Orange Is The New Red, White, and Blue (Or Amsterdam Really Likes Orange)

As I sit in the train station in Amsterdam, a delayed train due to the second strike we've encountered in four days alone, I'm wondering if I should start praying to the patron saint of travels (Saint Christopher, if anyone was wondering). Either that or I'll start writing angrily-worded letters to the train workers ("Good for you for standing up for change, but I needed to be somewhere so please don't").

On the upside, at least this time there was another train journey for us to take. A lot has happened since leaving Scotland, and despite the travel difficulties, it has been an enjoyable week.

The week started out in Doncaster, a city in northern England, where my roommate and I were able to watch a football (soccer) charity match featuring a couple famous Rover football players and Louis Tomlinson, a member of One Direction. The stadium was full of Louis fans who screamed whenever he got near the ball, but beyond that it was a good match. It was for charity so all the players were from the same team, just split into two to have some fun.

There are really only two sports  have a comprehensive understanding of, and those two sports are tennis and Quidditch, so I had to ask a few questions about positions and fouls, but after a bit I understood the basics. There was a surprise during halftime (which I may have accidentally called intermission) when another member of One Direction, Liam Payne, showed up to support his friend. That resulted in a lot more screaming and crying girls.

Right afterwards when the game started up again I went off to find a bathroom. Afterwards I wanted some fries and while I was checking the prices Liam Payne was suddenly five feet from me being ushered away by his body guards. I was about to try and snap a picture when suddenly from the abyss of the One Direction fandom came 400 screaming girls, nearly trampling me in their attempts to get to Liam. I was actually completely terrified and by the looks of it Liam was too. So long story short, I was almost trampled trying to get fries and Liam was there. I never did get my fries.

The morning after the game we headed off bright and early to Leeds, where we'd be catching an Olly Murs concert. It was my first big arena concert, and it was a lot of fun without being too wild. The English are very calm people, so it had a very chill attitude, despite being a huge concert.

The journey back to Oxford, where my roommate would be heading home and I would be moving on to London to meet up with a family friend for further traveling, was an interesting one. We were taking a bus with a change halfway through, a journey that should have only taken about two hours. The first part went smoothly, but the second part, after our change, got a little rockier. 

The bus we were supposed to get on ran from Cambridge to Oxford, but the bus we ended up getting on (with approval from the driver even) was running from Oxford to Cambridge. We were almost to Cambridge by the time we realized our mistake, and we then had to get off and walk a mile and a half, hauling our luggage, back to the bus station and hopefully grab the bus going the other way. By the time we got on the right bus it was already the time we should have arrived in Oxford. Three hours later we finally reached the city.

From there I changed out some of my luggage and, leaving the big bag in hold and saying good bye to my roommate, I boarded another bus to London. That took longer than expected as well, due to some unfortunate traffic, and I finally arrived in London after being on several buses for a combination time of over eight hours. Not the worst or nearly the longest I've spent on a bus, but for something that should have only taken a combination of maybe five hours, it was unfortunate. 

I met up with my friend in London and got to hear all about his terrible luck with the airline, which dropped him in London two days after he was supposed to be here, along with a combination of terrible service and long hours of waiting.

His luck must have followed him here, however, as after we'd checked out of our hotel and headed to the train station to take a train to Brussels, then Amsterdam, we heard that a train strike in Brussels had shut down all trains going through. We were able to rebook our tickets for the first leg for the next day, but the station in Brussels was completely unhelpful in trying to rebook tickets to Amsterdam online.

Stuck in London for the day, we found a new hotel to stay in (a ridiculously fancy one where they filmed scenes from two Harry Potter movies and an episode of Downton Abbey--I was freaking out when I found out) and decided to check out the inside of Westminster Abbey. Along the way on the underground, we picked up a couple trying to make their way through the transportation system to a hotel near Westminster. I offered to let them follow us and together all four of us made our way across the city.

The couple were from Texas and really nice, chatting with us about the difference between cities (they had just come from Paris) and how much it had changed since they'd last been here (twenty years). At the end of the journey we bid our good byes and wished each other luck with everything.

