Erin visited for just over a week.

I showed her around London but we also went to Brussels and Amsterdam for three days.

LONDON SIGHTS

The British Museum

Piccadilly Circus

St. James' Park looking at Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey from the front (above) and side (below)

Victoria Tower (part of the Houses of Parliament)

Walking on the Thames Path toward Tower Bridge

The London Eye

Helpful reminders for everyone before crossing the streets.

No one can resist the phone booths.
(Unfortunately, we picked one that smelled like it had been used
as a toilet by homeless people.)

A classic--fish and chips.

WINDSOR CASTLE

While The Queen, Lizzie Windsor, was in the USA, we checked out one
of her modest abodes here in the UK.
Windsor is about 30 minutes outside of London by train.
The castle is over 900 years old.
The grounds are teeming fluffy-hat guards. Very threatening.

(We saw the Changing of the Guard at Windsor, but I'll be putting up the video another time.)

Visitors are allowed inside to see some of the rooms, but no photography is allowed.

BRUSSELS
We took the Eurostar train from London to Brussels.

The next several photos are of The Grand Place in the
city center of Brussels.
The plaza is surrounded by ornate guildhalls.

Fancy shopping plaza with glass ceiling.

Restaurant-lined lane

Famous Brussels monument--Manneken Pis.
(Look it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis)

We enjoyed some delicious Belgian treats:
Chocolate

One of these, a couple of those...

Waffles

and beer, of course!

Waiting for the train to Amsterdam, hoping we get on the right one...

AMSTERDAM
Our first day in Amsterdam was rainy. :(

Dam Square

A good day for the museum.

And a good day for tasty sausage rolls, all warm and flaky!

Rather than get soaking wet exploring the whole city on foot, we took a canal boat tour.

I think living on a house boat would be swell.

Or maybe just staying in the Botel the next time I visit would suffice.

Some of the buildings are crooked because they're sinking!

Stroopwafels! This is what I think of them:

For our second day in Amsterdam, we...

experienced a little history


and took a bike tour.
(It rained a bit this day too, but special ponchos were provided.)

We were able to see a bit of the countryside on our bike tour.

Pete (or Piet?) was our guide. He is Canadian, but lives in Amsterdam.
He led us to a windmill.


This is our whole tour group.


We also stopped at a farm. They make their own cheese and wooden shoes.

It felt like I was at Dutch Village in Holland, MI, except this was real, not a theme park.

The farmers hand make about 5 varieties of cheese.

I sampled them all, naturally!

We were a bit disappointed about not seeing any tulip fields.
Guess I'll have to go back someday.