A Travel Journal · July 2026 · Delta & British Airways
Nine days, two cities, and one 50th birthday. From the canals of Amsterdam to a flat in Chelsea — a medieval convent turned six-hundred-year-old hotel, a giant swing hanging a hundred meters over the IJ, a food tour through the Dutch Golden Age, the water pump where modern epidemiology was born, a power station famous for a runaway pig, and an exclusive London club with a fox on the lawn. There were four World Cup matches that resolved somewhere over Greenland, a beer arc that started resigned and ended rewarded, and one castle robe that remains, to this day, unaccounted for. This is the whole logbook.
The route: Seattle 🇺🇸 → Amsterdam 🇳🇱 — five days of canals, Van Gogh, and the last day of Aimee's forties — then London 🏴, four days in Chelsea with old friends, and home over the North Atlantic chasing the sunset.
The cast: me and Aimee — the clever fox 🦊, who turned fifty and celebrated it dangling off a building. Our hosts David & Michele in Chelsea; Barney the Amsterdam food-tour guide; a Greek-Bulgarian bartender-philosopher; and a boatful of pin-gifting Australians.
The running threads: the fox, the beer arc, purple drinks in two cities, a World Cup that threaded through the whole trip, Pink Floyd's Animals from Battersea to the flight home, two Amazing Race airport sprints as bookends — and, told to us near the very end, the Case of the Missing Robe.
Five days in the Low Countries — a floating city built on a submerged forest, and a birthday that turned fifty a hundred meters in the air.
Day 01 · Jul 10–11 Across the Atlantic to the Low Countries ✈️Seattle → Amsterdam Day 02 · Jul 12 Brushstrokes, Brown Cafés & the Soul of Amsterdam 🎨Amsterdam · Van Gogh & the Food Tour Day 03 · Jul 13 Secret Rooms, Stroopwafels & the Last Day of Forty-Nine 🏛️Amsterdam · The Grand & Albert Cuyp Day 04 · Jul 14 The Birthday Fox, the Giant Swing & Fifty Years Around the Sun 🦊Amsterdam · Aimee's 50th Day 05 · Jul 15 Farewell Amsterdam, Hello London 🚆Amsterdam → LondonFour days in Chelsea with old friends — power stations, cholera pumps, an exclusive club, and the long way home over the ocean.
Day 06 · Jul 16 Chelsea, The Trembling Lady & A Pig Over London 🐷London · Battersea & the Thames Day 07 · Jul 17 Cholera, Cacti & Chelsea Society 🗺️London · The John Snow Pump & Physic Garden Day 08 · Jul 18 The Hurlingham, the Cream Tea Wars & A Fox on the Green 🦊London · The Last Full Day Day 09 · Jul 19 Chasing the Sunset Home ✈️London → Seattle · Reflections at 39,000 ft