Over the pond and back again, a Lillywhite’s tale.

We’re off to the airport. I had to leave behind my wife and son. We agreed it'd be pretty tough having a 5 week old abroad. But in the end it was tough not being with the family.
My final destination was Crowton, a village just west of Manchester, UK. But before that point I’ll be visiting Amsterdam and London as well. I’ve never been to Amsterdam, so I was pretty excited about visiting.
I wasn’t planning on going on this trip, but Tresa being the traveler person that she was and is, encouraged me to go.

This is Derrick. He’s pretty manga cake. You know white. He’s a Canadian through and through. This is his first trip off the Canadian Shield. Actually it’s his first venture off North America. We met up with his mom’s cousin while we were in Chester.
That’s when my CSI: New York TV show training came in handy. His cousin didn’t travel either. They live 3 hours north of London and hadn’t visited that city in 30 years. That means there’s a gene for travel. And Derrick doesn’t have it. He’s also missing the gene responsible for style and fashion.

Lillywhites. No not Derrick, the store. It was the cheapest place to buy stuff in London, UK. We were in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. Not much of a circus, just people hanging out by the fountain to get a glimpse of the Lillywhite dude.

We weren’t in the UK vacationing together. Derrick’s got two kids and a wife. Do you see any similarities to Rock Hudson? They're both white.
And we weren’t there to reconnect Derrick with his culture. In an interview video we did in Amsterdam, I pointed out that he has no culture. That’s why he’s so white. Actually we were there to see this guy on the left. That’s FEZ from the New Years Eve photos.
Antonio was getting married. And he picked the farthest spot from Toronto where they spoke English (not Taglish) as the primary language and legally sold pharmaceutical drugs, and most importantly, where they don’t serve dog as a dish (but they do serve cat).

He’s also a professional tour guide. That’s how he funded this wedding and how he avoided deportation. He’s so used to taking photos that he’s got his smile down pat and his hair is gelled so that it can withstand hurricane force winds and it’ll also repel water (great for the UK weather).

This is Manchester. Well it's the shopping district. And we picked up some food from Marks & Spencer. Which used to be in Canada, but has since retreated back to the UK.
It's common in Europe to have pedestrian only areas. Sort of like our outlet malls, except no parking and way older, cooler looking buildings.

A very cultural city from what Antonio tells me. I think we were the only two non-WASP people there.


Can you spot the Asian?

Antonio always gets a kick out of a humped zebra. It gives him ideas for his wedding night.

We hit Liverpool to visit the Beatles museum. And then Derrick wanted to leave his mark. He wanted to let all the dogs know that he was here.

“Okay Antonio, you promised, no peeking. I gotta take a wizz”

This was his way of saying what a good catch he was. I think he's overestimated his value. Don't worry, we were there to bring him back down from the clouds.

Our tour guide dropped us off at Liverpool Int’l airport. And yes they named it after a musician. Why not Tony Blair? I think cuz he's not dead. Send him to Bagdad for a visit.

And we flew with EasyJet. And no the flight attendants weren’t ‘easy’. Derrick tried – by striking up a conversation, trying to impress them by talking about his job. Talking about glaucoma cases on old people - exciting stuff like that. But the male flight attendant was especially nice to him.

We finally arrived in Amsterdam. We had been traveling for about 20+ hours. We think. After the Red-Light district we couldn't remember.
This was a falafel house. It was either this or McDonald’s. Derrick just wanted something cheap.


We still ended up at McD’s. You want frites sauce with your meal? By the way, ketchup was extra. Mucho de-Euro man.
I don’t really have too many photos from Amsterdam, we were only there a day. We saw the red light district the evening we arrived. The next day we woke up a little late in the day since we were jet lagged.

We hit whatever sights we could. The Van Gogh museum was great.

This was Derrick attempt at trying to get a little more culture in his life. There was another interesting exhibit attached in a really cool building, called Egon Schiele, named after the artist who pioneered it. Modern art I suppose.

