Day 4!  I still haven't managed to upload all of our England/The Netherlands photos to the slideshow, but I wanted to share with everyone a couple that I set aside last night.  The entire trip was such an amazing experience, and Ash & I are both chomping at the bit to get back.  Funny, I go from a mini rant about gas to discussing flying across the Atlantic to England.  Sigh.

Look, there's Easy Jet!  They were quite an enjoyable airline.  I guess everything becomes a bit more enjoyable with the consumption of 3 Heinekens and a mini bottle of wine.  The flight was about 50 minutes from Gatwick.  The only problem with this photo is that I just realized that's not The Netherlands.  That's England.

So much for staying on course.

Weeeeeee....and here's a Mural in The Hague.  Scott and I were waiting for the ladies to finish their shopping and Scott took me to this. Basically it's awesome.  Look at the bike without the front tire.  Scott and I stole it for a minute just to give the photo "that" effect. 

Then, what would The Netherlands be without bikes?  Our fantastic hosts had two spare bikes which were super handy for cruising around the town.  Picture if you can, me riding around The Hague on a bike with one hand free and taking photos while riding around.  The locals must have thought I was intoxicated, which was completely inaccurate.

And for those of you that know Ashley, imagine the look on her face when she entered this store filled with Olive Oil.  Oh my goodness, if this wasn't a site to see.  Flavors upon flavors, it was such a neat shop.  If only we could have wrapped that shop up and sent it home.

A wise man(Matt Ayres) once said, "Make sure thou get Falafel in Amsterdam."  We did.  It might be the greatest thing on earth.  Of course we couldn't find one Falafel shop anywhere for the first hour.  Then we asked some lady, she pointed to the corner(I don't think she really understood anything but the Falafel part), and that's where we ate lunch.  We walked out of the shop, turned right onto another street and ended up on Falafel Avenue.  There were stands, shops, people, and even Helicopters(hmm, maybe not this part) flying above dropping Falafel off.  Just our luck.  Regardless, our Falafel was the greatest.

And that's about it for this post.  I will leave you with this picture of Ashley and Jessica riding off into the sunset on their bikes.  So romantic.  What a great trip.  Obviously there was a slew of other things we did while in The Netherlands, and each and every one made us want to revisit. Thank you Scott and Jessica so much for being such great hosts.  Our front door is always open!

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Today is Ash & I's One year anniversary!  It's absolutely crazy that it's been an entire year since getting married in Duck, NC.  So this past weekend, as a little celebration, I put together a sneaky outing.  She had no idea where we were going, but we started off in Middleburg, which she figured out quickly because it's a straight shot on Route 50 West.  Here's a bunch of photos:

At lunch in Middleburg, I think the place was called "Horse Tavern" or something like that.

After Middleburg we set out upon the second leg of our journey.  Ash thought we were staying around Middleburg, so when she inquired a couple of times as to where we were, I said the GPS stuck me on the wrong road and we were winding around a mountain back towards the Loudon County area.  The weather was perfect.

After about 45 minutes, we arrived to Charles Town Parkway (or something like that).  Once we crossed the West Virginia border she knew where we were going.  But I must admit, I was impressed I was able to keep it a secret for so long.  Ash was a great sport though and didn't pester me too much!

What a fun time we had.  We didn't lose too much money on the slots or horses, and actually we were ahead for most of the night. 

The next morning, after having a ridiculously delicious homemade breakfast, we got on our way and stopped in Harpers Ferry.  The weather turned south, but that area was pretty cool.

We were completely wiped out the next day, but it was well worth it!  Thanks to everyone for being with us last year on this day.  1 year down!

Love Mash

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Ashley, BC, Cindy, Alexe, Lindsay, and I traveled down to Radford this past weekend for Brooke's graduation from RU.  I've been down that way before, but never to Radford itself and it was a beautiful town.  Ash graduated from Radford, which most of you know, so she was able to escort me around and show me some of the choice places she used to frequent as recently as 6 years ago.  Very neat!  Enjoy!

Photos before graduation(who's that silly tart in khaki pants?), at the Cooke building, a box with diplomas, and Brooke walking in and walking out!  Congratulations Brooke!

   

  

After the graduation, Brooke's customized message, and Ash showing me around her dorm. 

   

Back at Brooke's apartment, Ashley and Brooke, chasing a sunset, the fountain from Ash's post prior to this one, party, etc. 

 

And on the way back we decided to hop off onto Route 11.  I saw a sign for the Natural Bridge so we decided to stop off and see it: 

  

  

As you can tell, that's not the Natural Bridge.  It's a mountain.  We ended up at the Visitors center, but the GPS told me to take a right, so I listened.  We ended up on a back road winding through the mountains - wide enough for 1 car - and headed towards the "Natural Bridge Christians Fellowship" or something.  Haha.  While usually I'd be quick to blame the GPS, I typed in "Natural" to the thing and just hit go instead of looking at the destination.  I mean, who the hell would have thought there'd be a fellowship tucked away in this Valley that had anything to do with the Natural Bridge?  Crazy.  Anyway, with no way to turn around, we rode it out for about 40 minutes.  There was definitely some scenery though, which was nice.

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Here are some pics from the Amsterdam portion of our European Vacation!! We had a blast with Jessica and Scott in Den Haag where they live, as well as in the heart of Amsterdam. We learned alot about the language, the train system (getting lost), cheese, beer,  kissing on each cheek 3x, bike riding, trams and more. It was so cozy and romatic and scenic!

From Left to Right: Jess and Scott live near the beach! a 15 minute bike ride. This first pic is a remake circa 1994, of pictures Jess and I have taken at LBI. The next pic on the right is at a restaurant we ate at on the beach. In the background you can see bean bag mountain. A place to relax with a bottle of wine and your favorite bean bag! Middle pic, on a canal with a picture perfect home. Bottom row, some local graffiti in Den Haag or "The Hague", where Scott and Jess live. To the right, this pic is for Kristen Lewis Henry, another cheesehead. We were in cheese heaven, and had to buy some to bring back to the states.  And the last two, well, we just had to visit a Sex Museum while in the heart of Amsterdam!

More photos to come, vistit www.Shutterfly.com, Log in [email protected] , password DUCK07

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Hey everyone we are back from our 14 day tour in London, Amsterdam and beyond. We have so many pictures to share with you all but before we do that I thought I would share some interesting terminoligy from one american to another. Language can be very interesting... here are some of words I caught on to while overseas:

Teatime=Dinner for small children

Chub=bottom lock of door

Yale=Top lock (dead bolt)

Rocket=Mixed sald greens

Quid=Our version of Cash, or bucks 

Rubbish=Trash

Queue=In line

Boot = The “trunk” of the car

Bonnet = The “hood” of the car

Spotted Dick (as seen above)=Tradional pudding (dessert to me and you)

Chips=French Fries (as seen above) The best fish and chips in Rye!

Have a wee=Need to go to the restroom (restroom is non existent over there, purely say toilet)

Cutting the cheese=this term is not used over there, but can be similar to a cheese cutter hat, worn by paperboys of the yesteryear.

Posted by Ash at 06:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (741) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are some photos from Hampton Court.  Our flight was great and we were picked up by Zoe & Ben at Heathrow.  The day - as long as it was - consisted of us having a quick nap, a few pints, and dinner for our lovely Nan's birthday.  10 hours of sleep followed and Abbey Mills, Hampton Court, and the Wandgas was our entertainment on Sunday.  Fantastic.

 

All these photos were from Hampton Court.  We're off to Rye tomorrow, and London with 60mph winds was today.  Crazy.  Pics to follow.

Love Marc & Ash

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