Westminster Abbey is beautiful on the outside and stunning on the inside. Though I don't know if anything will ever compete with Notre Dame for me, Westminster Abbey was incredible for its history. People like Winston Churchill have plaques there, and buried among statues and pillars of carved marble and stone are people like Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. There was a writers corner were Geoffrey Chaucer was buried, and they had plaques dedicated to Gerard Manly Hopkins, Charles Dickens, and many more.The Abbey also held the tomb of the unknown British Warrior, a dedication to all the service people who had fought and died in World War II. It was surrounded by fake poppies, the symbol of the second World War, and is one of many statues and memorials and dedications to the war.

Several kings and queens were buried in alcoves in the abbey as well, including Queen Victoria I, Queen Mary, Mary Queen of Scots, King Henry V, King Richard II, King Edward I, and Queen Anne, just to name a few. 

The cloisters of the Abbey contained a beautiful room filled with stained glass and a story that told the history of Abbey; it's purpose for the monks, it's damage during the second world war, and its restoration. It also contained Britain's oldest door, a wooden not-quite-square piece from sometime in the 1050's. 

Westminster Abbey is also the home of the wooden throne where the kings and queens of the United Kingdom are crowned. The stone from Scotland, something that ancient Scottish kings had been crowned on before the two kingdoms united, will be brought down and combined with the throne when it is time for the next monarch to be crowned. The stone resides in Scotland at all other times though, after a rough history of theft by both nations. There will hopefully be some time before the next monarch is crowned though, as the current queen, Queen Elizabeth, has a very high chance of becoming England longest reigning monarch. If she remains on the throne until later this year, I believe, she will have been ruling for over sixty years, making her reign longer than any of the others. 

After leaving the Abbey we wandered around London for several hours, walking along the river and getting lost trying to find the Globe, but for being stuck in London a day longer than we were supposed to, it was a lot of fun.

We headed out the next day to finally board our train to Brussels, where we booked our ticket to Amsterdam for the same day, and finally arrived in the city in the late afternoon. With a day less than we'd planned for, our first evening in Amsterdam was spent at the Anne Frank house, which was an incredible and humbling experience. The house itself is unfurnished, just as Anne's father, Otto Frank, requested, but the walls still contain the photos Anne pasted to the wall, and now have quotes from her diary printed alongside the blacked-out windows.

Eight people lived in that upper series of rooms for two years, hiding from the Nazis and wishing every moment that they could step outside and breathe the air. Unfortunately, someone informed the police where they were hiding, and the eight in the annex, the four Franks, three Van Pels, and Doctor, were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Of the eight, only Anne's father, Otto Frank survived. He spent several months looking for his family members before learning of their deaths and returning to the annex to collect the things left behind. There, he was given Anne's diary. Knowing of her dream to publish a book on her time in the annex, Otto had Anne's diary and a selection of her stories published, to share with the world the beautiful things Anne had to say about the terrible things happening to her world.

The sad part about Anne's story, was that she died only a month before the liberation of her camp. Believing she was the only member of her family still alive, she would have perhaps had more hope and will for survival had she known her father was still alive. Instead she believed she was alone, and after losing her family to various camps and ultimately death, Anne herself died in March of 1945.

We left the house in a quiet haze and found dinner at a little Italian restaurant along the canal. The next morning we got up early and made our way to the museum plaza of Amsterdam, where we spent hours in the biggest museum in the city, staring at awe at the exhibit on Rembrandt (with over 100 paintings from the various times in his life) and tracing along the ridges of ancient Dutch armor and carvings. We went to the Van Gogh museum as well, which I was particularly excited about, and got to see his famous Sunflowers painting in person. Van Gogh's life had a rather tragic end, but he corresponded very closely with his brother Theo and made many artist friends in his lifetime. Deciding at 27 to become an artist, he seemed happy in the beginning, and it wasn't until later in life that he succumbed to his mental instability, ultimately dying from a self-inflicted shot wound with his brother at his side.  

