Sunday, January 07, 2007

A note to readers....

It has been such a treat to read all of the comments you guys have been leaving, so I thought it would be fitting to write back...

To:
My parents: I will try to accomplish all of my travel tasks - beer for Dad and I will bring flowers to everyone at the farm and to Otmar. Let me know if I am forgetting anything.
Erica: I love the notes you're leaving! I promise to share all the pictures when I get home. How about over some Starbucks?
Tyler: You are going to be in Europe in a few months yourself - you are going to love Germany.
Bobby's Daddy: So fun messaging with you earlier tonight. I am delighted to report the international Starbucks partners are hooking us up with their discounts. Oh yeah!
G.P - The drunk guy on the tube in London with his bottles of Stella made us laugh so hard...wish you could have seen it!
Jana: You'll be here in a few months on your own Europe adventures...I expect you to blog too! Have you finalized all of your plans?
Carol: if you're reading this...can you get sushi with us Thursday night?
Blake: I said Hello to your Scottish relatives...they were all eating at this popular restaurant called McDonald's - have you heard of it?
David/Kiron/Zoe: I met a group of Aussies at breakfast this morning and they all had tubes of Vegemite...I was so jealous.

If I didn't leave you a message will you please post me a note to let me know you're reading? Google tells me the blog has had over 300 hits since I left!

Welkom bij Maastricht!

Our day began in Glasgow, halfway through we were in Belgium, and we end this evening in the glorious country that is the Netherlands.

Kate and I took the very first train out of Glasgow at 8:48 a.m. which took us directly to Prestwick International Airport (where, evidently, you don't have to go through customs...very weird). The flight left on time at noon and we arrived into Brussels a few minutes after 2:30 p.m. and just a few minutes later had collected our backpacks and met my friend Angela in the airport lobby. She drove us back to her house in Maastricht, we dumped our bags, and the three of us left to walk to a local restaurant for dinner.

We ate at a place called Napoli, I'd been there a few times before when we lived in the NL, and so it was quite comforting to sit in the restaurant and just take in my surroundings. Kate and Angela had pasta and I had a mini cheese (kaas) pizza. Gotta love that Dutch cheese! After dinner, we walked around the city some, the Christmas fair was still set up so we went for a ride on the huge ferris wheel and got to see Maastricht all lit up with Christmas lights. Perfection.

We're back at Angela's house for the night. I think Kate and I are going to sit and watch a movie and try to get up at a reasonable hour to start exploring and making a few visits. Angela is leaving her car with us so we have the day to drive around. We are going to meet her at school later in the afternoon so I can say hello to my old teachers and friends. Not sure what kind of trouble we'll get into for the rest of the day...but I'm sure we'll come up with something. I suppose the biggest adventure will be trying to remember how to get everywhere by car - wish me luck!