And there we were ... GONE!: And then there were two ...

Now we are down to our final 2 days of our journey away from Canada. We managed to get the "bus" (motorhome) back to the rental depot unscathed except for 4600 extra kms of wear and 2 duffels of gear for us to carry away.

Another couple of days in Amsterdam provided opportunity to visit the van Gough museum and rent bikes again for some more of the canal side cruising we so enjoyed our first trip here.

Mikaela and I passed by one area full of coffee shops (the special Amsterdam only coffee shops). Being basically lost the whole time we also managed a quick turn through the red light district which, contrary to what is written in publications,is not an appropriate tourist destination, even for the most battle hardened family trekkers. And the hotel was a 100% improvement over the last one ... we had our own little chalet off the courtyard out back.

Back in London now, we've managed to get kicked out of a couple of pubs ... not for being obnoxious, but rather due to the fact that most pubs don't have "family license" so no minors even with parents. Today we visited Hyde Park and the Princess Di memorials,

took a quick turn through Harrod's

and picked up theatre tickets to see "We will Rock You." I thought where better to see a musical based on Queen tunes than in the UK ? ... locals are decidedly mad about Queen and Freddie Mercury and we especially liked the local flavouring added to the script that would not appear in the Toronto production.

Today we took a day trip tour to Oxford to see firsthand what a really, really old university looks like... as in oldest in the English speaking world.

We had a great day taking in the sights and even had pub grub for lunch in the Kings Arms in the heart of University of Oxford campus

... allegedly home to the highest aggregate IQ on any given Thursday night in the world. Full of really young and incredibly cheery and polite students ... all of whom looked like they had just finished their last exam. As it turned out a grade A+ day trip for our last day of international wandering for probably a long time.