Giant pancake for breakfast got the day started off right. The 45 mins we had to wait in line before entering the Van Gogh museum was totally worth it – some amazing pieces in there, including Starry Night! We went on a canal tour afterwards which took a completely different route from the last time I was here, so we got to see some new sights. Believe it or not the rain held up too, and some of my pics should turn out pretty darn well. After the tour we jumped out at the Rijksmuseum stop, and found that the huge lineup we saw earlier in the day had completely disappeared. Nice! Most of the building was closed for renovations, but there were still some incredible pieces on show. I’m so glad we were able to see both museums today – pretty much my #1 goal for this trip

Off for a night on the town now, and hopefully up early-ish to get some last-minute shopping done before heading to Coevorden. We’ve also taken the hint from our France & Belgium experiences and booked all our hostels for the rest of the trip ahead of time. One less thing to worry about from now on. Only 2 more nights left in Holland… gonna have to do another trip soon!

My blackberry is dead, the charger is broken, and we haven’t had much luck finding Internet cafes – definitely not conducive to regular blog updates. The “quick update” from the other day was supposed to have a few extra paragraphs too… I’ll add them now. Here goes a long one
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Up early again today and took a train from Caen back to Rouen, then on to Dieppe. Really wanted to come here on my last trip but the timing didn’t work out. Unfortunately there’s not enough time to see much today though – the city buses only run every hour or so, and we won’t make it to the Canadian cemetary before the next train leaves for Arras. Got to see the beautiful waterfront though, so it’s been worth the stopover for sure! Photos likely won’t do it justice with all the fog hanging around, but the stoney beach, calm water, fishing boats and white cliffs are a sight to see. We could have easily fallen asleep down by the water and ended up spending the night I’m sure

Our train to Arras leaves in an hour or so… very excited to get back there and show Kirsten around. The weather sure hasn’t been cooperating much, but at least it’s not raining anymore. Hopefully it’ll continue to improve over the week, and maybe we’ll even see the sun poke through once we get to Holland. Wishful thinking?

aka Frankfurt, Rouen, Caen, on a French keyboard. So much for typing skills!

We’re in Caen today, after a pretty whirlwind tour of Frankfurt and Rouen. We’ve been taking a pile of photos but there’s no card reader on this ‘Net Cafe PC. Le crap! At least my Blackberry is charging so I can hopefully do more posts from the road. Wishing my USB plug-in would’ve lasted a few more days before frying! Anyways, on to the good stuff…
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All checked into our hostel, and back at the train station now to plan our trip to France tomorrow. It’s an 8 hour time difference, so almost 2pm here is almost 6am at home, and we’re sure feeling it. Time for lunch, coffee and fresh air, and hopefully we’ll stay awake until a decent hour. More from Rouen, France tomorrow

Five more days until we’re on de_plane.
Four more days of work (well, hopefully 3.5, but that doesn’t fit).
Three weeks travelling Germany, France, Belgium, Holland and the Czech Republic.
Two passports, backpacks & pairs of hiking boots all ready to go.
One great girl to share it all with!

Regular posts and hopefully photos to follow