Amsterdam :)

Amsterdam!

I just went to Amsterdam this past weekend ( 4th November - 7th November ) and that was something to experience! The city is actually very beautiful, with canals and bridges everywhere throughout. I knew there was more to the city than it's reputation has to offer, but I didn't really know what quite to expect. One of the girls I was with said that part of the inner city, where the canals were, reminded her a lot of venice. So yes, it was beautiful! We left on Thursday afternoon and got back Sunday afternoon, so it was a bit of a longer trip, which was kind of a nice change of pace.

We toured the Van Gough museum, the Anne Frank house, went to a Botanic Garden, and went on the Heineken Brewery tour. So, we were definitely busy while we were there! I would have to say that the Anne Frank house was very fascinating to me, I was really interested in that. Also, the Heineken tour was awesome, that was definitely one of my favourite things I ended up doing over there. Overall, it was just really a great tour, because they included and showed all of the processes throughout the beer making procedure. They gave us two free beers at the end too, which was nice of them!
Heineken originated in Amsterdam, and it is everywhere over there. It's pretty much the only beer that they sell throughout the city. I'm not even kidding. But I like it, so I didn't mind!

Oh. Another thing that is everywhere in Amsterdam... BICYCLES! I literally about got ran over from more bikes than cars, and I'm surprised I didn't get hit at least once. I did trip over one once though. lol.

They had cute little Christmas shops up all over Amsterdam too, which got me really excited for Christmas! I'm trying really hard not to think about it though, because I don't want to get homesick or think about home while I'm still here. I still went through them though, and did buy a sweet blue and white Amsterdam looking ornament though, that will look great on our tree at home! I won't get to decorate our tree this year, but at least I get to put up one ornament :-)

I know all of you are curious about the Red Light district as well, just because I have had loads of questions about it already! It's actually not that bad of an area, it looks just as scenic as the rest of the streets in Amsterdam. It's still a very strange concept to me though, and I still can't quite wrap my head around it. As much as I try, I just don't quite get it! I guess that's a good thing!
All of Amsterdam felt pretty safe though, which was definitely a good thing. Our hostels were actually the nicest hostels I have been in so far too.

Alright, well I should stop making these so long, so I will go now and get back to homework! Sometimes these Huwer genes really get the best of me.

I hope everything is going well at home, only 5 weeks left! 

By the way, Mom and Dad come tomorrow! I'm so excited. They are actually on their way right now,  in a plane or at an airport somewhere. I really hope that they get here safe, and they their travel goes smoothly. They will be in my prayers all night for a safe trip. They should be flying into Newcastle by 11:00 on Friday morning, and there I shall go and meet them :-) After all of the hugs and kisses, we are going to set off for Scotland! So, I'm very excited for that as well!

I'm so happy that they get a chance to come over here to travel and experience everything at least once in their lives. I know they will really appreciate everything they get to see and do here, which makes me very excited for them. It really is such a wonderful journey, and we are very blessed to have all these opportunities. 

Well, I will talk to you all soon enough, and keep you updated on our travels :) 

Thanks for your interest and checking up on me and my blog!

Here we are! :-)

Bikes everywhere! They really aren't kidding when they say that everyone rides bicycles everywhere. They pretty much have the ride away with pedestrians AND cars in that city. Basically, they are taking over Amsterdam. lol

Me with my ridiculously huge pancake! I got bacon and apples in it. I couldn't decide if I wanted a meaty one or a sweet one. So i mixed them. lol. It was delicious! They are big on Pancakes in Holland.
Not quite like grandma's but you know.  :-)
Oh. Brother Brent: Palm Beer (It was very good as well!) Maybe I should get more picky with what beers I like

What most of the streets / canals look like in Amsterdam

Bike! I really like this picture :)

It was fall when we went to Amsterdam as well.. very pretty season! I really like autumn

Anne Frank House ( They reconstructed the outside of it for more support.. they almost had to tear it down before it opened because it was crumbling and deserted, and then they had to restore it again in the 1970's.  After this, it went through a major renovation in 1995 )

Pictures of Anne Frank

The secret door ( a bookshelf ) that leads to the Secret Annex
I find all of this information so fascinating, and if you want to check more out about it, the website is: http://www.annefrank.org/en/   -- just in case you were very interested as well :)

They have a cafe named after me! whoop whoop

Heineken Brewery tour!

Some of the ingredients they use to make their beer

Brewery! (Dad and Brent, you would have loved it. It really was a very good tour)

Some samples of beer they gave us before our two free ones lol

The horses carrying barrels of Heineken beer 

fall :)

Pretty colours

I amsterdam. This sign is actually very famous!

Van Gough museum! It was amazing. Almost all of his work, and then the works from the artists that inspired him are in the museum.

One of his famous paintings - Sunflowers :)

Sweet looking bike!

Very Pretty :) 

One of the many lovely bridges throughout Amsterdam

Me by a canal

We went to go see a Boanic Garden.. which was really really neat! This plant was hanging, and reminded me of some kind of weird octopus. lol I really love science. I think if I wasn't a designer, I would be doing something with science.
(Mrs. Niekamp, I'm not sure how much you actually check this.. but you would have thought this was so neat!)

Part of the Botanic Garden we went to go see

Amsterdam by night! 

Red Light District --  It was actually a nice area! Still strange.

Me in the Amsterdam shoe!

