The last stop we made before leaving Holland was a walk in the morning in the Mackay’s old neighborhood. It was a little misty, which made the morning majestic. The sunrise reflecting on their house was beautiful!
We found a little field and some water down the hill from the house
We headed for the Schipol Airport and said our goodbyes to Holland! If only all airports were as easy to maneuver around as the US ones… After being charged a LOT of $$ for all our luggage, we made it through security with enough time to shop and look for our gate. But really, we only had enough time to find our gate! We all were looking for a different gate! We went through customs once because we thought we needed to in order to get to the gate. We all got separated, but I found gate E 17 and sat down to read a book for a minute. All the people around me were talking about Chicago, and I didn’t realize I was sitting at the gate for Chicago. Gate E 17 was really SEAT E 17! I ran through the terminal, and saw the sign for our gate so I went through customs to get there. Confused yet? So were we! We went through the same customs twice! Finally we found the terminal we were supposed to go through and it was a MILE down the terminal before we got there! We made it past the final boarding call and luckily made it just in time to fly to Valencia.
At least in the Valencia airport, I understood more than I did the whole time we were in Holland! We were sure we’d have plenty of time to get on the cruise boat so we asked the taxi driver to help us get somewhere to look around. He dropped us straight at the dock, because that was the only thing open on Sunday! We sat around for 4 hours waiting to board because the boat had to make an emergency stop before getting to us. Thankfully, Lina’s mom supplied her with plenty of candy!
We had one whole day at sea before we got to Italy. The weather was PERFECT, but I was bored out of my mind with the book I brought! I had a hard time getting through the day at sea (luckily the second day at sea I had “The Help”). The cruise entertained us with a belly flop competition! Too bad Eric wasn’t there, he would have taken them all for sure! Most guys made a head dive into the pool.
We ate fancy dinners, walked around, sat by the pool, read, and shopped a lot (but didn’t buy anything) while we were on the boat. FINALLY we got to Italy!
October 25th, 2011 at 12:58 am
Their house is/was beautiful! I love those cottage types homes. It makes me think of Thomas Kinkade. Too bad you couldn’t take a tour of the inside. How come you understood more in Valencia than Holland? I so wish I could go to Eurpoe..
October 28th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
I ate a LOT of candy while travelling after my study abroad… We couldn’t find good/cheap local places to eat so we just ate candy candy candy. Yum!