Newly Into Newark
Hooray, back in the USA! Back to semi-reasonable internet access — even if right now I’m scrounging it off of my slightly aged cellphone whilst waiting for our final flight. Our holiday itinerary over the last week was as follows:
Last friday: Syracuse->Newark->London, mostly uneventful, thankfully.
Saturday: London->Cambridge for my stepfather’s birthday at one of the colleges. Got to see my sister again and observe snotty Oxbridge types punting on the rather rainy Cam. Spent a lot of the day recovering from jetlag, altough this was eased by (a) Europe not moving to DST yet and (b) reasonably large quantities of wine.
Sunday: Cambridge->London where sightseeing consisted of the British Museum, Covent Garden, lots of getting stuck in traffic due to the west end getting shut down because of St. Patrick’s day parades (which we ended up driving right next to in the opposite direction). We had a massive dinner at a delicious South Indian place behind Tottenham Court Road, sharing a tasting type arrangement that extended over our entire table and was far too large to finish. Incidentally it seems like southern Indian cuisine is the next big restaurant thing.
Monday: London->Sheffield. Showed G Oxford street, Regent Street, Leicester square, Trafalgar square (including popping into the National Gallery to admire Monet and others), Westminster, The London Eye and the enormous herds of people dressed up as statues on bankside, The Tate Modern for various pretentious but interesting modern art stuff. Then a drive at uncomfortably high speeds to Sheffield.
Tuesday: Sheffield. A day of relaxation in which me and G went on a seven mile hike over the moors. In the evening we discovered the delights of allergic fur reactions, and I got to sleep in a very makeshift bed on the floor in order to better keep an eye on my girlfriend’s respiratory reactions to the kitten’s hairy legacy.
Wednesday: Sheffield->Derby->Amsterdam. Experiencing the joy of the English transit system, which went pretty smoothly up to the point where we were supposed to catch the bus from the train station to Robin Hood Airport (Nottingham is rather obsessed with it’s mythological heritage) and it didn’t bloody come for about twenty years. Additionally, English airports have decided that you are only allowed one carry on bag, which must be nearly microscopic in size: a huge pain the arse. We managed to get to our charming little 1-star hotel just fine; ate another delicious tasting meal, Thai this time; smoked a little something and had a very thorough nights sleep.
Thursday: Amsterdam, wandering around to various architectural points of interest, especially Silodam. We also had a bit of a skip around the somewhat reduced Rijksmuseum. Haring and Patat for lunch. Ethiopian food for dinner, and delicious patisserie goodies shoved in there somewhere too.
Friday: Rotterdam, marveling at the much superior Dutch transport system. We visited the Architectural institute and some more buildings, but were somewhat distracted by the frigid conditions and rather rapidly ran back to the train station — but not before stopping into another delicious bakery to pick up some goodies for the ride back. Had the obligatory Rijstafel (another enormous tasting meal, Indonesian this time) after some drinks at a very gezellig dutch bar.
Saturday: Utrecht and Driebergen, doing the family rounds. Managed to see all my Cousins, My Aunt, My grandmother. Went to bed early to prepare for…
Today: And here we are in Newark! All in all a very, very busy but full and fun vacation. We are so not ready for work tomorrow morning.
Tags: amsterdam, england, holland, vacation