London, Brussels, and Bergen op Zoom
UK/Netherlands Trip Status: days six and seven
If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium. Wait, you say, isn't it Wednesday? (Only not, because it isn't anymore, but yeah >.> )
Tuesday we took another break from museums, and, after going to the Dana Centre to mooch off their internet for a couple hours, we took the Tube to Kew Gardens. It was rather nice, and I found a nice bench under an evergreen to sit down under and paint for a few hours. It turned out to be an excellent choice of locations, as even when the rain started to really come down a couple times there, I only got a few drops on me. The AP and the brother went off and wandered while I painted, eventually returned, then went to get tea inside a nice warm building while I finished up. Overall, the weather got pretty crazy on Tuesday - one minute it was bright and sunny, the next minute it was raining, then sun again, then hail.... (Though it really only hailed once, for about seven minutes or so - we stood in the shelter of some hedges with our umbrellas until it was over.) We wandered about after I finished painting and had a good time looking at the gardens :D I took pictures of cool things!
Wednesday we got up at six forty-five, seven o'clock, took the Tube from Earl's Court to Victoria at eight, getting off right when they were shutting down the Tube because of a security alert (or something - they were evacuating everyone from the station and not letting people come in). Then we got to find the coach station, managed to catch the 9:30 coach instead of the 10:25 one, because we were awesome (i.e., the AP rushed us out really early o.O;; ), took it to the airport (not Heathrow, a different one that I don't remember the name of at the moment), had an AWFUL flight to Brussels (note to all: never, ever take Ryan Air - lots of hidden fees, lots of loud ads on the PA during the flight, just... don't do it), were picked up by my aunt, her boyfriend, and my cousin, and they took us over to the Netherlands and then we went out to supper. We spent the night in a hostel that was really nice. Like... nicer than the hotel we had in London (not hard to do) with big rooms and all sorts of nice things. Like a very nice breakfast spread the next morning. Unfortunately, the brother was being obnoxious and that set me off, so... Yeah >.>
After breakfast on Thursday we packed up and waited for aunt and cousin to pick us up so that we could visit. I did something stupid, tripped, and got my left side all bruised up. Ow. We went to a neat museum-slash-old building with aunt and cousin, then went to visit my other cousin and her twin girls (they are four! and don't really speak a word of English, and I don't speak any Dutch, but we had funtimes!! :D ). Then we went to the train station, took a train to the airport for Amsterdam, took a bus to our hotel, and dealt with a very annoyed AP. She should perhaps start using Mandy's rule of travel: assume charge for everything. Hotel does not have free internet... nor does "laundry services" mean that they have a room where you can easily do your laundry. One euro to clean a handkerchief and it just goes up from there. Yikes. And no free breakfast D: But nice room! Very nice. And a bathtub. Slept well.
Will write up today tomorrow. Or something. Weee~ Now it's time to wash shirts and undies in the sink while listening to show-that-is-not-MI5 :D
If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium. Wait, you say, isn't it Wednesday? (Only not, because it isn't anymore, but yeah >.> )
Tuesday we took another break from museums, and, after going to the Dana Centre to mooch off their internet for a couple hours, we took the Tube to Kew Gardens. It was rather nice, and I found a nice bench under an evergreen to sit down under and paint for a few hours. It turned out to be an excellent choice of locations, as even when the rain started to really come down a couple times there, I only got a few drops on me. The AP and the brother went off and wandered while I painted, eventually returned, then went to get tea inside a nice warm building while I finished up. Overall, the weather got pretty crazy on Tuesday - one minute it was bright and sunny, the next minute it was raining, then sun again, then hail.... (Though it really only hailed once, for about seven minutes or so - we stood in the shelter of some hedges with our umbrellas until it was over.) We wandered about after I finished painting and had a good time looking at the gardens :D I took pictures of cool things!
Wednesday we got up at six forty-five, seven o'clock, took the Tube from Earl's Court to Victoria at eight, getting off right when they were shutting down the Tube because of a security alert (or something - they were evacuating everyone from the station and not letting people come in). Then we got to find the coach station, managed to catch the 9:30 coach instead of the 10:25 one, because we were awesome (i.e., the AP rushed us out really early o.O;; ), took it to the airport (not Heathrow, a different one that I don't remember the name of at the moment), had an AWFUL flight to Brussels (note to all: never, ever take Ryan Air - lots of hidden fees, lots of loud ads on the PA during the flight, just... don't do it), were picked up by my aunt, her boyfriend, and my cousin, and they took us over to the Netherlands and then we went out to supper. We spent the night in a hostel that was really nice. Like... nicer than the hotel we had in London (not hard to do) with big rooms and all sorts of nice things. Like a very nice breakfast spread the next morning. Unfortunately, the brother was being obnoxious and that set me off, so... Yeah >.>
After breakfast on Thursday we packed up and waited for aunt and cousin to pick us up so that we could visit. I did something stupid, tripped, and got my left side all bruised up. Ow. We went to a neat museum-slash-old building with aunt and cousin, then went to visit my other cousin and her twin girls (they are four! and don't really speak a word of English, and I don't speak any Dutch, but we had funtimes!! :D ). Then we went to the train station, took a train to the airport for Amsterdam, took a bus to our hotel, and dealt with a very annoyed AP. She should perhaps start using Mandy's rule of travel: assume charge for everything. Hotel does not have free internet... nor does "laundry services" mean that they have a room where you can easily do your laundry. One euro to clean a handkerchief and it just goes up from there. Yikes. And no free breakfast D: But nice room! Very nice. And a bathtub. Slept well.
Will write up today tomorrow. Or something. Weee~ Now it's time to wash shirts and undies in the sink while listening to show-that-is-not-MI5 :D