After we were finished at the museums we hopped onto a boat and got a tour of the canals from two humorous Dutch men. We passed beautiful houses, arching bridges, and even some crooked buildings. Quite a few of the houses in Amsterdam tilt to one side or another, simply because when the city was built the houses were built on stilts. Sometimes, the stilts weren't quite long enough, and after some time the houses began to dip to one side or another. The city used to tear down the tilting houses, but now they simple make sure the house is safe and level out the floors, leaving the windows and the house itself at an angle along the canal. 

Some of the houses also have the date they were built set on the front, dates like 1853, 1642, and even 1613. Many of them have hooks on the top as well, to haul goods and things up to the top level.

As a city, Amsterdam is absolutely beautiful, and I only wish we had more time here. But things happen, and our time in Amsterdam was wonderful. Our adventures will continue in Berlin from here, and then onto Paris and Normandy. If we can ever get out of this train station that is.

So until next time, good afternoon Amsterdam, and good morning California.

Sam

Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster

Liam Payne (the reason I almost died)

Olly Murs

Olly Murs concert in Leeds

The Railway station in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Canal

The Anne Frank House

Amsterdam tulips along the canal

There were tulips everywhere and it was beautiful

The Late Rembrandt Exhibition--the only painting Rembrandt did with a horse in it

The Late Rembrandt Exhibition

Rembrandt's last painting; it remained unfinished at the time of his death

More tulips

I amsterdam

Van Gogh Museum

Van Gogh Museum

Ancient jewelry rom the Rijksmuseum

Shields and carvings from the Rijksmuseum

A carved antler from the Rijksmuseum

Painting from the Rijksmuseum

Rijksmuseum

Canal in Amsterdam

Canal in Amsterdam

Canal in Amsterdam

This building was put up in the 80's, much to the chagrin of the city dwellers, so bar was built underneath, and every day it is lined with people along the canal

Orange tulips, the color of Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Louis Tomlinson

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey Cloisters

Westminster Abbey Cloisters

Westminster Abbey

The oldest door in Britain; estimated to have been made in the 1050's

Westminster Abbey Cloisters

Westminster Abbey Cloisters

St. Pancras International train station

St. Pancras International train station

Harry Potter, Plaid, and the Loch Ness Monster

After four months, the British ways are starting to affect me. I don't even like tea, but somehow I end up ordering it at restaurants and making it in hotel rooms late at night. So now I'm in an almost constant caffeinated state of sudden confusion. Part of that could have been the exposure to clean Scotland air though.

After the wild week that was Rome, the United Kingdom has become my traveling ground, and it's all thankfully been much easier. We spent three days in London visiting some of the sites we'd missed on our first day there several months ago. We braved our way to the top of the London Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral, and even rode a river boat down the Thames. We stayed in a little flat near the Tower of London, right near an underground station, so after the end of the first day we were pros at navigating the train system. Luckily London's public transportation is much more reliable than Rome's.

During our stay in London we were also able to catch cheap tickets for Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, which was a fantastic show. Admittedly, Wicked is my great musical love and I've seen it three times now so I'm a little bit biased, but it was different to hear it performed with British accents. The next day we went out and got to explore the Globe Theater, Madame Tussauds waxwork museum, and the Harry Potter Tour of London, where I almost cried as I was surrounded by sets, costumes, props, and various other items used in my other great love, Harry Potter.

We were up early our final morning in London, heading to the bus station to catch a bus to Edinburgh. We only had that evening (a nine hour bus ride was not ideal, but inexpensive) and the next day until afternoon in the city, so we took in the area and went up to Edinburgh castle, which was amazing. Full of war memorabilia and still a functional military base, I was excited to find that every day except Sundays and Christmas they fire a cannon at one o'clock. This was so that any ships departing at one knew what time it was. There was accompanied by a ball that dropped from a tower on a tall hill across the city. We also got to see the room where King James, the first king of the united kingdoms of Scotland and England, was born. Unfortunately our time in Edinburgh was short and we had to catch a train early the next morning to Inverness.

