Paris, France

So, Amsterdam was surprisingly wonderful!  The hotel was gorgeous, had an indoor pool, balcony, and an awesome free breakfast! The best so far.  While we were in Amsterdam we went to the Anne Frank house, if you ever have the chance to visit, it's a must see! It is much larger than we expected, and more roomy too. We spent a lot of time just exploring the city and it was super pretty. I had heard lots of crazy things about that city, but it wasn't nearly as sketchy as it could have been. 

After one night in the best hotel so far, we headed to Belgium. It was a sad day... But we still had fun on the trip. We stopped in Brugee and went shopping then finished the super long trip on the slowest bus ever to Brussels.  In Brussels we ended up having Greek food and watched a little mini concert, and the next day we spent sight seeing. We saw some castles and stuff that no one has ever heard of, then we went back to the main square to watch the actual concert, which was so much fun! It was a national Flemish holiday and so they had lots of locals there. 

Then we finally got to go to Paris!!! I wish you could all be here to see this beautiful city! The first night we got in at about 8 pm local time and spent the night climbing the Eiffel Tower and watching the lights on it sparkle every hour. The view from the top was awesome. The city just glows. The next day, probably Monday, we went and saw the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, Sacre Ceure, St. Chapel, Moulin Rouge, and Champ Ellyse. In the evening, the entire group took a boat tour on the river next to the Eiffel Tower and we had some amazing pics come from this trip! On Tuesday we went on a day trip to Normandy and it was incredible to see Utah and Omaha Beach. I had no idea that there had been so much destruction there. You can see where bombs had dropped and where cement bunkers had been turned into piles of pebbles. The monuments and cemetery for all of the American soldiers were very well done and created a very peaceful resting place for those 9,000 + brave soldiers.  Last night was also incredible! When we got back from Normandy, we went over to the Eiffel Tower and watched the Bastille Day celebrations which included a light show and fireworks from the Eiffel Tower!!! It was the best fireworks show that I have ever seen. Probably a hundred times better than Disneyland's.

Today was one of my favorite days so far. We got up and had an appointment with the Bank of France and they gave us a tour of the bank's headquarters and we were really special apparently, because they took us into the meeting room of the bank's govenors!!! Only 3 groups get to tour the offices every year, they are never American, they never get to see some of the stuff we saw, and they usually have to be on a waiting list for 6 months! One of the guys in the group had some connections with his who set this visit up for us.  After the bank we went to Versailles! How incredible! It's nothing like any of the pictures I have seen. The chateau itself was huge, the rooms were beautiful, but the best part was the gardens! We walked around for a while and took pictures, but then eventually we found a bike rental shop and took a ride around the grounds. They went on forever! We rode for over an hour and still barely saw any of it. Dad would be so jealous if he knew how gorgeous our ride was!!! Tonight we will be taking it easy and just grabbing dinner at a cafe since we are all so tired. In the morning we will head to Switzerland and spend a few days there, it should be fun and a little more relaxing than the big cities we've spent most of our time in. Hope everyone is doing well!

Loves, Nicole

London, England

The 4th of July was fun, not very traditional, but it was good. We were in Preston and we got to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. It was a great experience. Afterwards we went to dinner and then on Sunday I attended the Chorley 1st ward and afterwards we took our bus on a tour of the Ribble River and the house that Pres Hinkley lived when he served here and recieved the famous letter from his father that advised him to 'Forget yourself and go to work.' We also saw the home that the first missionaries to England lived in during the 1800's.

We got to London on the 6th after spending all day on the bus. We went to Stratford Upon Avon to see Shakespear's birth place and grave, and we also stopped at the Wedgwood Factory!!! I absolutly loved that one. I really enjoyed looking throught the museum, but the best part was the shopping! I found some really good deals on a few things for my apartment and I bought a necklace that was made there which will be a really neat keepsake. It will kind of be a pain carrying it all around but it's not very heavy.

