November 23, 2009

Euros

We're en route to Brussels via the Thalys train, which provides me with WiFi (pronounced by the overhead announcement, "Wee Fee"!) for an hour for 6.50 euro. An hour doesn't adequately give me the chance to explain how perfect this trip has been thus far, so I won't even attempt it, but I will recap a few highlights. We left New York Friday night via Iceland Air right on time (8:20 p.m.) which means we had a layover in Iceland (Reykjavik, which I am maybe not spelling correctly). Craig and I both caught a few z's on the first leg of the flight, but not as much as I hoped. The airport in Iceland was strange - Craig declared it to look designed by IKEA! - but we were only there for a ditty bit of time, during which I spent 1,155 kr. on a peculiar sandwich of egg, tomato and lettuce on Asiago bread, a bottle of sparkling water (sparkling by mistake, and it was yuck!) and a muffin for Craig. I had no idea how many USD equaled 1,155 kr., but in my thick fog of jet lag combined with lack of sleep, it barely mattered. Our flight to Amsterdam from Iceland left at 8:00 in the a.m., and was surprisingly quite full for such an awkward flight time, although if you were Icelandic traveling to Amsterdam I suppose that would be like catching an early flight out of a U.S. state. We arrived in Amsterdam by noon Netherlands time. Strangely, we were not stamped there in Amsterdam at customs. In fact, we arrived, retrieved our bags and were off to explore! We took the train into Amsterdam Centraal, about a 15-minute ride, and at Amsterdam Centraal, we emerged to find the most amazing blue skies and mild temperature! We walked to our B&B at 34 Langestraat. Wilma, the house maid, let us in and showed us to our room at the top floor. Splendid! Nice bed! Nice room! Good shower! What more could we have asked for? Oh, how about the brilliant homemade quiches Peter (our host) served us the next morning with fresh juice, delightful coffee, smoked and aged gouda, warm rolls, yogurt, granola and homemade bread pudding?? And Peter himself? We'll get to that later, as he is also too amazing to abruptly describe. After Wilma welcomed us (Peter was not there at the time), we showered and changed and were off by about 2:00, which bettered the time we'd assumed we'd be out by about half an hour. No exhaustion, really, which both relieved and delighted us, as we do not have time for exhaustion this week. I can't begin to express, especially in this initial post, how charming Amsterdam is. The primary mode of transportation is bicycle, and there are maybe more bicycles in the city than humans - we couldn't believe our eyes. And in Amsterdam the foot pedestrian does not have the right a way. No, indeed, it's the cyclists who rule the streets and sidewalks. I did survive a slight altercation with one later on that night. But that too will be further explored when I'm home with more Wee Fee time. For now, I just want to thank Amsterdam for the time of our lives. We couldn't have asked for a more engaging, amusing, creative, energetic and most memorable vacation. And that was merely the beginning.*I did manage to shoot approximately 200 photographs. I shot both RAW+jpeg, and look quite forward to processing the RAW images in Photoshop once we're en route home, or have arrived home (it will depend on how beat up I am on the plane ride home as to whether or not I play with photos at that time.) We left Amsterdam with only one question: how could one not want to travel?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

BEAUTIFUL pic, KB! I love all the bright colors! :) You are giving me the travel bug for sure...so many places to see, so little time!!!

9:32 AM  
Blogger KB said...

AB...you NEED to travel when given a moment in your hectic schedule! It was so educational, and quite easy, to be honest! I used to be afraid of International travel - but looking back, I have no idea why??!! :) More soon! xoxo

6:30 AM  

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