SeCOnD sToP....AmsTErDaM!

The strike was over and we were up early dragging our luggage to the train station. Our high speed train left London at 6:50am and arrived in Amsterdam by 2:15pm with one stop in Berlin. The high speed trains are nice, the only issue that we had (because we didn't know before hand), there is NO luggage check....you are responsible to drag every piece of luggage on and off the train and if you stop to switch trains (which we did) it was off and on again. Our bags were quite heavy to begin with but after shopping for souvenirs our bags were un manageable. Thank goodness we ran into a few helping people that saw us struggling. We did have a system but when you're rushing from train to train with those bags....the system kinda goes out the window. FINALLY making it to Amsterdam we got right to our place, (which had the steepest, most steps in a 3 story town home we've ever seen) put our stuff down and headed out, being sure not to waste the afternoon. We hit up the Heineken factory and enjoyed a few free beers and a tour. It was actually pretty fun in there so we actually went twice haha, but another day :) we went to grab a bite and caught a ride on some bikes. That night we ventured through the red light district. I had a vision in my head what it would be like but thought there's no way it can be all that, well, it was really everything i'd imagined. I'm pretty sure I walked around with my jaw on the ground dragging in complete shock and maybe laughing a few times because I just couldn't believe this was actually happening and we were actually walking around in this place "window shopping" (but not purchasing lol), it was crazy! The next day we headed back to the train (with our luggage, still haven't learned) and headed out to Rotterdam where our long lost, we'll call her Aunt Irma, would pick us up. Before we got there she'd asked us our shoe size...Laura and I had bets on what our surprise was, ice skating or bowling haha....we were wrong, we were going to the city of Gouda (pronounced How-da) to an actual working cheese farm. This may sound a little different to do on a trip to Europe but it was probably one of our most favorite things we did. We had a personal tour of the whole factory and ALLLLLL the many many cheese they had just made as well as very aged cheeses. We taste tested and bought cheese to bring home and were also given cheese as a gift for visiting. It was so amazing and the cheese was the best i've ever had. We went for lunch with Irma in the town center of Gouda and walked around visiting a few other cheese related places adding more to our growing selection. That night we got to meet Klaus and Irma's kids Floor and Daan, had a dutch dinner and a dutch dessert. 

(Long story short, I met Irma online after researching my ridiculously long last name. I emailed her, said who I was and got an email back! We chatted and it ended up her husband Klaus was coming to Florida for work so we arranged for him to come by the house and meet us! He was so nice and it was amazing to me we had family we'd never met and here he was! We kept in touch though email so when Laura and I were planning our trip we had to let Irma and Klaus know.)

We stayed with them for a few days and Irma was our personal tour guide to the city and our family history and traditions of our dutch side. As Oma has recommended, we went to Madurodam (the minature city). Oma brought my father there when he was little so we thought it would be great to see and send her photos of it. We also got VERY lucky as there was a de Clercq Zubli family reunion happening the weekend we were there!! I've never seen so many of "us" in one place and had no idea there were that many either!! It was a great feeling meeting all these family members we never new existed. We spent the afternoon with them and after the reunion we went with our Great Uncle Tom to his and his wife's place to see old family photos and see a lot of our history. Maddie (Tom's wife) has done extensive research into the de Clercq Zubli's and had folders and cases and boxes of stuff all organized perfectly. We had such a great afternoon and it was extremely hard leaving knowing I probably wouldn't be back for a long long time. The next day Laura and I took a morning train to visit Amsterdam again, just for the day. We rented bikes and rode everywhere just like the locals do and we recommend everyone rent bikes if you ever go to Amsterdam, it was a fantastic way to see the city. We went to find where our Oma and Opa used to live, as well as our father when he was little. As far as we knew the building still stood and it was in biking distance. We had a picture and an address to go by and found it a lot easier than we thought we would. We took a picture on the same steps as our dad his brother and 2 cousins back in 1958, pretty surreal (picture below). It was such a great day and all this history about our family was so special to us. For our last night, Klaus and his family took us to an authentic indonesian restaurant and if you know us we are also indonesian so continuing with the family stuff was really cool, especially because we've never eaten indonesian before (go figure). Holland was the hardest place to leave. We had so much fun with our family and getting to know them and learning everything about our family history and are so thankful for the place to sleep and everything they did for us. Irma made sure our trip was one we would remember and want to come back and she did good, we will never forget and we already want to go back :) Next and last stop is Paris!

FirSt sTOp...LONDON!

FINALLY!!! Off we go to see the other side of the world! A dream of mine for years I finally get to experience AND with my sister! We left Orlando and connected in Detroit, from there to London the flight wasn't bad at all, except that we didn't sleep....maybe a little snooze here and there but that's about it. Given the excitement, also the cabin lights on in the plane for the first 3 hrs of the flight and then serving dinner and desert, might all be a reason why we had no sleep. We landed in London at 7:30 am (2:30am home time) and had decided before our trip to take the tube from the airport to our stop where we were staying but that was only short lived. We took the main train into London and then got a taxi to the house we stayed at haha. We had heavy bags and this was a foreshadow at the rest of our traveling days to come. We stayed with the most amazing couple and their place was perfect! So clean and tidy, only a 5 min walk to the tube and not to far from town. Laura and I put all of our stuff down and had two options....brave the city for a full day (it was 8am) or take a nap then go out, needless to say, we braved the city and were up for 27hrs. We decided to just walk some of the local shopping at Camden Market and Covent Gardens. We grabbed a beer at a local pub and watched a magic show some people were putting on outside in the square. The rest of the day we walked around learning the city and taking in the fact that we were actually there in London. That night we had booked tickets for the London Eye so we went home to change and relax a little and headed out to grab dinner and go to the London Eye. The city looked amazing all light up at night and the ride was 30mins so I got to take some good photos from way up at the top. The next few days the weather wasn't to bad, we had on jackets and boots but some of the days we didn't wear jackets because the sun was out and it was actually nice out. We visited Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, ate lunch at Sherlock Holmes pub and headed to see Westminster Abby. Although the Abby was closed that day we did go back and had the full audio tour which took about 2 hours but it was totally worth it, I think for the both of us that was one of our favorite things we did. Everything about the Abby is simply amazing, I love that you can sit and stare and never look at the same thing twice because there's so much detail and so many stories about this place. It has so much history and you walk around and just say wow like 1,000 times to yourself (with your mouth dropped open). We got up early one day and arrived at Buckingham Palace 2hrs prior to the changing of the guards. We had the perfect spot! I sat there to hold our position while Laura found Starbucks and returned with coffee and treats :) This was another favorite of mine, I never knew what was so cool about going and everyone saying that we had to go, but this was really really neat to watch. They do so much in the hour, like yell things at each other and then have a battle of who plays songs better...and they aren't old songs, they would play a Beatles song and Sweet Caroline, haha. Absolutely fabulous and something I think everyone should do also. Another favorite thing was our tickets we booked to go into Buckingham Palace and see the 9 staterooms. The queen is gone for a few weeks a year and they open the Palace for the public. We walked through the room Will & Kate walked in when they officially announced their engagement, we walked right by the steps where they took their wedding photos at, it was un real. We also did an audio tour here and learned a lot about the Royal Family history and ALL the artwork that covers the walls there. The Queen had on display all of her most important jewelry so we got to see the coronation crown and necklace, that famous broche she wears to a lot of events, all the rings, crowns, necklaces and earrings, just everything was so beautiful and we were looking at it, right there, inches away! We also got to eat on the back patio of the Palace, there was a small cafe set up so we dove into some deserts and coffee before walking through the backyard garden of the Palace. That is also something everyone must do, of course only if you go during that time of year. A few other places we saw were the St. Pauls Cathedral, Big Ben, a boat tour and the Princess Diana's memorial fountain. Before leaving London we had to see the famous London Bridge of course along with the London Towers. That London bridge is amazing, all the building of that was done so perfectly and it's way nicer than I thought it would be. The towers took a while to walk though but there was a lot of history there as well. Laura found a room where a prince was killed and you listened to audio of a reenactment of what might of taken place in that room. The murder was never solved. We ventured out a few nights to grab dinner and wine (which was always good), and one of the nights we saw the show Wicked, which was awesome. Laura and I had never seen a show before and we both loved it! 

We ended up staying an extra day because of a strike in Belgium where we had to switch trains to head on to Amsterdam, it gave us a day to lounge around and take a much needed nap. On the last night we were there we stayed home and since seeing all the Royal things and being surrounded by it, we decided to watch The Other Boleyn Girl on the couch with a bag of popcorn. The next morning was an early one, 4am. Our train left at 6:50am so we got an early start to dragging our luggage to the tube, riding that into the city, dragging it through the international train station and onto the high speed train with us. Not fun, absolutely not fun. That was the second foreshadowing of how NOT to travel with luggage, and we still hadn't learned. Here's some pictures of our London visit, next stop (and post) Holland (where our dad is from)!!

From top left to bottom right then the middle: The National Gallery, The London Eye, Wellington Arch, Big Ben, Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby

OoPs!

Please excuse my absence as i've gone MIA for the last month. As you know I was in Europe for 2 weeks wich I can't wait to blog about and then since being home i've been crazy busy helping Darin because now he has 2 shops and I just can't find the time to sit and write with out being utterly exhausted! I am editing some photos right now so I can blog about London, our first stop...and man that was was amazing. I'm going to write about Europe and take the time so I don't miss anything when I post my blog so hopefully tomorrow i'll have something. There's been TONS going on this last month so I probably have blogs to keep me busy for a while!! Thanks for being so patient with me! Check tomorrow for my London post!!

NeW hOMe wEeK 1

Barbados is pretty awesome. I've been super busy helping Darin open the new store here and setting up his office and buying office supplies which if you know me is one of my favorite things to do, buy office stuff and organize. I've had to order flyers, signs, business cards, polo shirts, the whole ordeal. So now it's Saturday and i've been here 1 week and 2 days. This island is full of busy people who work hard and play hard. There's beaches everywhere (including my backyard) and lots of places to eat on the water, which Darin and I love about living on the islands, we love eating with a view :) Our condo in great, it's perfect, I love it! We drive on the left side like we did in Nassau so we're used to that, the drivers aren't as bad here as they were in Nassau, and the cars are nicer. We love it here and continue to enjoy every day and look forward to the weekends when we can venture to unknown territory. Our stuff from Nassau comes on Monday on the boat but I will sadly and happily not be here, i'll be on my way to Orlando!!!! Darin will be all alone for a few weeks because Europe is also in 5 days!!! This is a crazy crazy month but I love it crazy!

BarBaDOs TiME

IT'S ABOUT TIME! We FINALLY heard 1 wk and 2 days ago that Darin's permit got approved and we'd be leaving the following weekend. So the week went on and we never heard anything, i'd packed up some but not everything. We were told twice before we'd be moving shortly, like in days, I would pack and Darin would continue to work and the "days" would go by and we'd still be in Nassau so slowly i'd take something we needed out of a box that's been packed and taped up and soon it was all the boxes opened again. SO, this time, I've learned....I packed some and didn't tape anything closed yet. Last Thursday we found out was leaving Sunday and i'd leave a few days later. Darin left this morning, it was an early dark morning drive to the airport, 4:45am. We packed Darin up last night so he had 2 full suitcases and his surfboard. He's lucky, I have to pack up the kitchen, our bathroom, my clothes, our bedding and everything else that I can't think of right now. Tuesday i'm bringing it all to the shipping place and sending it to our new home.

We are so happy to finally be moving to Barbados, can't wait to experience a whole new island! I'm sure we'll have a great time there, especially Darin with the surfing everyday. I can't take anything for granted and have the guy up above to thank for this amazing life i've been given to live. I'm excited to live in our new condo, on the beach, find all new places to eat and hang out, meet new people and learn how to surf! This will probably be my last post from Nassau, next, Barbados! Thank you to all of our friends that made our time here so much fun!!  We will miss all of you! 

The map below is obviously Barbados. Our first store is in Bridgetown and second is in Oistins, our place is in between both on the south coast!