Day 11 ... highlights exploring Amsterdam and exploring Amsterdam ... truly an exploratory kind of day. Began the day without a map and attempting to navigate our way through Amsterdam ... I love this "wingin' it" / "fly by the seat of our pants" stuff. We eventually found our way to Central Station and from there were able to grab a map and cash in some of our tour vouchers. The first tour today was a 3-hour bike tour [Yellow Bike Tours] through and around ...

Day 10 ... highlights public transit and arriving in Amsterdam ... as always experiencing public transit with a lot of luggage is always an "adventure"! Few telling stories to entertain you [one in which I wish I had a camera crew following me] ... made our way via black cab to Victoria Station in London and decided to take the Gatwick Express train to Gatwick Airport, we had just scrambled into the train and were nicely settled when we were advised that th...

Day 9 ... highlights the City of Chester and Shakespeare's birthplace ... today was the end of our bus tour and we had a couple of great stops - one being Chester [one of the few remaining walled cities in England], and the last being Stratford-upon-Avon [the birthplace of William Shakespeare]. This morning began with Beanie secretly telling our tour director, Peter Staff, that today is her dad's birthday and that he really didn't want anyone to know ... BUT sh...

Day 8 ... highlights The Lake District and English slang ... I felt it was somewhat unfortunate to leave Edinburgh today, really wanted to stay longer and explore some more - especially the weird and funky happenings of The Festival. This morning we made our way to The Lake District (close to Keswick, Engand), with its beautiful and indescribable landscapes - there is so much variety in each eyeframe, and so much to take in, it really is hard to describe. Thi...

Day 7 ... highlights … highlights City of Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-DIN-burrrrr-[roll the Rs]-AH) and the Military Tattoo … as with all bus tours we had an early start today and basically made our way to Edinburgh. Along the way at our quick lunch stop our tour guide, Peter, procured a bottle of Scottish single malt scotch whisky {Speyburn} and we were each given a "dram" to sample … my seating partner today (Pat) didn't like whisky so I got her portion ...