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Home at last, home at last, thank God almighty, home at last. I really hope MLKJr. doesn't hate me too much for bastardizing that. And it's not like I disliked the trip in any way, it's just nice to finally be home. My flight actually got in around 15:00, and then an hour to get through immigration and baggage collection and customs. Dad graciously picked me up at the airport (in my own car?) and drove me back to his house. I walked him through some of the more interesting photos and then he and Martha took me out to dinner (mostly because I really wanted to avoid making dinner for myself tonight). So now I am finally home in my own house. And, of course, before I do any unpacking, I think I'll open up and set up that monitor I won in my first eBay auction.

Priorities man!

We spent much of yesterday walking around Amsterdam. As I understand it, this was a typical day in the Netherlands, gray, cold, a little windy, and sometimes rainy. Still, it's a generally pretty city. We didn't really do much as there doesn't really seem like much to do. We went to the Anne Frank House and that was interesting. It's difficult not to get emotional walking through those rooms and reading Anne's words.

There were crowded shopping streets and coffee shops, *cough* sorry, "coffee shops." We met up with Emma, Jochem, and Tracy for dinner at a Greek restaurant called Delphi in Leiden which was wonderful food and a very pleasant evening talking about all the differences between the States and Europe/Netherlands. And for those keeping count, I had two glasses of wine and three shots of ouzo with dinner. Buzzed? Yus.

After dinner, Jochem and Tracy drove Sander and I back to Sander's where we played a game called Medina in which I lost most gloriously. Sander won, though he would probably preface that with "I never win!" which I have a sneaking suspicion isn't entirely accurate.

I have to admit, at this point, I am rather looking forward to getting home. it's been a long week and I'm feeling pretty drained.

Flew into Amsterdam today. No pictures or anything, just a simple train ride and then a bus ride and then a short walk to Sander's house. We're chilling for the evening and recovering some from a day of travel. I am definitely feeling run down by everything that's been happening, so a little down time is appreciated.

Visited some really fantastic Roman ruins at Italica. The best of it all was the amphitheatre that we could walk around in as illustrated (sort of) by the photo here. Unfortunately, it's late and I need to get to bed given the extremely early time we need to be up in the morning to catch our flight.

They just tend to be some of the most visually stunning structures you will ever see. I took lots of pictures of the Catedral y Giralda, but I only have time right now for these few.

It's about a quarter after four and we've been sitting in this beautiful park for about thirty minutes. Chris and I are sitting on a pleasant shaded marble bench while Sander is lying on a very sunny grassy area in the middle. Though I have already gotten a lot of sun on my face that is probably going to be quite annoying this evening, I am fairly certain Sander is going to be in a lot more distress.

So far today we've found our way from the hotel to a sort of central square area that wasn't really a square in its actual shape, but the effect is the same. There's a great fort there, Alcazar I believe, as well as a spectacular cathedral that we walked through. Many wonderful (I hope) pictures were taken.

After the cathedral we found a tapas place to have lunch at. That was quite satisfying in its deliciousness. I'm not real sure what else we have planned but I'm not sure I care right now. The air smells amazing and the temperature is just perfect. The sun will be setting soon, I suppose, so we'll have to work something out, but in the meantime, I am happy to just sit here and breathe.

We finally got to our hotel in Seville (as in "The Barber of..." I guess) and, after working out a room mixup problem, started getting settled. I have no idea what our plan is at this point, other than sleep.

I will note, though, that the women seem consistently more attractive than just about anywhere I have ever been. Yes, this is the best I can do right now.

It's a little before 11am local time and I am finishing up my packing. Obviously, the computer is one of the last things to go. We did a wonderful walking tour of some of the really old sections yesterday and I took 100 photos. I downloaded them from the camera, but haven't done anything else with them yet. I think we'll be checking out in a little bit, then killing some time before taking the train back to the airport, at which point we head off for Spain.

Hopefully I'll have some time to post photos once we're checked in to the hotel much later tonight.

After meeting up with Chris, Sander lead us out into the "old section of the city" which I'm sure has some Swedish name I likely can't pronounce. One of the first buildings we encountered was this old church.

We started walking into the more town-like sections of town and things were clearly focused on the tourist. there are still nice buildings, though.

There's plenty more, but I think I need to go find the others. These and many more of my pictures are being posted in my Flickr set as fast as I can get them off my camera and previewed.

Funny, it doesn't look anything like Alpen Geist...

I realize this is a terrible, shot, the countryside I saw out the window on approach to the airport was actually quite nice. I was surprised by the amount of farmland, in fact, it basically all looked like (snow-covered) fields except where broken up by hills and small towns.