More thoughts and a snafu

Well, I really enjoyed London.

The second day we were there I was alone most of the day to wander around the city, trying to find a warm jacket for Atyrau for my little girl, and just to spend the day meandering...

and that is exactly what I did. I wandered first through the neighborhood we were staying in, Covent Garden. Lovely part of the city and quite charming; all the English accents and their helpfulness in directing me around!

Then, I bought a ticket for the Underground...the Tube.

And I fell in love with big cities that have subways that really work all over again. I always have enjoyed the feeling of switching lines, riding the escalators deep down underground and finding out which way to go by the signs showing all the stops.

There are stops above ground too...so I felt the cool wind kissing my cheeks...

There are languages surrounding you, some I know and recognize, others completely foreign.

London felt homey to me...a city that I could really get used to living in.

After meeting back up with my husband once he finished his work related calls, we walked around Big Ben and the Palace...rode The Eye and took some fabulous pictures!

Once I am back to my home computer I will download them and post them for you all to enjoy.

Alas, it is nothing like where we will be moving. We were supposed to fly through Amsterdam on Friday and directly on to Atyrau. They told us to fly to Amsterdam, and then check with them on whether they had the paperwork ready for us to enter the country...

(can you guess where this is heading?)

Yep, it was not ready...so we are in Amsterdam for the weekend. The letter arrived 2 hours late and therefore we missed the flight to Atyrau. I quickly booked us a hotel in the center of Amsterdam and here we are enjoying this enchanting city. We have both been here before, though never together. I was here over 15 years ago, but still find it quite similar...

romantic canals, beautiful sunny days and chilly nights..

quaint restaurants and sidewalk cafes.

The only downside to not making the flight...

having to pay for our extremely overweight baggage!

See, we were fine for KLM and since we were booked straight through to Atyrau the bags would not be re-weighed, just put onto the next plane. Well, now that we have to re-check in with our 115 kilos of suitcases...

well, the local airline to Atyrau only accepts 30 kilos per passenger...

do the math..55 kilos to pay for..

not pretty..

but we are having fun and enjoying ourselves so far!

As my Grammy always used to say:

Stay positive!