A coffeeshop on the streets of Amsterdam -- Pretty neat looking

London! :-)

London!!

So, I went to visit good ol’ London, England the other weekend (29th October - 31st October) and it was amazing as well! There was so much to do and see in London, that I was so exhausted when I got back late on that Sunday night.  However, it was Halloween that night when I got back, and regardless of what day it is in Newcastle, people get really hyped up for stuff like that! So, I did go and join my flatmates at a party for a few hours before cashing in for the night.

We got to London late on Friday evening, and by the time we got to our hostel and checked in and everything, we were too exhausted to figure out where anything was that night, so we just decided to save it for the rest of the weekend. We went absolutely everywhere on Saturday, starting with Buckingham Palace, and working our way up past Big Ben, a Beautiful church, the ferris wheel, and all the way down to Tower Bridge. It was quite a walk, but since there was so much to see on the way, it went by so fast, before we knew it, it was dark (even though it was only about 5:00) lol. 

Tower Bridge (which is usually mistaken for London Bridge) was definitely one of my favourite parts of the trip! I think mostly because of it's massive structure and detail throughout it. I also really enjoyed Abbey Road! (Where the famous Beatles album cover was taken for those of you who don't know!) I thought it would be just kind of cool, because after all, it is just a road lol. But it was actually very awesome to see. It ended up being more than I had expected, which made it one of my other favourite parts of the trip.

Oh! Before I forget, as we were walking through Hyde Park, we stumbled across them filming Pirates of the Caribbean! I about died. It was so amazing. We didn't get to see Johnny Depp or anything, but we did get to see how the production works, with the blue screen, the director, and all of the other actors involved. We saw signs like "A Blackbeard production" with like warning signs on our way down the Hyde Park path, but to be fair, I thought it was some random English movie I would never see. I was wrong!
At first, they wouldn't tell us what movie it was, because of "security codes" and what not, but we found a real nice security guard who was wearing the Pirates badge around his neck ;) Pretty awesome. I asked him loads of questions, and he was nice enough to explain a lot of things about it. So.. that was a nice surprise!

London was amazing, and I would definitely go back in a heartbeat. I saw all of the touristy things to see, but there is so much more that London has to offer, that I could definitely spend a lot more time there.
It's so weird to see "big" cities like this over here in Europe, because they are completely different from the "big" cities at home, such as New York. I have never been to New York myself, but everyone talks about how tall everything is, with the sky scrapers and structures of things, and I haven't seen any of those industrialized types of things over here.
Everything over here seems so much more historical, and holds some kind of a message behind it all. Which I find just fascinating, because everything seems to tell a story, everything holds some kind of a deeper meaning to it.
I just can't get over the amount of detail and value that every building has. It truly amazes me!

Needless to say, I took loads of pictures in London too. And if you can believe it, I took more than I did in Paris! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of them when I get back, but I guess at least I have enough to pick from!

But, I shall stop rambling and let you all go now! I hope everything is going well back home, and before you know it, I will be there to join you :)

Thanks for checking up on me and my blog!

Here we are! :-)

Monument in Trafalge Square

The weekend we were there, they were actually playing an NFL game (Broncos vs 49ers) and they were advertising it all over Trafalge Square, which I thought was kind of funny. The actual game was played in a town outside of London called Brent (haha) at Wimbley Stadium. 

This is for you Big Brother Brent :-) Just keeping you posted on all the different beers 
I am consuming. 
(Hoegaarden) It was very good by the way!

I finally got to pet a horse! :) I really want one of these someday. The guard had to sit still, but I think the horse liked me :) He was precious

The building and courtyard right by St. James park where the queen has her birthday parade every year. She used to ride a horse around in the courtyard, but now she rides in a buggy, where she waves at people. Like a Queen would do. lol

Some pictures at night! It was so lovely.. we definitely took our time walking around

A picture of the River Thames at dusk :-) 

Me feeding the squirrels! They are actually nice over here. Sorry Ohio

Greene Park! It was so beautiful with all of the fall leaves.. we really were there at a 
good time of the year

Greene Park again :)  .. I really like this picture for some reason

Me and Tower Bridge! 

Tower Bridge at night! It was amazing, and it's actually in the top ten most famous bridges in the world because of it's structure. It is so lovely. One of my favourite parts of the trip for sure

Abbey Road!

ABBEY ROAD! This is legit. I should have probably been on the Beatles album cover

Me and the wonderful parliament at night :)

Big Ben at night! I put this one up here instead of some others, because this is when they were changing the clocks (setting them back an hour) and they shut the lights off when they did it! I thought that was pretty neat

Big Ben from afar :)

Seriously, this building is absolutely beautiful. There is so much detail and structure in it, that it amazes me. I just stared at it for hours. I have loads more pictures of it, 
but I shall save them for when I get home!

Buckingham Palace! It was proper gorgeous

Changing of the guards! This was actually very interesting to see

Me being random -- Greene Park

Cute street sign indicating where everything is

A carved tree in Hyde Park I thought was beautiful in its own way

lol. Awesome security guard for Pirates of the Caribbean. He told us the inside scoop. -- Note the badge! Note the badge! (Even though you can't really read it lol) This is how we knew what movie they were filming

Filming of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN!
On Set! with the director :-) I felt so cool, like I knew everything that was going on

Horse and buggy :)