Hello from Amsterdam

It's been a while since the last update so rather than dump everything here I'll give some highlights, and fill in the details later if I get the chance.
Dublin was a fun city, but after 3 days we felt ready to move on. We saw the bars, the museums, Guiness Brewery and Trinity College and other assorted sights. They really love James Joyce here. We ended up booking a bus/ferry/bus trip from Dublin to London. The ferry trip was about 4 hours long and left at about 10:00 PM...the ship was huge but had nowhere to sleep and French teenagers were making a racket all night long so we couldn't really fall asleep in the chairs. Fortunately the bus ride was 8 hours long and we both slept for almost all of it.
In London we took the Tube to my brother's dorm towards the East End (he's doing a year at the LSE). He was a very good host and tour guide. He toured us around the city on foot, recommended some restaurants and shows, and showed us a generally good time. Plus, he cooked for us. London is absolutely enormous (8 million people or so) but the amazing thing is how consistently packed the city is with people and places. There's no well defined 'down town' area, just miles and miles of stuff to do and see. We saw the Tate Modern museum, the British Museum (full of things they stole from around the world during the Empire), Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, etc, etc. It was the opposite of Dublin - after 4 days we felt like we had seen absolutely nothing....that's the general memory I'll have from London - it's sooo big.
Leaving London, it turned out that either a flight or a train to Paris was prohibitively expensive (at least when booking last-minute like we geniuses did). But - another train/ferry/train combo into AMSTERDAM was quite a deal, including a cabin on the ship! So, that ride was overnight as well, and much more enjoyable.
We're in Amsterdam now, and it's my favorite so far (I've abstained from some of the city's more unique attractions, so, no, that's not why). It's not as big or overwhelming as London, but it's absolutely stunning. The whole city is ringed with canals, which are clean (take that, Venice!) In addition to water taxis, they're filled with permanent houseboats where people live. The city is fairly compact, so we've been able to cover a lot of it in two days of walking.
If you know me and Amsterdam, you'd agree that the best part is the biking. EVERYONE BIKES EVERYWHERE. They don't just have bike lanes, but individual paths for the bikes and almost every street. Plus, they basically have the right of way, so no need to deal with agressive drivers (no one wears a helmet either, we notices). The most impressive thing are the bike racks. They're everywhere, and filled with hundreds or thousands of bikes. The central train station has a 3-storied BICYCLE parking garage. I love it. Interestingly, almost all the bikes are the same design (a sort of hybrid/womens' thing) and they're all in terrible shape. Bike theft is huge here, so I guess no one wants to draw attention.
Anyway, we leave on Thursday night on an overnight train to Berlin. It's been a little stressful peicing together our trip as we go, but it's fun to not know where we'll go after Berlin (probably Vienna).
Pictures coming soon, hopefully.