Start of trip -- maybe boring

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Day 1; Aug 24
Trip from AVL to CVG went fine - comic flight attendant. I forgot to take my baggie of bath stuff out of carry-on with everything else I had to do for security. No cost for nonalcoholic drinks. Ate a pack of lunchables on plane. Arrived at about 6:05, into terminal after long taxiing. Wifi at CVG requires a subscription to Tmobile; looks like $30 a month with a year's sub required.

Day 2; Aug 25 - Dull arrival info. All is well, nothing exciting to report.

Did luck out on the overseas/overnight flight - had a 3-person row to myself; for once being a single traveller paid off! “Freebies” still on my int'l Delta flight: sleep mask, ear plugs and tiny headset; menu for dinner (choice of two entrees) chicken was tasty and enough and one drink was included (incl beer, etc.0, missed the mid-flight snack, bkfst hot croissant and small banana, juice and coffee. DGS (dear grandson) would have enjoyed the plane - there's a monitor in the back of each seat and you get to pick from several movies, TV shows, and games on your own machine. One of the games was “Insaniquarium” that he is currently playing at home.

Got into A'dam an hour early, in time to meet up with the 10:30 Globus shuttle to hotel. (Arrival about 3:45 a.m. home time, 9:30 here). All in all, could not have had a smoother trip getting here. Met at airport by the tour guide and the bus and driver we'll have for the tour. Too early to check in so dropped baggage, got a map, and headed out to look for some lunch with 3 other folks from tour. Took us a while to settle on a place - ended up in a yuppie shopping mall place called the Replay Cafe. Had smoked salmon panini (not grilled) and a smallish beer, about E10.00 (don't know how to make a Euro sign, so just going to use an E).

Came back to hotel and got checked in a little before 2 p.m. here. It's going to cost about $15.00 (E10) to get on Wifi here, and if that proves to be the case everywhere, I may not update my blog very often. Went back out on my own and went back to the Flower Market, next to the hotel, and continued on from there. Took lots of photos of the Market (it's a series of “plastic” sheds along the canal, with lots of tulip bulbs, gorgeous flowers, unusual plants, bonsai, tacky souvenirs, and Cannabis starting kits). (My room has a whiff of “wacky smoke” -- which is not as unpleasant as cig smoke). Took lots of area photos, canals, buildings, bikes, people - more bikes than people, and a lot of both.
Traffic (vehicular and pedestrian) is bizarro. Weather is quite pleasant, nice breeze blowing. Kind of did a figure eight along streets around hotel, last stop at an ATM at a major bank; hope I did the conversion rate right and didn't overdraw my account!nyway - they have to be beyond skin tight here, which

Since I'm going on very little sleep, I came back to the hotel to write this up and rest my feet a little. We have an early dinner here at the hotel so we can go to bed early. Marike, the tour guide, warned us several times not to nap this afternoon. My room is adequate, kind of like the room on my last cruise (this one is a little smaller); hotel is well-located. A'dam is pretty easy to walk around as long as you watch out for everyone else going every which direction at once.

I'm using a tiny/mini laptop called an Asus EeePC, which has a tiny screen (about 6-7 inches) and a compact keyboard - so please excuse my spelling and shortcuts (I may start doing more abbreviations, even tho travelblog recommends not doing that).

I feel like a sore thumb here walking around - my middle America tourist clothes look unusual here, but I knew there wasn't any point in my pretending to look European and trying to fit in (my hair and shape are all wrong to start with). I didn't bring jeans, because they're heavy and hard to dry, and mine are all baggy. I do need comfy clothes.

Sorry about no photos, having trouble figuring that out.

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