After our two weeks in Tanzania, it was time to head back to Europe to attend our friend’s wedding in Northern England. Four flights and 27 hours later, we arrived in Newcastle. Unfortunately, our bags did not. Hard to believe that in the 60+ flights we have taken this year, this was the first time an airline had lost our bags, so we can’t really complain (but we did anyway)! For those of you who regularly read our blog, you know that our money saving strategy has been to stay in accommodations outside of the center of whatever city we are visiting. This approach backfired big time in Newcastle because it meant that when we arrived, no clothing stores near our hotel were open. So there we were, backpack-less, exhausted, and heading to the grocery store to buy toothbrushes and pajamas.
Clothes shopping in the local grocery store
Over the next few days, we were able to buy some new clothes and celebrate a beautiful wedding, but each day that went by, we were slowly losing hope of seeing our bags again. That is, until an unmarked, white van pulled into the driveway at the farm where we were staying and our four days of waiting were up – we were reunited!
Reunited and it feels so good
Got our bags back just in time so that we didn’t have to wear grocery store pajamas to the wedding!
From Newcastle, we were off to Amsterdam. We rented an AirBNB in the Amsterdam Nieuw-West neighborhood which is just west of downtown. With the exception of visiting the Anne Frank house, we shied away from the typical touristy spots in the city. Instead, we spent our days exploring the park near our apartment, checking out the local markets, and walking along the canals. We also got to meet up with our friend Romee who we worked with during our month in India.
Watching the sailboats go by in the park near our Amsterdam apartment
Molen van Sloten windmill
Sloterpark in Nieuw-West
The beautiful canals in the center of Amsterdam
We took a quick bus ride from Amsterdam to Brussels, where we spent the next five days in another rental apartment outside the downtown area. During our stay, we enjoyed walking around the city, seeing some of the beautiful churches and seriously indulging ourselves in waffles and chocolate. Christina loved being able to use her French (including haggling with a local vendor in the market) and we also got to see four new UNESCO World Heritage sites. Brussels has a lot to offer, but one of the highlights of our week was actually a day trip to the nearby town of Bruges and a visit to its famous bell tower.
Brussels Grand Place
I’ll take one of each, please.
Practicing negotiating and French language skills at the market
Notre Dame du Sablon
Sugar high
Beautiful Bruges
Our last stop in Europe before heading back to the States was Paris. We were lucky enough to have visited Paris last year, so we had already hit most of the tourist hot spots. Instead, we opted to stay just north of the city and spent most of our time checking out different parks and markets. We lingered in cafes, bookshops and on park benches. A huge cheese lover, Christina had a long list of fromageries to visit. We also got to spend time with our family and a few friends who were there too.
A fromage lover’s dream
Goodbye, Paris. See you next time!
It was a great way to wrap up our European adventures. Thank goodness we already have plans to return to Spain for a wedding next year, otherwise it would have been too hard to leave!
Our next stop is back to the States for a roadtrip through the US and Canada.
-The Morts
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