Our time in Inverness (and then consequently Loch Ness) showed that the entirety of Scotland is made of concerned parents, who thought our early transportation and food choices were worrisome. Loch Ness was incredible though, and we were able to explore two different exhibitions dedicated to the studies donw on the lake (and the Loch Ness Monster of course). We were even given a guided tour of the Loch on a boat by a man who had spent fifty years studying the Loch, had part of it named after him because he had discovered it (George Edwards--Google Edwards cave in Loch Ness), and had even had several sightings of 'Nessie' throughout the years.

After talking with him about the creature of the Loch, I can say with conviction that there is something in Loch Ness. Whether it's a monster or not, though, I can't confirm. What I can say is that Mr. Edwards says whatever is in the Loch has to be three things; completely aquatic, cold-blooded, and algae-eating. There are cameras set up around the Loch now, so anything that had to surface regularly for air would have been seen by now, therefore it has to be completely aquatic. Thermal imaging would have picked up on any warm-blooded animals in the loch, so it has to be cold-blooded. And finally, the fish and plankton food chain in the loch wouldn't support a large carnivorous creature, so it would have to eat the smaller organisms and algae. The only thing that fits all three of those descriptions is a fish. And there have been enough sitings and things happening that there must be something there. Loch Ness, at over 26 miles long, is too big not to have anything.

Mr. Edwards went on to talk about how the long-necked, multi-humped creature we all associate with Nessie nowadays is a media monster, and the pictures that are considered to be closer on the spectrum of 'true photographs' are things that resemble one large spine or hump. Now, back in the years when there were kings and queens of the separate united kingdoms, rulers as gifts of friendship and solidarity would send non-indigenous creatures to each other for game and hunting. Mr. Edwards theory about the Loch Ness Monster is that it is a large, evolved fish-like creature, perhaps related to the European catfish, which can grow up to twenty feet. Now, the original location of such a creature would have been further north, but when a creature becomes too big for it's habitat it either dies or moves on. And so, the theory that it swam down to Loch Ness was born. Due to longevity and logic it can be assumed that there has been more than one of whatever the creature is that haunts the Loch.

But you don't have to take my word for it; believe what you want about the Loch Ness. But I think there's something out there.

I really liked Scotland a lot, and wish we could've spent more time there. The sheer amount of plaid made me happy, and the country does actually just have bagpipe music playing everywhere. The people were very nice, and given the chance I would definitely go back and see the Highlands.

We left Inverness early the next morning as well, catching a short flight and then train to Doncaster, a northern England city where we'll be for a charity football (soccer) match featuring Louis Tomlinson from One Direction and his team the Doncaster Rovers. Hopefully we'll get a picture with him, but if not we'll at least get to experience a soccer match and support a charity.

I'm hoping to get more sleep tonight than I have for the past several days of getting up early to travel and explore, so I'd better get to sleep now. I'm sure I'll have lots to share for the next week.

Until then, good night Doncaster and good morning California,

Sam

Flowers beside the Tower of London

The Tower of London, where political prisoners were held hundreds of years ago

Tower of London

Big Ben

Big Ben and the Parliament House

St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral

We weren't supposed to take pictures inside St. Paul's, but I accidentally took this before I knew that

Big Ben from the London Eye

View of London from the London Eye

The London Eye

The London Eye

London from the London Eye

London Eye

Big Ben

London Eye

Big Ben

London Eye

London Eye

Cleopatra's Needle; this obelisk actually has nothing to do with Cleopatra--it was made hundreds of years before her. Also, the base of it is heavily damaged by the bombings during World War II

Remnants of an old bridge

This isn't the bridge, but there is one bridge built entirely by women in London during World War II, when all the men were off fighting. It is also the only bridge to be built on schedule and within the budget allotted.

London Bridge

Tower Bridge

The Millenial Bridge (I was excited because it was in one of the Harry Potter movies)

London from the river Thames

The wall behind the statue is the original London wall that divided the city into it's two halves; East and West. East end was the poor side, where the Whitechapel Murderer (also known as Jack the Ripper) ended many lives. The other side was the wealthy one, and the two police forces (yes they had separate ones) hated and refused to work with one another, making the murders that occurred even easier to get away with.

