Goodbye third world and hello first world. We left Cairo in all of it's masogenistic confusion and arrived in highly organised but freezing cold Amsterdam. It was great to be somewhere where you don't get hassled in the street, don't have to haggle for a cup of coffee and where everything from your train to your hermaphrodite lap dance runs on time.

Amsterdam is a fun city and we had a good time looking around in the morning before heading back to Schipol airport to meet John and Marianne (THE IN LAWS!!!). Due to snow in Scotland (their point of origin) they were a few hours late but soon enough we got the hire car and sped down to Roosendaal. The Van Dongen clan put on a lovely Dutch dinner with all sorts of wonderful food and i practiced my ever expanding Dutch vocabulary. After dinner we went to the house that Mon and Betty had genorously organised for us in Zeeland where Louise and i were desperate for sleep. It was not to be. Upon getting into bed it promptly collapsed. While i can put my hand on my heart and say it was a structural problem with the bed try convincing your in laws of that when you are on your honeymoon!

We spent a couple of days touring around the south of Holland looking at sites of family interest for Louise and Marianne which was really good. Little towns covered in snow with windmills and frozen canals. It was a postcard of Holland in the wintertime and great for Louise to see for the first time.

On Friday morning we set off early for our whirlwind Northern Europe tour. We went first to Antwerp for breakfast and saw the beautiful old cathedral. Then we headed south to Brussles where we tried in vain to find the old town square and where we nearly met our end at the hands of Belgian drivers. We then motored towards France and settled on the town of Cambrai for the night. As navigator my inclination was that Cambrai was a nice old town but i was pleased to see i had underestimated it's beauty. It had snowed heavily and the town looked gorgeous. We found a little place for dinner (La Flambe') and ate snails, drank good French wine and discovered the new title holder for the greatest Creme Brulee in the world. Over dinner we discussed where we would go in the morning. Our plan had been to go to Reims, Luxembourg and then Cologne. This went out the window when we figured out that we were 180km from Paris!

Saturday morning we got in the car and John flogged that little Mondeo towards Paris. We navigated into the city and parked the car near the Gare du Nord railway station. From there we hit the metro and in a day with lots of walking and sightseeing we saw Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. Exhausted we retired for dinner and let Cambrai retain its Creme Brulee title (a close points decision). In the morning we found the car (thank god!) and headed east toward Luxembourg. We were all surprised by Luxembourg's beauty and Louise and i have decided we will have to move there. After lunch we drove through Belgium and back into Holland, had dinner with Mon and Betty and then finally got back to our little house in Zeeland. John was exhausted but did a great job driving through 4 countries in one day! The road trip was great fun. Coming up with stories about the people in the cars next to us, Marianne keeping us amused with her new and imaginative insults for foriegn drivers and Louise being maniacally excited or asleep, no in betweens! It was a really fun thing for the new family to do together. We capped off our time in Zeeland last night with John and i making the debut Sara-Biggs Zeeland Stew and having some more great French wine.

Now we are in Amsterdam again where we are resting up before hopping on the plane to New York tomorrow. Louise has a phone interview for a job tonight at about midnight our time so afternoon sleeps are in vogue. Stay tuned for some New York stories and then it's South America.

We miss you all.