She arrived on Thursday morning, St. Patricks Day, at the painful time of 6:30am. We had briefly talked about my address and how to get a cab to my apartment, but instead I got out of bed and met her at the airport as a surprise. She was very happy! From there, we both hopped in a cab to my apartment, where we chatted and caught up and took a short nap. Finally, we thought enough time had passed that perhaps we could check into the beautiful Balmoral hotel, so we headed over there.
The room wasn't ready, so we ate breakfast and relaxed until it was...and it was worth the wait! We had a gorgeous suite with windows overlooking Princes Street, and the bed was a marshmallow heaven that made me think of my lumpy, springy mattress in my flat and laugh.
We spent the afternoon exploring the area, and I gave her a quick overview tour of the city. We covered Princes Street and that area, as well as getting over to the Royal Mile, the Edinburgh Castle, and Grassmarket. That night, we went down to the hotel's bar and shared delicious cocktails before heading out to a nearby Indian restaurant, Zest (which was amazing!)
The next day, we had a private driver for the day. She was great, and gave us an overview driving tour of Edinburgh, and then we headed out towards the Highlands. We stopped in Birnam, Crieff, Dunkeld, and more! We saw the Beatrix Potter museum, who created Peter Rabbit, visited the Edradour Distillery (Scotland's smallest whiskey distillery), and visited the Gleneagles hotel/resort (home of my future wedding. just kidding...sort of).
Saturday morning, we were off to the airport to Amsterdam. We arrived at our hotel, the Banks Mansion, and then decided to go walk around and explore.
We were given a map and the ladies at the front desk circled the different areas, but we just decided to wing it. We walked through the streets, and through little market places, and then...it happened. One second we are window shopping, looking at clothing and cakes, and the next thing we know we look over and there are half-naked (or three-quarters naked), overweight and bad looking girls, standing in tacky lingerie in a window. It was like being at a zoo. Each girl was in her own window box, with a seat and a mirror. One girl was looking in the mirror popping zits, another reading with her book propped on her rolls of fat, another chatting on her cellphone. It was so bizarre. We walked the street quickly to get out of there, trying not to show the shock on our face, and trying not to laugh too blatantly. Apart from that, and the "Mellow Yellow" cafes we passed along the street (which reeked up the entire sidewalk), I really liked Amsterdam. It was gorgeous, with the architecture and the canals.
The first night our hotel made us reservations at a restaurant we never found, so we ended up going to an Indonesian restaurant just across the street from our hotel. The next day we explored the city some more, and visited the purse and handbag museum, the famous Rijksmuseum, the Diamond museum, and the Bols liquor museum. It was such a fun day.
Bols was by far the most amazing. I highly recommend it, it was an extremely hands-on experience. There were different scent tests, taste tests, and textures. They also had amazing flavors, my favorite being Natural Yogurt. If you know me at all, you know I am a little obsessed with natural yogurt/greek yogurt/yogurt flavored gelato/everything yogurt. This was a yogurt liquor, and they mixed it with strawberry liquor and fresh strawberries and it was a strawberry smoothie with a kick. So...we decided to switch from doing carry-on to checking suitcases so that we could bring home some Bols.
That night, our last in Amsterdam, we had a delicious dinner at Little Buddha.
Monday morning we headed off to Copenhagen, to the Copenhagen Admiral Hotel.
We explored the city, saw Amalienborg Royal Palace (their guards seem much happier than in London), saw the Little Mermaid, and did a Jump On/Jump off tour bus, all on the first day!
The next day we did the bus again, as well as the Canal Boat tour, and enjoyed lunch along the water in Nyhavn (with the bright buildings, picture above), and shopped. For our last dinner together, we ate at the hotel's restaurant called SALT. The menu contained meat, meat, and more meat, but they made up some delicious alternatives for us picky eaters.
Today, we got up early and headed back from Copenhagen to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam I flew back to Edinburgh, while Mom headed home to JFK. It was an amazing, fun and busy week of traveling, and I miss her already! As for this week...a big project on Monday, an essay Wednesday, and then looking forward to my trip to Prague with Sissy Friday!!
[For the full photo album of the trip, see Facebook]
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