We went on another guided tour today to the cities of Gent and Bruges - both located in Flanders region of Belgium (Gent in the east, Bruges in the west), and both important medieval port cities. The tours we have been going on are really nice, because they provide an overview on the area, and allow us to visit a few different places in one day. We started in Gent, which is the capital and largest city in the east Flanders province. Our guide walked us around Gent in a big square, highlighting the churches and the former castle of the Counts of Flanders. It was rather foggy while we were in Gent, so although the buildings and town were beautiful - pictures didn't turn out so great. After about 2 hours in Gent, we headed ... read more

We spent today exploring the rest of England on a day trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath. Although it was a long day, it was very good to see places outside of London. While it was a nice experience, we would have liked more time at the stops. The first stop this morning was Windsor Castle. We had about 2 hours to explore the Castle and were able to see the State Apartments and St George's Chapel (where several kings/queens of England are buried including Henry VIII, King George VI, and the Queen Mother). We also saw the changing of the guard...or rather, the changing of the guard blocked our way to the gift shop/exit. Either way, I would make Windsor my home before any of the other castles we have seen so far on ... read more

We woke up this morning to fog and drizzle - but that didn't stop our adventures. We had a busy day planned, with lots of places to go and things to see. Our first stop this morning was St Paul's Cathedral. St Paul's is the head church in the Diocese of London for the Church of England - probably most well known in recent history for being the site of Prince Charles and Lady Diana's wedding. It had a very impressive presence, but I was a little disappointed that we were not allowed to take pictures inside. Our next stop after St Paul's was the Tower of London. It was very cool walking toward the tower, seeing the Thames and the Tower Bridge in the background. The Tower was not what I expected. It was a ... read more

...and the misadventures continue! Yesterday was a giant misadventure - I was planning to visit the windmills at Kinderdijk park (one of UNESCOs World Heritage Sites). There are a few different ways to get there, and I picked the one that sounded the easiest - train from Nijmegen to Utrecht, then bus from Utrecht to Kinderdijk. After waiting for the bus at Utrecht for 1.5 hours, I finally admitted defeat and went back to Nijmegen. Today was much better! Sarah joined my adventure to Cologne (aka Köln in German), and we only had one misadventure all day. To get to/from Cologne, we had to transfer trains 2x (once in Venlo and once in Dusseldorf ). Unfortunately, we didn't realize our train was at the first transfer...until it left without us. But, in our defense, the train ... read more

Have you ever had a day where you just need supervision? I feel as though my whole day can be described in two words, "oops!" and "lost!" I somehow managed to get lost looking for the train station in Nijmegen (according to the map, it's only 3 turns from Sarah's apartment!), but stumbled across it on accident. From there, the day continued going downhill. My new word in Dutch today is "Zuid" which means "south." I accidentally got off the train at the wrong Arnhem stop - I got off at Arnhem Zuid, rather than Arnhem Centraal. Ultimately, after consulting a map and realizing it was a 5 kilometer walk, I decided to wait for the next train to travel the one stop over. From there, the central train station in Arnhem has 2 exits...of course ... read more