Checked out of the hotel, left our luggage and took a walk around some of the nice canal areas.  We had a 12:30 reservation for a canal boat tour and on the way over, Grant was stung by one of the many Amsterdam bees.  Amsterdam has more bikes than people.  I think it also has more bees.

We saw more of Amsterdam on the boat ride than we could have seen walking around for a week.

But after the tour, it was time for a 2 plus hour train trip to Brussels, where we just barely made it past ticket taking, security, passport control, and UK border security to get our train with about 5 minutes to spare.  This was the Eurostar, but it wasn’t as fast as usual due to electrical problems in the channel tunnel.

Back in England, after going through border security yet again, we only had two more tube trains to take before finally getting home at 10.  A six hour travel day.  We did take a little extra time when we first got to St Pancras Station which is across the street from Kings Cross Station.  We went over to Kings Cross so Cora could see the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4.  Even at 9:30 at night there was still a 45 minute line to get a picture taken, so she and Grant went into the Harry Potter store to spend some pounds

This kids got to see an Amsterdam cathouse.

Other scenes: