Happy Easter Weekend(Past Now),
We are currently in flight to Budapest, so I thought this would be a perfect time to catch up on the blog. Ann had a great trip to Rome this week and my trip to Warsaw was a success as well. I had without a doubt the best Foie Gras that I have ever tasted at dinner on Monday evening. Great start for the 2011 Defending MLB Champions and even beyond the celebration of my immaculate conception every year, this weekend marks my absolute favorite 4 days of the year. As a good catholic, my obvious answer would be the celebration of the resurrection, however, as a religious golfer, the azaleas are in full bloom, the pimiento cheese sandwiches are being served by the thousands, and the cathedral of golf is on show in Augusta, Ga. It is Masters weekend!!!!
Enough of the continued anticipation however, I believe that I left off with an epic Sunday Funday with my sister and brother-in-law visiting. After leading the 2 disheveled looking souls around Notting Hill for a while, the first cocktail began beckoning and they did not stop until the brick wall brought them to an abrupt stop at about 5pm. As I mentioned, they were staying in a hotel near our flat that first night, so I managed to get them in a taxi and sent on their way. Apparently, the two of them passed out at 7pm that Sunday evening and did not wake up until 10am on Monday morning. It must have been the extreme fatigue;) The entertaining part of it all is that they did not remember on Monday how to get back to our flat and ended up standing in front of Kensington Palace. Someone noticed them looking at a map and stopped to ask if they could help. Kelly told him that they were looking for her brother’s flat, and his response was that unless I was extremely wealthy, I probably did not live right there!!! Luckily, they finally made their way unscathed to our slightly less palatial abode. They spent the rest of Monday touring London and then the 4 of us had a great dinner at a Gastro Pub near our flat called the Abingdon. Tuesday, they took their show on a day trip to Oxford. It was funny because each day Ann and I would start getting texts about lunchtime, which meant that Happy Hour had begun wherever it was that they were. Wednesday was a bit more of a calm day as they spent their time in London that day and we had dinner in that night. The calm before the storm certainly proved true as Thursday brought Hurricane Oliver back to Category 5 strength winds. They had decided to day trip to Bath on Thursday. As usual, we started getting text messages about 12pm. We had made reservations at a place in Notting Hill that evening. Since they missed their first train back after being caught in a pub, we decided to meet at the restaurant. Let’s just say that we were that table that evening that no one likes. There is a good chance that they overcooked our food in the hopes that we did not return. On the brightside, and thanks to some stealthy moves from Officer Oliver, we did walk away with 2 new wine glasses!!! After dinner, we headed for a few nightcaps at our one of our local haunts, the Prince of Wales. That pretty much put it over the top for the night. Friday, the tourists had a fairly calm day with some shopping at Harrods and an attempted but failed visit to the almost newly opened Kensington Palace. Since we were leaving early Saturday morning for Amsterdam, we decided to have Lebanese takeaway on Friday night and get a good night of sleep.
We left early Saturday morning for Amsterdam. Not only did Kelly and Michael luck out with beautiful weather in London, but we also had fantastic weather in The Netherlands. Saturday afternoon, we spent meandering through the streets and various canals and stopping by a few cafes for a beer. We toured this great gem called the Hidden Church. It was built in the attic of a home in Amsterdam to help protect its parishioners from persecution. We also had to check out the Red-light District. Let’s just say that some of these women in the windows would be intimidating to even some of the most imposing linemen in the NFL. After another café, we made our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We had made reservations at a great little restaurant that was recommended to us called Café Lund. We had a fantastic dinner and finished the night at our swanky hotel bar. Sunday morning brought a couple of pretty good hangovers as well as the realization of a missing wallet. What is great is that Michael is fairly well versed in the procedure after losing personal possessions, so a few quick calls to the appropriate companies, and everything was good. The funny part is that we figured it had to have been lost at our hotel. It apparently was found on Monday soon after our departure back to London. After the hangover fog began to clear, we made our way out of the city to a well-known park called Keukenhoff. Holland is very well known for its tulips, and Keukenhoff is the greatest display of tulips in the world. There are more than 6 million tulips planted every year, and they are showcased in this beautiful park between March and June. It was the very first weekend that the park was opened, so we were perhaps about 2 weeks before the tulips were in full bloom, but it was still nonetheless awesome. Following Keukenhoff, we made our way back to Central Amsterdam and headed for the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank’s House. This was where Anne Frank wrote her diary while being hidden from the Nazi’s. We were able to tour the house where she and her father and sister lived, and where they were ultimately betrayed after 25 straight months in hiding. As you know, Anne and her sister were killed in the concentration camps, but they were survived by their father who went on to publish Anne’s diary. It was a very somber and surreal experience. We finished the night with a little bar/café hopping and had a great dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. We finished off the trip on Monday morning with an incredible breakfast at one of Amsterdam’s infamous Pancake houses. It was delicious. Amsterdam is a beautiful city and unfortunately its international reputation has been predicated on the Red Light District and Coffee Houses(Hash Bars). There is so much to offer by the city and if you find yourself there, just stay away from the tourist areas and take in the quaint neighbourhoods built around the more than 160 canals.
Michael and Kelly, we had so many laughs, memories and great experiences. Scotland Yard is still looking for Officer Oliver for some reserve shifts!!! I know that it was very hard to be away from the girls for that long, but it meant so much to us that you came to visit. I am not sure if you were adamant enough in your thoughts about where we should move after London though, so we may need to re-confirm;)
Cheers
Kevin and Ann
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