London, England

Cleverly, we'd timed our arrival in London to coincide with another major sporting event: Wimbledon. Thus, hotels were scarce, but before too long we were ensconced in the Hotel Oliver, near the Earl's Court Tube station. We dropped our bags in the tiny room, then headed back out to the Imperial War Museum.

Navigating the Tube proved to be an experience (and it wasn't even rush hour yet) but eventually we did make it to the museum. Among the typical war museum exhibits (tanks, guns, planes, etc.), two stood out: the Trench Experience and the Blitz Experience. The Trench Experience was a walk-through reconstruction of a World War I trench at night. Realistic touches like the sounds of gunshots and tapes of soldiers speaking to one another made it feel authentic. Even smells were added, of gunpowder and meals cooking. Thankfully, the designers omitted the squish of mud underfoot.

The Blitz Experience was even more elaborate. Our group of about twenty visitors was first ushered into a bomb shelter, which shook with an explosion as we "survived" a German raid. Exiting the shelter, we emerged into smoke and confusion as the warden guided us past bombed out shops and homes, dust and debris scattered all around.

From the museum we walked to Blackfriars Bridge over the Thames to meet up with a walking tour. This tour was right up our alley: the "Along the Thames Pub Walk" from London Walks. Since it was a Friday evening, the pubs tended to be crowded, but we were still well able to enjoy the ambiance and the pints. Our tour took us backward in time, stopping first at a relatively modern bar right on the river with a great view of the city's skyline. Next we came to an 18th century labyrinth of a pub called The Anchor, not far from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Lastly, the George was renovated in the 17th century and has remained essentially unchanged since then. We had our dinner there, then, tired and sleepy, took the Tube back to our hotel.

The next morning we struck out intending to visit both the Tower of London and St. Paul's Cathedral. We decided to save St. Paul's for another day as the Tower was too fascinating to leave any of it unexplored. We spent the whole day there, beginning with a guided walk by one of the Yeoman Warders, the military guardians of the Tower. The tour led from the main gate, past the Traitor's Gate (where prisoners were brought into the fortress), under the Bloody Tower and all through the complex. The guide's script was very entertaining and contained a great deal of humor, but it was mostly made up of stories of barbaric torture and imprisonment and executions, executions, executions.

That tour finished in time for us to catch another entitled "Attack the Tower." This tour was by reservation to a limited group, so only nine of us got led around the Tower complex to examine its defenses. We saw the walls, both inner and outer and from inside and outside, the arrow loops, the murder holes and the two remaining portcullises. (Or is that portculli?).

We also saw the Tower's Armoury and its collection of weapons and armour as well as a demonstration of how a medieval knight's armour was worn. The poor chap who had to wear it was sweating buckets from the weight and the heat, but he still gave an entertainingly humorous spiel. Of course, we stood in line to see the Crown Jewels and all the Coronation regalia, but the most enjoyable part of that display was the video of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation shown to the line of people waiting to get in. All of the rituals with their attendant artifacts were depicted, the Sword of Offering, the Royal Orb, and so on. Elizabeth looked like she was ready for a long nap by the time it was all done. By the time we were done with the Tower, we, too, were ready for a long nap.

The next morning we partook of another London Walks offering, the "Old Westminster" walk. Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey; all the London highlights were on this tour. We heard many interesting stories, including coronation debacles: crowns put on backward, lords falling down drunk, parts of the ceremony skipped over, new monarch nodding off, etc. Then through St. James's Park for a look at Buckingham Palace, albeit only from the outside. Our timing coincided with the Changing of the Guard, so we watched as the band came down The Mall. Our tour continued through Trafalgar Square, home of Nelson's Column and several thousand pigeons. We finished up at Covent Garden with a pleasant lunch.

We had been fortunate enough the day before to purchase tickets to see "A Comedy of Errors" at Shakespeare's Globe. Seats had been sold out long ago, but standing room spots in the pit in front of the stage were available. The play was a delight, proof that Shakespeare shouldn't be just read, but seen. Since we were "groundlings," standing in the pit, sometimes the action took place all around us as the actors made their way on and off the stage. It was a pleasure to take in some local culture while still having it in our own language. (Well, almost.)

Our last full day of vacation took us to St. Paul's Cathedral, our last church of the trip. We climbed (and climbed and climbed) to the top of the dome for striking, yet overcast, views of the city. Back on ground level, we toured the inside of the church and saw monuments to various British notables from history, most (all?) of whom are buried in the crypt below. Down in the crypt, we saw the actual tombs of those memorialized above, such as Admiral Lord Nelson, Christopher Wren, and many others.

After lunch (mmm, pub food!), we took our last London Walks tour, this one in the British Museum, a thoroughly incredible place. It seems as though everything famous is here. There are friezes from the Parthenon, mummies from Egypt, rooms full of artifacts from civilizations throughout history, even the Rosetta Stone. Our guide told us that there is so much in the museum that if one was to read every exhibit label, allowing ten seconds each, it would take 38 years to see the entire collection. Using those numbers, we calculated that in our two and a half hours we saw 0.00002% of the museum. It is simply staggering. If we lived in London, I'd be there every day.

Another pub dinner, this one at the Orange Brewery, a 200 year old pub, followed by a farewell pint at the Rat & Parrot near our hotel, and we were back in our room to pack. We awoke the next morning both happy to be going home and sad to be finished with this grand vacation. At Heathrow, we boarded our plane for home.

