EuROpE AgaiN

Time to play catch up....I keep finding myself posting every 2 months on average and that is no bueno. Literally the last few months have been full of traveling. Darin has hardly been on island between managing his other shops, flying to Orlando for meetings and then traveling for weddings and with me to Europe! I last wrote in April just before our big trip. This is the trip I won on boxing day last year for most clever photo with a Virgin Atlantic beach ball! It was so nice to win a free airline ticket but at the same time we weren't sure where to fit it in and we had to use it in a year. Our friends Alicia and Pete helped by taking Gem for the 9 days so we could go alone...first time ever! Alicia and Pete have 2 boys that adore Gem and she loves them all right back. They took her to school, to the beach, to the pool, over to play in a tree fort, had ice cream dates....just did so much fun stuff with them and we are so thankful to have awesome friends like that here. 

Off to Europe we went, found a week between Darin's travels and squeezed it in, we only had a few weeks before we left so kinda last minute, but that was ok with us....who likes to wait months and months for a fun trip? We stopped in London first, Darin has only traveled to Italy on this side of the world so all these places he's never been. It was fun playing "i remember some stuff tour guide", we did all the tourist stuff I loved on my last trip and skipped the meh stuff from the last trip. We had a lot of downtime and found pubs to eat and get warm with a cold beer! Fish and chips are my favorite thing, well and a great beer, so I feel like I fit right in over there. I love the buildings, the tubes, the pubs, just really all of London. So much happened while we were in London, we arrived on the Queen's 90th birthday, then the President (Obama) came to see the Queen and the families for 2 days, then they had the London marathon over the weekend, super busy week in London. At the end of our trip we were back in London for the day and what a difference in the amount of people on the streets, you could actually walk straight somewhere lol. Overall London was great, a little cold, but great!

Dublin was next, just a quick 24hrs, which is pretty much all you need....ok maybe 48hrs. If you have more time there then that's when you rent a car and drive the country, but we didn't have time for that. So, instead we got on a bus tour, headed to the Guinness factory and did the whole tour, ended up at the gravity bar where you can see far far far with a 360 degree view, keep in mind this is a bar, and it was awesome! We headed on the bus tour and walked a little bit to temple bar district which was super cool. I can officially say i've had a Guinness in Dublin, in a pub with live REAL irish music! The next day we were off again to another fun country i've been to.

AMSTERDAM! I was so excited to see our extended, extended family over there and introduce Darin to them. We arrived and Klaus took us right to the Keukenhof (tulip gardens). I have never seen so many in my life, it was one of the most beautiful sites ever, just being surrounded by color after color of tulip, the colors go on and on as far as you can see. I will, without a doubt, be going back there again. Irma was making dinner that night so we got to the house and settled in before coming down for dinner, meatballs! We had some other family over so that was nice meeting them and we played spoons and another card game, drank wine and laughed a lot. I love that my (maiden) last name is so unique that I found people on the other side of the world that are my family....it still blows my mind. The next day was Kings Day! Irma wasn't feeling well but Klaus took us into the city to see some sites and watch the boats go by with the partying people and loud music! We all dressed up in orange and had plenty to drink. The ONLY problem with this day was it was SO COLD, the coldest kings day in 50 years lol, of course we were there. We walked around the districts and ate some food but we were so bundled up and cold, we just wanted to go back to our hotel and turn the heat on haha. Sad to leave, but I did promise next time i'd be there a week and not a night or two, so i'm looking forward to the next visit over.

We headed back to London for the day before flying out the next. Met up with some Bajan friends for sushi, went to a bar and then back to the hotel for a good rest before our early flight home.

It was such a great trip. I had so much fun with Darin, just me and him was so nice and new for us. 10 years together and that was our first trip together, hard to believe but it's true. Now we know we can hang out together for 9 days and have a fun time with each other. I loved our trip and look forward to the next one we go on together! We're thinking Italy in 5 years, lets see if it happens :) Love you babe!