A very long day...

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As noted in an earlier post, we learned Wednesday that our train to Amsterdam was cancelled due to a train strike in the Netherlands. We booked a bus (Flixbus, very impressive) with reserved seats for 1:00 PM today. The adventure began when we tried to get a taxi to our apartment on Grand Place which is on a street for pedestrians only. We picked a likely intersection and used the "Green Taxi" app (Taxi Vert) to get a ride. The first driver called us after we noticed he was seeming to get further away from us but he did not speak any English. We gathered that our location was not accessible. He cancelled without further comment. A second driver (a true gentleman) worked with us for about 20 minutes to get a mutually convenient rendezvous. Got a very nice tip for his efforts. So we were off to Gare du Nord, the northernmost Brussels train station, from where our bus departed. It was cold; it was raining; we were a bit wet from making the meet with the driver; tired from rolling our luggage around and were two hours early for the bus.

We killed the time by eating lunch sitting on our suitcases inside the station. Apparently, to prevent the homeless from camping in the public areas, there are absolutely no seats anywhere inside. We also witnessed a totally weird incident where a man in a wheelchair, who was verbally and mentally impaired, yelled at and harassed a group of Muslim women and their children. The women eventually left the area after unsuccessfully trying to get the authorities to do something and then a kind young women bought the distressed man some water and a pastry which calmed him down. She may have been a social worker but it was hard to tell what transpired from a distance with everyone speaking a different language. It was time to go anyway.

We were surprised by the bus: smooth ride, immaculately clean and comfortable seats. Our across the aisle seatmate was a thirty-something Dutch woman named Marta who was returning from a business trip to London. She works for a company that helps tropical nations use sustainable and environmentally sound farming methods (!). She was reading "Dune" for the first time which is how the conversation started. Due to traffic the trip took about 3 1/2 hours.

Our arrival in Amsterdam presented the another obstacle. We knew what bus we needed but not where it could be found in a very large train, light rail and bus station. Wandered around aimlessly for a while. All the info booths were closed because of the rail strike. Brilliant wife suggested I ask a Starbucks barista where we could find our ride and the first one I spoke to knew exactly where and told me in English with pretty close to a Valley Girl accent how to get there. We found the bus and about 45 minutes later with more dragging of luggage and walking, we arrived at our apartment in a beautiful neighborhood in the canal district west of the main city.

Our hostess is a real artist, impressionist style painter and craftswoman, who does 3D paper cutouts of local sights for local art shows. Her paintings are stunning and the little 3D pieces are charming and unique. She is likeable and conversational. Her place is the best of the three so far and she is easily our nicest host. We had dinner (Indonesian Satay) at local pub at her recommendation. We also had a difficult visit to the local supermarket where we discovered after all our purchases were rung up that the store does not take VISA or MasterCard. Fortunately, we had the cash to cover the cost.

So that's it for Friday. I have written more words about a day where nothing really happened than any previous post. Sometime travel is like that. No photography today.

Anne Frank House, an Amsterdam walkabout and canal boat ride tomorrow.

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