On this day, we took a coach from London to Dover, then ferried across the English channel to French Calais.  There we were picked up by our tour director, driver, and Cosmos coach (see picture above) and formally began our tour of "European jewels" that will cover the remaining 6 counties, 2124 miles in 10 days.  All six countries belonging to the European Union, no one came and asked to see our passports.  Currency-wise, we used three currencies, though. In the UK, it's the British pound (GBP ¡ê); in Switzerland, it's Swiss franc; in all other countries (we visited), it's one currency: Euro (EUR €).

At the end of our trip, we were very pleased and relieved to be back in the United States of America. Not only are things more plentiful and less expensive, but life seems better. European people are generally educated and polite, but there are two things they cannot yet match USA. For one thing, people in Europe smoke in public places; for another, their cars and bicycles do not often yield to pedestrians.

The first country/city we visited after London is Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands. Sadly to say, Amsterdam did not impress us. I did not mean the red light district, which we did not go anyway. There at Amsterdam, bicycles expected pedestrian to yield to them, so they just whistled and kept prodding on. The coffe-shops, we were told, did not actually sell coffee, but drugs that would be illegal elsewhere, or beyond the boarder. We passed by one of such coffee shops (see article from Wikipedia), and saw men prostrating inside glass windows, engulfed in heavy smoke. We passed through some streets whose pavement showed stain, and smelt of urine, probably by those late-night beer/wine drinkers from the bars nearby.  Our guide commented that most people here only ride ugly bicycles, because bicycles always get stolen, multiple of times.  We probably should have come a few months earlier, when we would have seen the delightful tulips.  

All pictures posted here were taken by us. Those from Google, brochure, and the web were duly noted. Most of my posted photos are still missing captions because I do not have time for them yet.

• Day 2 (6-17-2009): Arriving in London, visited Big Ben and Parliament Buildings
• Day 3 (6-18-2009): city sightseeing, Windsor Castle, & Cruise on the River Thames
• Day 4 (6-19-2009): Taking coach to cross the English Channel, then to Amsterdam
• Day 5 (6-20-2009): sightseeing in Amsterdam, and canals cruising
• Day 6 (6-21-2009): Cruise on the Rhine, and a stop at Rothenburg
• Day 7 (6-22-2009): Passing Austria from Munich, then a stop at Cortina
• Day 8 (6-23-2009): Visiting Venetian glassblowers, then Tuscan (Venice-Florence area), and a Gondola boat-ride
• Day 9 (6-24-2009): Visiting Florence and Pisa the leaning tower
• Day 10 (6-25-2009): entering Switzerland and visited Lugano
• Day 11 (6-26-2009): a Swiss town Lucerne and a cruise on Lake Lucerne£»group picture before heading for Paris
• Day 12 (6-27-2009): Visiting Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Palace of Versailles.

Note: Day 1 was flying from PDX (Portland, Oregon) to JFK (Kennedy Airport in New York), then to LHR (London), while Day 13 was flying home from Paris.

This is the bus that took us from London to Dover.  British being a constitutional monarchy, names, icons, symbols of kings and queens are everywhere.

Bottom picture says: Welcome to the Port of Dover.

People at the Netherlands are well-known for utilizing the nature, such as water and wind.  Although wind mills are now more symbolic than functional, wind turbines have sprung out everywhere.

Below from Wikepedia: A windmill is a machine that is powered by the energy of the wind. It is designed to convert the energy of the wind into more useful forms using rotating blades or sails. The term also refers to the structure it is commonly built on. In much of Europe, windmills served originally to grind grain (hence the "mill" derivation), though later applications included pumping water and, more recently, generation of electricity. Recent electricity-generating versions are referred to as wind turbines.

Amsterdam

Below from Wikipedia: Amsterdam (pronounced is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The city, which had a population of around 1 million (with suburbs) on 1 January 2008, comprises the northern part of the Randstad, the 6th-largest metropolitan area in Europe, with a population of around 6.7 million.
Its name is derived from Amstel dam, indicative of the city's origin: a dam in the river Amstel where the Dam Square is today. Settled as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age, a result of its innovative developments in trade. During that time, the city was the leading center for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the city expanded and many new neighbourhoods and suburbs were formed.

Below from Wikipedia: Red light district, or De Wallen, is a designated area for legalized prostitution and is Amsterdam's largest and most well known red-light district. It consists of a network of roads and alleys containing several hundred small, one-room apartments rented by female sex workers who offer their services from behind a window or glass door, typically illuminated with red lights. The area also has a number of sex shops, sex theatres, peep shows, a sex museum, a cannabis museum, and a number of coffee shops offering various cannabis products.

Updated November 18, 2015
网页更新 2015-11-18