There was another museum that was close by as well, but the Rijks Museum was partially closed for renovations.

But the restrooms were also closed for upgrades. And well, Hong couldn't take it anymore.
RELEASE!

I would've liked to have seen more of Amsterdam, but maybe when Kieran is a little older and we have more moola.
So we were off to London. Not by train, but the train goes to the airport. Hey how come Toronto doesn’t have a train going to the airport? All other major international cities do.

This was our hotel. It was newly renovated and was on special at Hotels.com. I was a bit skeptical, but it turned out to be alright. It even included free all you can eat continental breakfast.

These guys were so happy they were doing the chicken dance and jumping for joy.

The next day we went to see London. We got up earlier than yesterday to hit the sights.

First it was Madame Tussauds wax museum. Well we didn’t go in. The line up was humongous.

Picadilly Circus, then Trafalgar square, where Hong was taking pics in Macro mode. Big Ben, Carnaby (the shopping area), London Eye - that's the big ferris wheel beside the London Aquarium. There was a McDonald's there too that we visited.

This monument behind us is called the wedding cake, just in front of Buckingham palace. Hong was scared of it. Sort of like how a vampire is afraid of a cross or sunlight. I think it has to do with a fear of commitment and losing closet space.

Outside of Buckingham Palace.

This is my good buddy from university, Harry. Too bad Caroline couldn't come out too. They're living in London now, along with all the other non-UK and expats from all over the world. We were trying to get to Covenant Gardens, but for some reason we got out at Oxford Circus (that's where Carnaby is). But Harry came and got us, running down Oxford Circus ave (when the bus didn't stop where he expected), but the pubs closed at midnight. We got there a little late so we spent the evening walking around Picadilly and then we hit the first thing that was open.


Yep it's McDonald’s. Everything else was closed.
Seems like we're doing a Golden Arches Euro Tour.


Then we were off to Crowton, 3 or 4 hours north of London. We took the Virgin trains to Crewe. These trains were amazing, traveling at over 200km/h and they tilt into the turns. We got to Crewe quicker than if we’d hired a car and drove on the wrong side of the road.
Of course we had to get to the train station on time. It was like being in the Amazing Race.

We were running to get to Euston station. That’s Hong and Derrick at the teller window. If you can read the clock it’s 3:01pm. Our train leaves at 3:15pm.
We just made it. We weren’t eliminated from the race.

We made it to the next leg of the journey. Crewe, from here we take a short commuter train to Hartford.

It was amazing when we got off the train, Antonio was there. Not two hours later. He’s growing up man. I was so proud. It brought a tear to my eye. Someone must have set his watch a few hours ahead. Bless that person. I bet you it was Anne.

And this was why we came. To participate in our good friends' wedding. We were their ushers. Or what they call in the UK - hired help. Anne had given us a whole step by step instruction on our duties. See that look on her face - deviate from this and you will all go to hell.
Antonio was prepared. He even brought some lady right off the rice fields in the Philippines just in case we ran out of rice.

The next day there was a luncheon. We waited around for the newly wed couple to arrive after their first night as Mr. and Mrs. They were late and this was why.

Hey, I didn’t realize it was Halloween already? And funny thing was Antonio was walking oddly, like something was not right with his trousers.
Trick AND treat, eh.
Actually they weren't late, just missing all the time. But then I started hearing animals in the nearby bushes.

My little canon powershot A510 stopped working on the morning of the wedding, but I managed to borrow Larry's camera (Antonio's brother) and I used my card to snap a few wedding pics. Then my SD card was full. Hong is going to send me pics from his camera once he figures out how to download it off his camera and burn a disk. I could be waiting a while. I've uploaded more photos here. And once I get the CD from Hong from Antonio and Anne's wedding I'll put them up too.

click for more Eurotrip photos

I was happy to be heading home I was missing my wife and kid.

Welcome home, papa.