Leaving Germany for now and moving on to Copenhagen. Just thought I would share a quick snap while on the ferry. It was an entertaining ferry ride however, as I had never been riding on a train, only to immediately pull into ferry. I did not know ferries did that or were even big enough for that! But sure enough, away we went from train, to ferry, back to train, and then to bus for the final leg of the journey to Copenhagen. 
Category: life
PERFECT OXYMORON
Has there ever been a more perfect naturally occurring oxymoron in the world other than visiting the world’s largest miniature museum? Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg had several exhibits featuring different countries. They had an American table which was intriguing to me as it featured the southwestern canyons, the Las Vegas Strip, and Florida. I thought they would at least have New York. Of course they are still building more exhibits which means we may have to come back. If they happen to build a Paris exhibit…I do not want to know.
But everything was beautiful and expertly crafted. You look at all the tiny details and easter eggs and think about who would have thought to do that and how to even plan for something like that. Miniatur Wunderland had some amazingly engineered pieces as well, including an orchestra hall that opened and closed so you could see the whole opera house, a huge cruise ship that actually floated and docked in real water, working space shuttle that would blast off, working airport where planes would take off, land and return to their terminal, and of course, periodic switching between night and day. Although it got annoying at times for the sake of taking photos, the day actually ended and started again with their timed lighting. You could see all the lights turn on in the night, cars had their headlights turned on, buildings were illuminated, it was all so real. All of the detail was so impressive and creative. They really wanted to make it as lifelike as possible.
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HERNDON HAMBURGERS
The next stop on our European journey was the second largest city of Germany in Hamburg. We were there for one reason and one reason only, to go see the world’s largest miniature museum. I will share my post about that shortly, because it really does require it’s own post as it was a genuine blast. While we were in Hamburg, we hunted for hamburgers which, oddly enough, were harder to find than one would think.
But here we are, gourmet hamburgers, made from 100% prime American grown human meat (my father really hated that joke but I can’t help it, I think it’s clever).
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REMBRANDT ROOM
The Dutch really pride themselves on their people, as they should. My family and I stayed at the Rembrandt hotel while we were in Amsterdam. Just thought I should bring it up since the room was so aesthetic. I feel that I truly did have the whole Dutch experience given that I was sleeping under Rembrandt every night!
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CYCLICAL MOTION
Part of the reason why Amsterdam was one of the best places I visited while in Europe was because of it’s city-wide bike-friendly attitude. From the wide and spacious bike paths on the side of every single road, to specialized bike traffic lights, finally to extraordinary amount of rights given to bikers over both pedestrians and automobile drivers, it truly is far better to a cyclist in Amsterdam. Being American born and bred, car culture is a core identifying feature not like anywhere else. It is so refreshing to know a place where biking is so highly respected.
In order to truly live like the locals, my family rented our own bikes. It made all the difference immediately as we were able to move around the city with incredible ease.
So what would be the most touristy way to get around the city that is the complete opposite of biking? Would it surprise anyone if I said, of course we did that too. We took a boat tour around the canals, complete with tour guide, and an audio tour with all languages. But you know, you win some and you lose some. We are tourists after all…
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DUTCH MORNINGS AND DUTCH MASTERS
Our morning in Amsterdam begins with the great hunt for food as per usual. The thing about Dutch breakfast/bring cafés, that I suppose is not much different from the rest of the world but it seemed more pronounced here, was how tiny the restaurants were for sitting and enjoying. We tried one café first and were promptly turned away due to lack of space. The next one we went to was luckily nearby and we were fortunate because it had a second floor. This second floor was so nice for viewing the street below as well as the canals. And we got to this café right as the only couple on the second floor was leaving and so therefore, I quickly managed to get in a cute little cafe photoshoot with the large windows.
My family and I then took our rented bikes and found our way to the Rijks Museum to see some works by some of the mot amazing Dutch old masters such as Rembrant and Vermeer. 
Of course behind the museum there are more opportunities for photos with the giant I AMSTERDAM letters, the large pond and the little garden.
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ARRIVING IN AMSTERDAM
I would like to believe that I am finally figuring out how to conquer airports. I am deathly afraid of taxi scams now thanks to watching dozens of Youtube videos related to the tragedy in various airports. But when I arrived in Amsterdam and met up with my dad, we took a bus, a subway, and a tram all to get to our hotel. It makes me feel savvy. First thing you notice about Amsterdam is all the bicycles and their never-ending bell-ringing at you to move out of their way. It is a bit of culture shock to see that bicyclists have greater rights than both pedestrians and motorists. Amsterdam is incredibly accommodating to cyclists as the city has a million different bike paths. 
The second thing that I noticed from Amsterdam(which really should have been the first but it was not as loud and obnoxious as people on bikes) was the amazing canals all throughout the city. I suppose this is why they call it the Venice of the north, because it really is a floating city—with all the same sinking risks of Venice too! But the city views were everything I wanted from the city because every angle looking down the canal with the building wrapping around it looked like a work of art. I could very easily imagine Vermeer or Rembrandt getting so much inspiration from the city. 
My family and I ended up stopping at a few different grocery/market type places in deep search of food as always. We went to this little one called Hema, the one that was the most our style was Albert Heijn, and then this one, Marqt, the fanciest and most aesthetic of the three. I just had to take a pic with that sign, it was calling my name.
This windmill was just a little one in the city, we went to more and bigger windmills. But still, it is just something you have to do as a tourist in Amsterdam is pose with all of the windmills
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EVERYDAY EDINBURGH-ERER?
