Planes, Trains, and Jetlag

Today has been a long day. I flew with my mom from Houston to London on an overnight flight, landing at 9am England time (3am Texas time), and have been up since. This is my best strategy on conquering jetlag in one day - sleep on the plane and don't nap until 9 or 10pm, then sleep like a baby until the morning. We'll see how it goes!

I had been telling myself for the past few weeks that I must pack light. Despite all the self pep-talks on my packing strategy, I still managed to load up two huge rolling bags (Big Blue and the duffle-wannabe-rolling-bag) and my hiking backpack. They had to be under 50 lbs or else Continental charges $100 each! Big Blue came in at 49.5 and the other at 48.5. Oh yeah, baby! Luckily I can leave these bags at my Grandma's house for now and just lug around my backpack, but getting all of it from Amsterdam to Delft is going to be hilarious. 

Proud Becca with her within-weight-limit-bags

My other realization today was that my super cool turquoise colored hiking bag is not so super cool in England. Don't get me wrong, I love this backpack. But, I forgot how dreary everyone dresses! Black, brown, navy, maroon is pushing it, absolutely no burnt orange, and definitely no turquoise. My bag says AMERICAN TOURIST all over it. Oh well...

I took a few underground (tubes) and trains to get over to my Gma's new house in Deal on the east coast of England. One of my favorite things about England is the food you can buy at M&S, or Marks and Spencer. They have super healthy and delicious ready made meals for a decent price. I grabbed a quick lunch at M&S while switching trains - wheatberries & giant couscous with roasted butternut squash, yum! I think all the boys stopped reading my post just now.

Yummy M&S meal with my obnoxious hiking backpack on the train

Deal is an adorable town right by the water, and you can see France from the coast. I've never been able to visit my aunt, uncle, & cousins on this side of England, so it's great to spent time with them. I could get to Delft by ferry & train from here - it's really not that far. We saw a rainbow when we got close to Deal. Sorry my photos are so lame this time, I promise they'll get better!

Rainbow before Deal

Over the next week I'm visiting family, so I'll post a little bit here and there about my time in England. I'll have a lot more to post about when I get to Holland on Feb 3rd. Stay tuned!