Travel Links   Day One   London on My Own  Amsterdam  The Rhine Valley

Contiki got us up bright and early for our first day. Our bus driver, Beaker, came by the Imperial Hotel to pick up the people staying there, and bring us over to the Royal National. The problem was, this happened at 6:30 in the morning! Then we milled around in the parking lot at the Royal National, trying to sort out the people from the different tours, and getting our luggage weighed (mine was no problem at all, since I'd packed so lightly!).

We finally pulled out of the Royal National at 7:30. But we didn't leave London. Instead, we went to a bank, where Aaron, our tour guide, could exchange money for those of us who had chosen to get "currency packs." Those were packages with just a bit of the currency for each country we would be visiting. They were handy, because sometimes, we'd stop for lunch, and there wouldn't be anywhere that we could change money, or any ATMs. I got just one, and it was plenty. We didn't leave London until 8:30. Most of us were pretty sleepy, so there wasn't a lot of chatting going on in the bus.

After several hours of travel, we made it to the White Cliffs of Dover. Aaron began his task as tour guide by pointing them out for us, and explaining, "These are the White Cliffs of Dover, famous for their whiteness and their, ah.... cliffy-ness." Fortunately, this wasn't the limit of Aaron's skills!

After a pleasant ferry ride, we got back onto the bus, and discovered that freeways are the same, the world 'round. We drove for quite a few more hours, passing through France and Belgium. Then we arrived in the Netherlands. Finally, we made it to our hotel, which was about twenty minutes outside of Amsterdam. Aaron let us know that it was one of the best quality hotels on the tour, and warned us not to hope that all the others would be just like it. It was reasonably nice, with good food. Finally, after dinner, we left to go to... Amsterdam!

Travel Links    Day One    London on My Own  Amsterdam  The Rhine Valley