We Are Ready To Board the Ship

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Geo: 51.9226, 4.47075

The most important thing in the morning is getting our free breakfast and after that, we roll our luggage across the street to the main train station for our journey to Rotterdam. Unfortunately, it will take three different trains to get us all the way to our final destination. Our first leg takes us from Hamburg to Osnabruck, about two hours. We find a good spot for our luggage and locate our assigned seats. Unfortunately, they're occupied. I ask the two young men to check their tickets but they graciously give up the seats. They had no seat assignments. Now we relax for the next two hours. In Osnabruck, we change trains for Amersfoort. This train is loaded with young party people headed for Amsterdam. We spend another two uneventful hours on this train. A group of guys including the ones that were sitting in our seats, are partying and drinking beer in the luggage area between cars. they're having fun but respectful of others. Mom sits across from a Muslim women who keeps looking around nervously and talking to herself. Karen is nervous now.

Arriving in Amersfoort, we board our last train which will take about an hour to get to Rotterdam, our final destination. The train stops in the town of Gouda for quite awhile, then continues on to Rotterdam. In the Rotterdam station, the streets outside seem unfamiliar to my previous Google search so I ask a station attendant for directions on how to get to our hotel whereby he informs us that we're not in Rotterdam, we're in Da Haag. Apparently, we were supposed to change trains in Gouda but the announcement was made in Dutch only and our ticket indicates no such change nor does my phone. He directs us to another train on the platform next to us and says, "Stay on this one for about 30 minutes and you'll be in Rotterdam". OK. Off for another ride. We have no ticket for this train but we're rebels. Actually, a lady conductor asks but lets us go.

Finally, in Rotterdam for real this time, we walk the two blocks to our hotel. It's a nice place to sleep but nothing much else there to do. The city center was heavily bombed during World War II and doesn't possess much in the way of historic architecture. It's past 6pm and we don't feel like going out anywhere. There's no restaurant in this place so we purchase some dried noodle dinners from the hotel, adding hot water and Karen makes us dinner right in our room. We watch a little TV and go to bed. Tomorrow we board the ship, waiting for us just a few miles away and there will be plenty of food aboard the Rotterdam.

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Comments

[Hans VanDerHeyden]

Hi Al and KAREN I SEE YOUR IN MY COUNTRY Angie has been in the hospital 4 times in the last month Bad month for me Enjoy the rest of your trip Hans