“All good trips start bad.” – Mike

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! Mike and I spent the winter break freezing our buns off in Europe. We spent the majority of our time in Belgium but started out in the Netherlands and made a quick trip over to France as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t take very many photos on this trip. The combination of cold weather and a sore shoulder meant that I left my Nikon in the apartment most days. I just don’t feel as compelled to dig in my bag for a camera, or linger for the perfect shot when I’m chilled. Still, I did manage to get a few nice photos to share.

Let’s start at the beginning. We flew from Marrakech to Eindhoven and hopped on a bus to Utrecht. We thought it would be nice to visit a Dutch city that’s not Amsterdam. (Mike’s been to Amsterdam a few times already.) Well, that bus dropped us off at a random parking garage with not a lot of transport options. We decided to jump on a tram but when we realized there was no way to pay (no machine or driver!), we jumped back off a few stops later. At that point we just figured we’d walk to our hotel. Bad idea. Did I mention it was raining? I suppose this plan could have worked… if we had known where we were going. Our map? Not so good. I’ll spare you the details but just know that we ended up walking along the freeway over a bridge only to find ourselves in a sparsely populated warehouse district. Back over the bridge we went. By the time we finally found a taxi and made it to our hotel, we were soaked. Even the clothes inside my suitcase needed drying. There was no way I was going to venture back out into the rain to explore the town. Sorry, Utrecht. Thankfully, the hotel proved to be a very cozy place. I fell asleep early and had my best sleep in ages. I think I earned it.

The next morning we took a train to Amsterdam and realized that this should have been our plan all along. No wonder we were the only ones who got off the bus in Utrecht while everyone else continued on to Amsterdam! Oh well.

The majority of our time in Amsterdam was spent drinking hot chocolate to keep warm and walking along the canals. We didn’t stop into any of the major sites like the Anne Frank House or Van Gogh Museum. (I figure I’ll be back in Amsterdam someday, right?) We just enjoyed being outside in the holiday atmosphere.

Although lovely, our stay was brief. We had to see a lady about a cat in Belgium the next afternoon,

xo, jill

P.S. Yep. I’m skipping a whole bunch of other travel photos for the moment. One day I will blog about that trip to Singapore last May. But right now… since I took so few photos in Europe, this trip is the least daunting!