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Published: September 26th 2013
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The View From My Rental
My Apartment with a View Today I begin the first day of a 5 week long journey that will take me from Amsterdam to Basel, through Paris & Provence, and ultimately reaching Barcelona and stopping at many, many points in between. I am either the luckiest person on the planet right now or the absolute most insane. I'll leave the result up to you, but I know which way I'm leaning.
Almost two years in the making, this journey is starting off like the whirlwind which seems to have become
the larger hurricane of my travel life. There is so much turmoil in our world today, I am very happy to do something that brings people happiness and fun. I am hugely excited at how it all keeps developing; most of all because I am meeting incredible people around this planet who like doing stuff with me and taking the trips I suggest.
For a long time now I've kept promising to actually blog... really blog. Well, here goes a last ditch attempt at a much more frequent and routine report of my happy wanderings around this world. I hope I can keep up with my own expectations, but mostly yours. Fingers crossed.
Today I left cloudy and cold
Hard at Work
I'm an Elf and I'm Singing. Oh wait. Wrong Cruise. Berlin bound for Amsterdam on the German Railways Inter-City train. For just under 90€ I had a first class ticket and somehow lucked out and had an entire cabin to myself for the complete journey. I had my little Bose travel speaker on my laughably large suitcase alternating between my Genius Divas mix of Leona, Kelly, Katie and Co. with classical guitar and my lap top and assorted equipment of apple's enslavement of my will power were plugged into every socket in the cabin. I alternated between working, napping, reading and catching my head lolling around on my neck. All in all it was a great trip; begun and ended well. This was the complete opposite of what my poor friend Amada suffered on the way from Frankfurt to Berlin at the hands of this erratic train service yesterday. (I'll link to a future story of her "4 DB Trains and a baby" nightmare with not one, but two technical problems on the same journey. Starring: Amada's 2 year old).
Anyway, this trip is my inaugural escorted river cruise on the Rhine and of course I am sailing the fantastic Ama Waterways, my partner here in Germany. We're travelling
Come Along
Why travel alone when you can go with a friend like Dave? from Amsterdam to Basel with a post cruise stay in Lucerne and Zurich. Some very fun people have signed up to accompany me on this journey under the banner of my new company, DNA Tours (Dave Natale Adventures) GmbH What's extremely exciting for me on this cruise is that I lived in multiple places along our itinerary and know many of our future destinations very, very well. When I first arrived in Germany I lived in Westerwald on the edge of the Rhineland, then in Frankfurt am Main, and later in Braunfels along the Lahn River (which empties into the Rhine behind Limburg). We'll be travelling some familiar terrain for me and I am excited to share my knowledge and stories with my guests. We may even run into some of my local friends! I certainly hope so.
So, Amsterdam, Day 1... here's to you. I have a sore throat, am exhausted from my recent move to Berlin and the end of my Friends of Dave tour season in Warnemünde, but there is nowhere I'd rather be right now. I am ensconced in
a super apartment located right on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal, one of the oldest parts of the city, and
Looking Left
Towards The Bulldog and Oude Kerk certainly one of the most colorful. If you like the place I'm staying, I can hook you up with the owner. Located right in the heart of the Red Light District near the Oude Kerk, directly on a beautiful canal, I have a few days on my own in the city before my guests arrive.
I am really looking forward to digging my teeth into the city and be sure, I will tell you how it tastes!
Until next time!
Dave,
Travel definitely is in my DNA.
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Terri
non-member comment
Great start
I guess Patrick & I won't see you in London next weekend ;-) Wishing you a wonderful time !