Day One

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Well, we made it! Flights were uneventful which was good although the flight was quicker/shorter by 1/2 hour which you might think was good but personally I would have preferred another 1/2 hour of sleep...Anyways, the logistics all worked out perfectly, with the car and directions, etc. There was TONS of orange around the airport and lots of crazy hats and wigs.
We did take a short nap in the middle of the day. And the rest of the day was spent almost entirely on our bikes! You always hear about it and read about it, but until you get here and see it, you just don't get it. Bike riding here is a way of life and a true mode of transportation. At home, we ride bikes for fun and to exercise. Here, you ride to the shops and park your bikes amongst 50-60 others! There are bikes lanes all over and separate signage too! All the bikes have baskets and/or paniers. They have these really cool locks which just lock the wheel but don't actually lock the bike to anything. Just prevents someone from riding away on it. Anyways, if I don't have Lance Armstrong legs in 3 weeks, I'll be disappointed...
We've already met some other nice families and although the english is very good with the adults, the kids just communicate in the universal language of kicking a soccer ball around and playing tag. The kids mostly just smile and laugh when we talk. Mind you, when we went out for an ice cream tonight, all we could manage was to grin and point at the flavour we wanted, "Ja ja."

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Photos

Decked out in Orange
Many houses and in some cases whole blocks have decorated their houses with orange flags and Dutch flags

Dutch houses
The neighbourhood here in Utrecht is nice.

Windmill!
Our fist windmill sighting. We came across it about 3 km from the airport. And there are canals everywhere too.

Team colours
Everyone else on the plane was wearing orange. All I could do was craft an orange hat out of my laptop bag

Comments

[Don]

Hat
Gotta love the hat.. ps don't forget... CHEESE!!!!

[Don]

Oranje
I have a project for you... (no the subject is not mispelled) If the Orange is related to a political movement from 1566 and King William, why did they chose red, white and blue for their flag?

[Rich Hammond]

GO ORANGE
Have a great trip and I hope that the result from today's match leaves the whole country in smiles!