Long awaited pictures from Amsterdam

The beautiful city of Amsterdam. Often called the Venice of the North, Amsterdam is an intricate landscape of canals, bridges, cobblestone roads and quaint narrow streets. The city is breathtaking and the relaxed atmosphere makes it an ideal place for a weekend getaway.

Another gorgeous view from another bridge.

Perhaps the best view yet :) Here we are along a popular boating canal. With more water than roads, it makes sense that there are so many boats!

We were able to take a short canal cruise through the Amsterdam waterways. Dispite the weather, it rained most of the day, it was beautiful. I thought this photo gave a different perspective, from the water looking out. Most photos you see are from solid land looking across the water. It's pretty tough to take a bad picture in Amsterdam.

This is as close as you will get to a skyline photo of Amsterdam. This was taken from the harbor looking into the city center.

London landmarks

The Parliament Building in Westminster. This is
the older section of the city where all the gov't
buildings and Westminster Abbey are located.
Missing from this picture is the clock tower and
Big Ben. I have a bit of an obsession with Big Ben,
and I plan to devote a whole posting to him.



Ian in front of Parliament- doesn't
he look official?



Lindsay with the Lion in Trafalgar Square.
Ian wanted me to climb up so he could
get a picture of me up on the lion, maybe
next time. Wherever I go, I seem to be drawn
to the lions- I guess it's the Leo in me- or maybe
the Nittany Lion :) Go STATE!!



Ian on the Thames. In the background you can
see the London Eye. It is kind of like a giant
Ferris wheel that moves really slow and fits
25 people per car. To me it sounds like
torture- I hate normal Ferris wheels, so why
would I like a giant one? I have promised Ian I will
take 1 flight (that's the official term) before
December. We'll see . . .



Enjoying a day in the park. St. James Park is
our favorite of the parks we have visited. From
this bridge you can see the London eye (behind
us) and Buckingham Palace from the other side.
Talk about a view!

We're not in Kansas anymore . . .

The Apollo Theatre is a converted movie house
near the Victoria train station.


Here I am after the show . . . it was incredible!
Ian even said it was one of the best shows he ever saw.


Here we are after going to see Spamalot. It's
hard to take pictures with both of us in it- so
we are improvising and taking them ourselves.
That's why this is such a close up.


Spamalot at The Palace Theatre. This one was
Ian's choice. It was good, but very silly. The whole
show is basically a spoof of traditional musical theatre
mixed with the story line of Monty Python (which I
just do not understand). I enjoyed the theatre
references and the crazy dancing- several jigs!


Here is my traditional sneaky picture inside
the theatre. This time I did not get
yelled at- I must be getting better at
hiding my camera.


OK- we know- we are very behind on the Blog updating!! Here are some pictures of the great London theatre we have been enjoying. With the famous West End of London within 10 mins of our flat, we are trying to take advantage of as many shows as we can. So far we are up to 4. We also got to see Love's Labour Lost at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre last week. This was amazing to say the least. Unfortunately, we went straight from work and forgot our camera. If you are ever in London, experiencing Shakespeare the traditional way at the open air theatre is a must! You can even buy standing room (peasant section) tickets for only $5. There are traveling musicians and the actors interact with the peasants on the ground level during the show. The costumes were incredible and the acting was very authentic. I think this was one of my favorite things we have done so far.

More to come soon. . .