his butt at cards.  Taking a break from the sun bathing.  We are currently on a cruise from Aswan to Luxor.  Each day the boat has docked so we can see some temples so its neat to get out and about.  Another kiwi couple on the cruise we have met and become friends with - they even gave us two jars of marmite!
Here are just a few samples of the many photos we have taken.  Loving the hot weather, it is almost too hot in the afternoon to be in the sun, even the shade is not overly refreshing! But I am remembering that when I return to London it will be cold and grey so Im making the most of the sun.

Up early tomorrow for a hot air balloon ride over The Valley of the Kings.  We have one last overnight train to endure but this trip is only 10hrs so it should be a breeze.  Lets hope the air con doesn't conk out.

Amsterdam

Anna, Borrie, Nath and myself just had a wicked weekend in Amsterdam.  The weekend got off to an early start with the alarm set for 3:10am!!  A bit early but shows how hard core travellers we are.  Needless to say I was actually looking forward to getting on the plane so I could sleep, but with only a 40min flight to Amsterdam, I did not catch up on much of my missed sleep. 

We hit the ground running - firstly we dropped our bags at the hotel then found some breakfast before we literally went non-stop for the next 3 days.  We started with a canal cruise along the many hundreds of canals in Amsterdam.  Along the way we stopped at the Van Gough Museum - it holds the largest collection of Van Goughs's works.  We then decided we were thirsty so off to the Heineken Brewery we traipsed to quench our thirst.  It is the best brewery tour I have done - very interactive and funky.  They had a bar set up pumping sounds and room where you could DJ and make your own bottle labels. 

After this it was time to complete the canal cruise then explore China Town for some dinner.  We had a quick walk around the red light district but we were all zonked out from the early start so we headed to our hotel for much needed sleep.
Day two was planned out to perfection.  We started with an early start at the Anne Frank house to avoid the queues.  We did well getting there before it was even open, and they were letting people in early so we didn't even have to wait.  Later in the day we notived the queue snaking around the block!  It was very interesting inside the Frank hideout - it was bigger than I had imagined and they had a good set up.  Having read Anne Franks diary it was neat to be able to see the hideout for myself.  It was very sad being there as the story didn't have a happy ending and Im struggling to understand why one population of people think they are superior to another.  Of course this occurs around the world, Nazi Germany is just one horrific example of unfortunately many cases of genocide.

 To lift our moods we then indulged in some frites (hot chips with mayo) and waffles.  We were feeling much happier after our food stop.  The previous day we had booked ourselves onto a half day trip out to the 'country' where we were to see windmills, clog and cheese making.  This trip was excellent value for money, only €35 for a 5 hour outing.  We went to the Zaan district to see windmills listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site.  After this it was time to taste cheese and shield our eyes from wood shavings during the clog making demo. We headed back to Amsterdam very content with our country outing.

 The last big adventure on our list for today was a visit to the Ice Bar.  It was FREEZING, naturally as you would expect being at -10C!  I was definitely ready leave after 20min of being locked in a freezer.  Unfortunately we weren't able to take photos inside, but don't worry staff took photos for us to buy at €9 per photo.  Yeah right.  Needless to say we didn't buy any. 

By now it was 10:00pm and feeling much more awake than the previous night we headed to the red light district.  We found a pub playing the Real Madrid v Barcelona game which was awesome to watch - even though the pub stank of weed.  The smell was everywhere around the streets of the red light district.  Anna was worried sniffer dogs at the airport may smell weed on our clothing and get us locked in jail.  After the footy we had a good look through the red light district, I was disappointed at how tame it was as I thought it may have been more risque. The most shocking thing was the pitcures on the numerous DVD covers!

 

 Monday and today is Nath's birthday.  We had not planned anything for today other than a nice canal side lunch before heading to the airport.  Turns out we managed to fit in a 3 hour city walking tour before our lunch and departure from Amsterdam.  Our tour guide delighted in telling us that NZ has the highest rate of weed users in the world - 27% compared to only 5% in The Netherlands.  Anna and I are very sceptical of this information as we don't think a quarter of NZers use weed.  

We were totally impressed with ourselves amd how much we had managed to do in 3 days in Amsterdam.  My lasting observation is all the bicycles around the city.  I loved how bicycles ruled the road over cars and pedestrians!  Also noticed the lack of an obesity problem as the population is so active.  Maybe Texas should invest in some bicycles!



Looking forward to more travel later in the month with our trip to Egypt only a couple of weeks away. 

An example of all the bikes - they even have special bike parks

Birthday Lunch

The narrowest home in Amsterdam 1.8m wide!



Cambridge

Mum and Dad left London early, like 4:30am early, yesterday morning, so to cheer me up Nath took me to Cambridge for the day so I wasn't sitting around the flat moping.  Of course we did the usual Punt along the river Cam and had a laugh at the Asian tourists who couldn't steer their boats.  The river was packed and it was a bit like dodgem boats bouncing off each other all the way down.  We did see a few wet punters but actually missed the moments they fell in, gutted.  Our punter was very good at giving us a history lesson as we cruised past university colleges and under numerous bridges.  One bridge we passed was the Mathematical bridge which is self supporting due to its tangent and radial trussing, the original bridge built in 1749.

 

Mathematical bridge

After our romantic cruise shared with 6 other people in our boat, we visited Kings College Chapel.  This is the Church where King Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn in 1533. In 1536 Henry had her beheaded at the Tower of London.  The Chapel was amazing with the most fascinating fan vault ceiling - the largest in the world.  Building of the Chapel began in 1446 and was finally completed over a century later.  At the East end of the Chapel hangs 'the Adoration of the Magi' painted by Rubens in 1634.  Such amazing history in one small place.  After our cruise and religious experience it was time to hit the pub for a refreshing pint and a bite to eat.

Kings College Chapel - the organ was a gift to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn for their wedding



Trinity College

Mum and Dad do London

It has been a busy week since we returned from Scotland.  Mum and Dad have been staying in our spare room and every minute of the day is action packed, so much so we all collapse into bed at night.  My memory is starting to get a little foggy of what we have done, could be something to do with having a few drinks last night! 
Im thinking that I might bullet point what we have done to make it easier to remember:

• explored Camden markets including a garra rufa fish pedicure
• walked along the North Bank of the Thames
• climbed up Monument
• explored Greenwich - markets, maritime museum, painted hall, royal observatory, river boat along the Thames
• visited the state rooms of Buckingham Palace and the Royal Mews
• HMS Belfast
• hung out in Covent Garden

Mum and Dad hired a car and took off to Weymouth and Cornwall for four days.  They wanted to see Weymouth as this is where my sister lived and worked for six months a few years ago.  They loved Cornwall but hated how they had to pay for car parking everywhere - even at the beaches!
At the moment they are at the British Museum with my Uncle (Dad's brother) who lives in Brighton but came up to London yesterday to hang with Dad.  It is cool to see him and we had a fun dinner with him and my brother last night.
Tonight we are going to see Lion King at the theatre which is going to be very lively.  I will try to stop myself singing along to all the songs I know.  Tomorrow I suggested M&D have a wander around Kew Gardens for a few hours - they will love it.  Dad is keen on the tree top walk.  We are meeting my cousin for dinner at Brick Lane in the evening so Im hoping we dont get Dheli Belly.  So far we have had no probs after eating there.  Then after all this action it will leave one day left for M&D in London before they set off for Turkey and Greece.  Lucky buggers.
I have to admit though the weather in London has been fantastic!  I have a bit of a tan going on.  The weather is forecast to be great up til Friday so thats good for getting up and exploring the sights.
I'll include some pics to make this blog slightly more exciting.