Greetings from Edinburgh

Hello all!

Well, we are now right in the midst of our holiday travels, with only one more day, one more night, and one more very early morning left in Edinburgh, Scotland. By mid-morning Wednesday we will be in Dublin, Ireland to tour around for a few days, assuming all goes to plan, which in our case is assuming too much given previous events. Before going any further allow me to recap the events of the past few days.

December 27, The Hague: A day spent looking at the city that boasts the Netherlands seat of Government and all that goes with it.

December 28, Amsterdam: Basically a day of walking...followed by more walking, but a fun day nonetheless, filled with interesting sites that included the Anne Frank House, among others.

December 29, Amsterdam to Manchester: The original plan -- get up early, breakfast at the hostel at 6:30, short walk to train station, catch the 7:22 trains to Schiphol Airport (get there by 8:00 am), have plenty of time to go through airport and catch our 10:00 flight to Manchester -- needless to say, things did not go accordingly.

What really happened? Well, we did wake up early -- packed and ready in record time -- however, upon reaching the lobby at a little after 6:15 am we were shocked to find out breakfast (unlike every other hostel and despite what was listed on the website) was not until 7:00. As I had the times and platforms written down for four following trains, we decided to wait for breakfast, since it was "free" (or rather included in the price of our stay). Fortunately, since we were not the only guests "mistaken" about what time breakfast was served, the hostel allowed for breakfast to be served at 6:50, so 10 mintues early. We ate a quick breakfast and hurried out the door and down the street in plenty of time to catch the 7:33 train. Of course, on the way we took one wrong turn and missed that train by a few minutes. But, the next train would be along at 7:45, only about 25 minutes later than we originally wanted, but still alloting us plenty of time since it is less than a twenty minute train ride to Schiphol. Unfortunately, skipping over the details of our dreadful realization, the train we were on was not stopping at Schiphol on this trip. Yes, it was the correct train and time, and every other day it does stop at Schiphol, except that one trip -- yet, the train station had not changed the sign; although, we were later informed that the train station had made an announcement, but we never heard any announcements (not that we would have understood an announcement in Dutch). To our misfortune, and that of a few other Schiphol travellers and even employees, we were on our way to Leiden. But, with a little luck and some help from a very kind lady, we made it onto a train back to Amsterdam Schiphol within minutes of getting off the first train. Then, arriving at Schiphol just after 9:00, we made it from the train station airport to the boarding line in 22 minutes flat -- even including my trouble with security. It was the fastest I had ever run. We made our plane. It took off a little after 10:00 and an hour or so later we were in Manchester, England, which we spent the day exploring and visitng museums.

December 30: On this day we took a train from Manchester to Edinburugh, perhaps, the most beautiful city I've seen.

December 31: We celebrated New Year's Eve by touring and participating in Hogmanay, Edinburgh's huge street party festival, along with 80,000 other people.

January 1: Touring in Edinburgh.

January 2: A train/bus ride to St. Andrews, which turns the Old Course into a public park on Sundays for the locals to walk on as they choose.

January 3: More of Edinburgh, specifically the Castles and a few museums.

As for Dublin, I'm just excited. Plus, even if things do not go as planned, I am willing to bet we will make our plane.

Until Next Time,
Jessica

Edit from Farrell:
I have been photo-documenting our travels even more rigorusly than normal, and will upload those photos as soon as I have enough bandwith to do so. Right now, we are on a slow 3G connection.

Fun in the Snow

Jessica, Dad and I walked to a local park in Nijmegen, which was wonderfully transformed by the snow. We saw zebra walking in the snow, found a football (soccer) stadium, watched hundreds of kids and kids-at-heart sled and make snowmen, had snowball fights, helped move stuck cars, and met a cross-country skier.

Fortunately, I brought my DSLR and both my long and walk-around lenses, so all of the above were photographed.

Find the set here or the slideshow here.

Farrell

Christmas Morning Photos

I think the title says it all in this case. I have uploaded photos of Dad, Jessica and I opening the presents Dad brought with him from the US. We each have also been given gifts from others that either have already been opened or are of a kind that is not opened, as in ripped out of wrapping paper A Christmas Story style. Those are not pictured here.

Find the set here, or the slideshow here.

Farrell

Weihnachtsmarkt Photos!

Dad, Jessica and I made our second trip together, this time to Dortmund, Germany to visit one of the many famous German Weihnachtsmarkts, or Christmas Markets! Many German towns, really all of them of a reasonable size, host a Christmas Market during December each year. Our European friends have been excited about visiting them for months, and hearing them talking about the Weihnachtsmarkts so positively, we decided to visit one as well.

Well, it was everything they had hyped it up to be and more!

I did quite a bit of reading about camera care in very cold temperatures, and brought my DSLR along this time. That turned out to be a very good decision, as just about everything at the market was worth a photo, and many of those photos turned out quite nicely.

Find my largest set of photos so far here, or start viewing them as a slideshow here.

Farrell

Utrecht Photos

Dad, Jessica and I traveled to the beautiful Dutch city of Utrecht. Utrecht is one of the more prominent cities in the Netherlands, and is especially known for its beautiful old city center. Canals rivaling the beauty of Amsterdam's seem to never be out of site, and the bells of the famous Dom tower are a regular reminder of the city's history.

You can start viewing our photos as a slideshow here, or find the set here.

These photos were taken with my pocket HD video camera instead of my nice DSLR because of the very cold weather. The quality of well lit pictures is fine, but indoor photos of the dark Dom church are not as nice as I normally post.

Farrell