Harwich, England

Our ferry ride from Hoek van Holland to Harwich was not as much fun as the other boat rides we'd taken on this trip. (All right, nothing compares to a Venetian gondola, but I was also referring to the Stadt Bern and the Peter Wessel.) Rather, we spent 15 Fl. for the dubious privilege of sitting in the "Panorama Room" watching the ship's wake through salt-encrusted windows. At least it was non-smoking. The ferry had movie theaters, slot machines, blackjack tables, bars, and a McDonald's. There was also a frenzy of duty-free shopping as that service was only a few days from being suspended. From all of this we abstained, and we found that the one redeeming feature of the ship was its speed; at one point the captain announced our speed at 44 knots.

Awaiting us in Harwich was our train to London.

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

We came to Rotterdam in order to find a ferry to take us to England, so our first order of business upon arrival was to make our departure arrangements. With that accomplished, we had the rest of the afternoon free to explore the city.

Our first stop was the Kijk-Kubus, a fascinating condominium building by the architect Piet Blom. Each module of the complex is a private home in the shape of a cube; the tricky part is that each cube stands on one of its points, and none of the outside walls are vertical. We toured the one public unit in the complex and found it intriguing. The living space is on three levels; from the bottom up there's an entry and kitchen, then a sleeping area, then a loft/attic/lounge. It's a very clever, and obviously distinctive, design.

Our lunch in Rotterdam merits a mention as an educational experience. "Hamburger" in Dutch evidently means a ground ham patty with ketchup and onions on top, no bun. "Special hamburger" means the same, but add a slice of cheese and a fried egg between the patty and the onions. Tasty, but not what we'd had in mind.

Since it was bombed flat not once but twice during World War II, Rotterdam has become a modern architectural proving ground. The Nederlands Architectuurinstituut has exhibits on the history of local architecture as well as its future. We saw an exhibit titled "Two Centuries of Dutch Architecture" and one on underground architecture. (Literally underground, not just out of the mainstream.)

Outside the Architectuurinstituut, we got a special treat. We saw a common tern dive repeatedly into the institute's surrounding pool until it came up with a fish. The bird was so engrossed in feeding that it didn't seem to mind that we were only ten feet away.

Our architectural tour of Rotterdam then took us to the Euromast, a 185 meter tower overlooking the world's busiest harbor. This example from the because-we-can school of architecture afforded us a grand view of the city, as well as giving us a very clear impression of just how flat this country is.

While sipping beers (Heineken, of course) atop the Euromast, we decided it was time for dinner. We'd read that Delfshaven was the place to go for restaurants and bars and such, so that's where we went. Once we got there we thought, "This can't be it!" and so set off on foot, walking for over an hour before concluding that the one canalside street with a half-dozen restaurants really was "It." As it turned out, we did have a nice meal, capped off with a yoghurt, custard and fruit syrup dessert called flip. Yum.

We got up early the next morning so we could catch a train to the ferry port at Hoek van Holland and then the ferry to Harwich, England.

Arnhem, The Netherlands

Arnhem was another city we visited based on word-of-mouth from people we'd met along the way, and, like Antwerp, it proved to be a very pleasant and enjoyable place. We arrived in the early evening and took a stroll around the city, stopping for dinner at a pleasant café. During our stroll we noticed that many of the businesses in Arnhem close up as early as seven p.m., but that didn't bother us as we were in need of an early night.

The next morning we visited the Hoge Veluwe National Park, the place that had so piqued our interest that we decided to come to Arnhem. The park is the largest national park in the Netherlands, and like the rest of the country, it is almost entirely flat. This lack of topographical impediments makes the hundreds of free-access bicycles in the park even more attractive.

Admission to the park includes use of a bike; just pick one out of the many racks around the park and leave it in a rack when you're done with it. Very civilized. The bikes are simple affairs with coaster brakes and one gear, but that's fine in a place like this. We cruised around the northern end of the park, surprised to find a landscape that looked downright coastal: sand dunes anchored by grasses, scattered pines establishing themselves here and there. Later on, in the visitor's center, we learned that this landscape is partially the result of soil depletion from generations of farming and grazing. Eventually it became a unique ecosystem deserving of protection in its own right, so now this former wasteland is a national park.

The park also contains the Kröller-Müller Museum, home to a large collection of Van Goghs as well as more modern painting and sculpture, and the Museonder, a science museum devoted to the underground world. The Museonder is itself underground, and in its central gallery hang the roots of an enormous beech tree on the surface. Another prominent feature of the park is the St. Hubertus hunting lodge, itself a museum of art deco architecture.

Our bus from the park brought us back to downtown Arnhem, where we first went for another walk to admire the city's architecture. After that, we found Arnhem's nightlife, a zone of restaurants and bars arrayed around a church square. After dinner and ice cream, we visited a few pubs before calling it a night. The next day we were off to Rotterdam.

Fredericia, Denmark

Fredericia is more of a railroad hub than a tourist attraction, so we picked it only for its convenience as a place to spend the night. We rolled into town after most of the restaurants had already closed, but we found a pizza and kebab place that was still open. After dinner it was still very light out, so we walked around the town and discovered that Fredericia is a very quiet place. Ah well, all we really needed was a place to spend the night. In the morning, we'd be on our way again, first to Hamburg to change trains, then on to Arnhem in the Netherlands.