Once we were in London, we checked into our hotel, and can I just say one thing? GROSS! Apparently there was a mistake with the kennedy Center (who was in charge of booking all of our rooms), and we ended up in a really sketchy hotel... The rooms are small even by London standards, the place is super old and creaky, some of the girls had a cockroach in their room, and our bedspread is like really stained and discusting. Pretty much everyone is appaled! But since we were already here, there was nothing else we could do. But our director was upset and so this hopefully won't happen again. Me and katie aren't even sleeping in the bed. We pulled off the cover and turned the top sheet over and are sleeping on that and covering ourselves with the airline blankets that we stole from our flight here. I am so glad I took it!!! It has really saved my life.

The first night in London, the 6th, we just hung out and had dinner then we went dancing and got up the next morning and saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and then when the rest of the group went off to see more stuff, I had to go back to the hotel because I wasn't feeling better and I wanted to go to see Les Miserables that night, so I needed to sleep it off. I felt much better after a few hours napping and then rejoined the group for the play. It was amazing! I've never seen it before and I was really impressed.

Today was our last day in London and we finished up doing the touristy things after we had our meeting with GMAC's insurance executive, Ron Judd. He graduated from BYU and has been living in the UK for 9 years. He is extremely successful and a really down-to-earth guy. Our meeting was like 2 hours but I could probably sat there for another 2 hours. After that we had lunch and went to the Bank of England's museum which had a lot of really cool stuff. They had some lottery tickets from the 1700's which were interesting and it was cool to see how their notes have changed over the years. A £1(one pound) note used to be the size of half a sheet of paper! Oh, and yesterday we also went to the National Gallery and saw some Picasso's, Monet's, van Gogh, and da Vinci. Then we went to the british Museum which is full of amazing artifacts from different civilizations. I spent some time in the Egypt room and in the Persian Empire room. But back to today, after the bank museum, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, the tower bridge, and we went inside the Tower of London and saw the home of King Henry VIII. The crown jewels are also located there. They were stunning! I'd take any stone off of them and be a happy woman!

After a long day of walking, it was time for dinner and some shopping. So I ended up with two very cute tops for under £20! It's about 10:30 at night here and in the morning at about 4, we will be leaving this 'scum-of-all-the-earth'hotel and heading to the real sin city, Amsterdam. We will only be there for two nights and just long enough! Hopefully the hotel is nicer, becauseI think most of us are pretty nervouse about how trashy we have heard the city is, but I think we will do just fine! Anyways, I should get a few things done before I head to bed.

Loves,
Nicole

Edinburgh, Scotland

So, someone had the longest plane ride of their life!!! I had a 2 hour flight to Portland to meet up with Katie, then a 10 hour flight to Germany that was one of my least favorite experiences so far! Not only did we end up on a German airline, where everything and everyone were Germand, but our seats wern't together (we got that fixed), my little in seat t.v. didn't work very well, and everyone smelled and was drinking (which we couldn't fix!)... And by the end of this flight, we were both so tired, that we had the giggles which severly angered the mean lady across the isle... mean glares all around! After we got to Germany, we had a 4 hour lay over and then a 2 hour trip to Edinburgh which went fairly well. We took a cab to our B&B and then spent a few hours touring the "Royal Mile." Everything is so beautiful here! But when you're tired, it's hard to see. We did get to have a really cool experience climbing up to "Aurthur's Seat" to watch the sun set which was at 10:30! We were deffinitly glad to hit the sack. I had been up for over 36 hours!

Today we toured the Scottish Highlands on a tour bus. Again, it was so pretty, everything was the richest color of green and so lush. Unfortunatly we didn't get to see any Scottish Highland Cows, but that's ok because we got to see Sterling Castle... which had an absolutly beautiful view. I promise that I will try to post picks as soon as I can, it might be difficult because I don't have my computer, but I'll see what I can work out.

I hope you are all doing well. I miss everyone but I'm haveing a great time!

Loves!
Nicole