From my first time in Scotland back in 2015 to now being here, apparently I never knew that the best spot to take photos was literally right on top of Waverly Station…aka the station I have now been going in and out of at least 10 times. I suppose i cannot be too hard on myself the first time I was there. The train station was the very first and very last place we went. However, we did spend a decent amount of time shopping around in the Princes Street Mall.
But of course the one time I go to Edinburgh with my friend who lives there, the first place she takes me because of my giant camera was like the best, simplest vista point. She just took me right up on top of the station. And even though there were nice little benches set up for people who want to overlook the city…no one was there. You literally could not ask for a better place to take photos; I was so in awe! Always travel with a local if you want the best shots!
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ON HIGHER GROUND
I crossed one major to do in Scotland off my list and that was getting a chance to tour the highlands. We started our trip visiting Doune Castle which apparently is one of the only untouched castles left in Scotland with the others lying in ruin due to the British. Then we pressed on into the thick of the highlands. Completely not what I expected at all. My only impression of the highlands was one of rolling hills probably in a similar vein to the Great Plains in the midwest with a bit of a rougher feel perhaps, maybe a colder wind. And there was a good amount of that (mainly dotted with giant, fluffy, Scottish sheep) but the highlands that I saw was something far more cinematic and epic. I saw massive, snow-topped mountains. These mountains were even more bizarre to me as they gradually faded from opaque white snow on the top to lush grasslands as their base. It felt like you could be driving though the tundra at some points and just change back to mild hilltop in an instant. We stayed overnight at Fort Augustus as the mouth of Loch Ness, basically at the most famous view. Then we drove through Inverness which was quite a strange place to me too as it was a fully developed, cosmopolitain city just randomly set up in the midst of these harsh mountains and northern highlands. I got to see Culloden battlefield which vaguely reminded me of home in Virginia with all the Civil War battlefields. Then we finished our journey at the Hermitage. It was an amazing trip given how much I saw that I probably would not get to experience on my own.
So this time, for this post, I wanted to experiment with a different format for my photos. Some will be the same that they have always been, but others are formatted slightly differently.
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LONDON LOG
My work is just starting to pick up, but before it did, I managed to get away for the weekend to London. First of all, I think next time I go, after having gone twice now by train, I will be flying. No longer will I take this five hour train ride! The plane rides are so cheap and would literally take thirty minutes. it is just not worth it to wait this long anymore. The one advantage was getting to see all the beautiful British cites and the coast in passing. I think I would like to go Newcastle. But I have bigger fish to fry in England(get it, fish and chips)! I need to go to Brighton first.
When we pulled in finally, it was about 3:30. So my friends and I decided to go to the hostel and set our things down in our room. Our hostel was located in Borough which ended up being an interesting little corner in London that I never experienced last time I was there. By the time we got settled there, we were starving from the train since we decided to not eat lunch at the little cafe they had on board. We went to Piccadilly Circus for dinner, which was coincidental since last time I was here, that was the first place my family and I went after getting off the train. This time it was different however as there was not a Taylor Swift concert that had just ended in Hyde Park which was an absolute disaster last time. Just floods of people in the tube and no clear way to compose ourselves in a new city. This time we could take it slow and just explore more. We really wanted Chinese so Chinatown was the obvious place to go. I do not think I mentioned this since last time but I am trying to go pescaterian and that was such a success on this trip. I had the mixed seafood noodles from the Chinese restaurant we went to and it was excellent. After that we explored Soho and got desert at a little Korean ice cream cafe where I got a green tea ice cream with all sorts of sweet fixin’s.
The next day was the touristy day. We caught a walking tour group through Westminster. That was a nice deja-vu for me since we went to Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey(although not inside), Buckingham Palace(the queen just never wants to be there when I come by), and a boat ride down the Thames as well as a tour of the Tower of London. But I decided to cut out of the tour during the boat ride and the tower as i had already done that and I decided that I wanted to see something else. I went to the National Gallery instead which was something I never saw last time. I was so happy I went because they had an excellent amount of pieces of art by some of my favorites. They had Caravaggio, Da Vinci(it is crazy how we only have one in the whole of the western hemisphere but Europe literally has hundreds), Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne, and Rubens. That night we went to Camden and got Italian for dinner. I got a margarita pizza which was delicious.
The next morning, on Sunday, my friends and I went to the Breakfast Club for breakfast which was fairly close to where we were staying. It, of course, had an eighties theme but it was not obnoxiously loud which made it so enjoyable. I got the most perfect chocolate banana pancakes that hit the spot and satiated my sugar tooth. From there, we made the trek to Greenwich to go to the Royal observatory with the Prime Meridian line where the coordinates are exactly (0°, 0′,0”). There was the most amazing park and vista of the whole city. I did not get to go to Greenwich last time and I discovered that it was my favorite area in London. We went to little shops in the town and that was a blast because they were the kind of grungy but charming little shops where everything is used and vintage and you just have to buy yourself a unique keepsake. We went to this used bookstore where everything was a pound and I got four pounds worth of books. Then we went to this outdoor market where I bought a dark, denim mini skirt. The man who sold it to me was the most interesting character. He was dressed like he steeped out of 60s London which made sense since he was selling some unique vintage pieces. He wore a head to toe colored corduroy bell bottom suit and he had a shaggy bowl cut—needless to say, it was perfect.
After that we had to get back to Kings Cross station to catch our train and make the long voyage back to Edinburgh. That trip was longer for me as i also had to take an hour long train ride back to Galashiels. The good thing about that train was that I did not purchase tickets before getting on the train because I was going to buy them from the ticket collector. But he never came around so I got a free ride back, making everything feel better.
HOUSE OF HERONS 