So I have lots of big news to share with you all very soon, but right now my big news is that I’m heading to Barcelona in an hour.
Two friends are visiting from Canada an I’m super excited about the city of Gaudi. I will try to write something up throughout my trip and then do I big post with pictures on Monday.
I’m very excited in case you all can’t tell
I’m not the most confident cyclists at the best of times, but doing it on the way home from the pub after a few Belgian beers probably wasn’t the best idea.
Especially as I was riding a one-speed, black, peasant-style bike that had clearly seen better days.
Anyway, while breaking hard on a particularly cobbly road, the hand-brake wire snapped, leaving me to skid to a stop by dragging my feet on the ground.
Thankfully I was in Utrecht, in the Netherlands at the time, and the Dutch are very used to bikes swaying and stopping suddenly on the road. Actually, my main problem with stopping the way I did was not getting hit by people on other bikes.
Fortunately, I realized the bike was also equipped with a back-pedal brake, so I managed to make it home safely. That was only the first night of my trip last weekend.
They say there are more bikes than people in The Netherlands. I don’t think that is quite true, but there are definitely a lot of bikes… and a lot of crazy people riding them.
I saw dozens of girls riding side-saddle perched on the back wheel-protector, while their boyfriends pedalled home. I even saw a little boy standing up and holding on to his dad’s shoulders, while his dad pedalled.
Everyone does these crazy antics without a helmet, of course. Even the babies strapped to their parents’ chests or sitting in their own seat in the back of the bike were bare-headed.
I was visiting a Canadian friend and at this Belgian pub, we mentioned to our waiter how amazed we were at the way everyone biked. He replied: “Oh in Canada you guys wear helmets, don’t you?” and then nearly pissed himself laughing.
I had never heard of Utrecht until my friend invited me for the weekend, but I would definitely recommend it as a travel destination. It’s only a 30-minute train ride from Amsterdam (€8) and much more relaxing than the big city.
Utrecht’s claim to fame is its university, which has its foundations in the 7th century and from what I could see, most of the city is students.
The friend I was visiting has worked in a fancy restaurant in Canada for many years, so she’s a bit of a foodie. On Saturday night, we visited this really nice restaurant called De Kust (the coast). I don’t remember what street it was on, but if you want directions, let me know, and I’ll ask her.
The other highlight of my trip was climbing Domtoren (Dom Tower.) At 112 metres, it is the tallest building in The Netherlands. Now, obviously that’s not very tall, but the view was still lovely and we got to go inside the bell tower. I have been to the top of many tall iconic buildings and churches, but I’ve never been inside a bell tower and got to touch the bells. (Well we weren’t supposed to actually touch them, but I did anyway.) The best part was they assumed I was a student so I only paid €7.50. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
Here are some snapshots of the trip:
Domtoren
Bells in the Bell Tower
View from the top of the Tower
Ok first of all, I want to take the time to thank everyone for commenting on my post about the egg hunt in London. It honestly made me smile each time. I really appreciate that you all took the time to look at my blog.
Secondly, I really need to apologize for not posting the last few weeks. It’s not a good excuse, but I have had several friends visiting and I never had any time to myself to post a quick update. If it’s any consolation, I thought about it every day!
Alright, so my life has been very busy. I was actually in the Netherlands for the weekend, visiting a friend in Utrecht. As I mentioned I had two friends visiting and did lots of free things. I’ll be talking all about my adventures in the next few posts.
Other news I just got an iPhone today! Yay! That should make posting throughout the day much easier.
Finally, I have continued with my egg hunt while my friends were here and I’m now up to 55 eggs, so more than 1/4 found.
Here are some more pictures of them:
Balloon-animals ran through the whole train of a westbound District Line service during rush-hour.
There are giant easter eggs hidden all over central London and this morning, I decided to join the search for them.
The eggs can apparently be found in several areas of the West End, including Mayfair, South Kensington and Piccadilly, as well as The City and Canary Wharf. There are 12 egg zones in total.
A different artist designed each of the 209 eggs. It’s all part of the The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt 2012.
Basically the idea is that when you find an egg, there is a keyword written on its podium that you can text in to possibly win a prize. The prize is pretty awesome, a £100,000 diamond-encrusted Fabergé egg, but each text message costs £0.25, and you get charged £3 when you first join.
So, I’m definitely not doing that.
I’m still going to try to find all the eggs though.
I read in the rules, that you can also entre by mail (for free) by just sending a letter with the keyword and your mobile number. So I might try that… though to be honest, I have no idea what I would do with the Fabergé egg if I won it.
But contest aside, I actually had a lot of fun searching eggs today. I went down to Bond Street Station and started ambling down random streets in Mayfair, a part of town I am not very familiar with. And I felt quite excited each time I stumbled on a new, egg. They really are works of art.
I discovered, too, that egg hunting is actually a great way to meet people. Maybe it’s because of how silly it is, but people naturally start chatting, while you are all taking photos of the same egg.
I even got to meet one of the egg artist, Daisuke Sakaguchi, when he was taking photos at a different egg.
I caught up with him again a few minutes later and got a photo of him with his egg.
In total, I tracked down 19 eggs today. The eggs are on display until April 3, though, so I have plenty of time to find them all.