Known as the Prostitute's church, this was where the 'women of the night' would come to walk around and sell their services. The prostitutes could sell their bodies, but it was illegal for them to stand still and to approach people, so at night they would simply walk around this church and wait for their customers. It was still on the East side of London, but close enough to the wealthy side that they received customers from both ends.

The pub where the first Jack the Ripper victim was discovered, stabbed 29 times.

Wicked!

Shakespeare's last will and testament

A model of a time when the Thames would freeze over and a festival would be held on the ice called the Frost Fair

Costumes and props from Shakespeare movies and plays

Shakespeare's Globe Theater

The Globe Theater

The Globe Theater

The Globe Theater

Baker Street, the home of detective Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Madame Tussauds, the waxwork museum

Emma Watson

Johnny Depp

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

One Direction

Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes

Robin Williams

Raphael Nadal

Admiral Horatio Nelson (who I raved about several blog posts ago and may or may not have developed a weird obsession with)

The Royal Family

Van Gogh

William Shakespeare

Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens

The Beatles

Miley Cyrus

Beyonce

Martin Luther King Jr

Barack Obama

John F. Kennedy and Margaret Thatcher

Me and Spiderman

The Incredible Hulk (Bruce Banner)

Hawkeye (Agent Clint Barton)

SHIELD Director Nick Fury

Captain America (Steve Rogers)

Iron Man

Harry Potter Studio Tours London

The staircase set

The Great Hall

The guy explaining the things in the Great Hall asked who supported Hufflepuff, and I was the only one in the very crowded room to make a very loud noise. Whatever. I have house pride.

Great Hall

Costumes in the Great Hall (and the guide)

The Yule Ball costumes from the fourth movie

The Gryffindor boy's dormitory

The Gryffindor Common Room

Gryffindor Common Room

Dumbledore's Office

Various props used throughout the films

The Potions classroom

Hagrid's Hut

The door to the Chamber of Secrets

Broomstick

Quidditch robes

Quidditch balls

The Burrow Kitchen (the Weasley's home)

Borgin and Burks

Malfoy Manor

The Ministry Fireplaces

The Ministry of Magic Atrium

The statue in the Ministry Atrium

Umbridge's Office

Platform 9 3/4

Some of the luggage props used by the actors

The Hogwarts Express

Inside one of the compartments on the Hogwarts Express. Each was decorated for a different year it was used, and I believe this was the fourth year

The tunnel bridge

The Knight Bus

Number 4 Private Drive, the Dursley's home

The Potter Cottage in Godric's Hollow, where Harry and his parents lived before Voldemort killed them and orphaned Harry

The giant chess pieces from the first movie

Fawkes the Phoenix

Showing how Dementors were created

There were several rooms dedicated to showing how they made the many creatures in the films come to life

Thestrals

Buckbeak the Hippogriff

Diagon Alley

Diagon Alley

The Hogwarts Architect

This model was built and used for any camera movements and times that required a sweeping view of the castle and its grounds. A green screen was placed behind it and scenery from Scotland and various English places were used as the background

I actually audibly gasped when I walked in and saw the caslte

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

View from Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

The War memorial for soldiers and civilians, men and women, who died in both world wars

History of the Royal Honors

Queen Mary's Chambers

This is the room where King James, the first ruler of the United Kingdoms of Scotland and England, was born in this room

A royal Scottish crest

The Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle

The original ceiling of the hall, built in the Victorian era from Swedish ships, was made without any nails or screws, just a supporting network of wooden beams

Saint Margaret's Chapel

View from Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle War Museum; as a functioning military base, the castle is still in use by the British military

War Museum

War Museum

Prisoners of War lived here

The Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition in Loch Ness

Nessieland in Loch Ness

The media version of the Loch Ness Monster

Nessie

Loch Ness

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

Urquhart Castle

Loch Ness

Loch Ness