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Published: November 3rd 2006
We left the Clock Tower in Rockford in a downpour, taking the bus to O’Hare Airport. The trip took almost twice as long as expected due to the rain, but we still arrived in time to go through security and get on the plane to Philadelphia on the way to Amsterdam. When we left the ground in Philadelphia, tears came to my eyes - not really tears of sadness, but tears of realization of the big changes we are making. We flew US Airways for both legs of the trip; the overnight flight to Amsterdam included dinner, which was not good at all, and the plane was dirty. I found that I really couldn’t sleep on the plane well and ended up watching a movie, “Inside Job” with Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster. It was actually very good and a bit unpredictable. Bob and I also spent a good deal of time reading.
In Amsterdam, we arrived exhausted, collected our luggage, and arranged for shipping the two larger bags directly to Johannesburg since we can only take one 23-kilo (about 51 lbs) bag apiece on the plane to Jo’burg as check-in luggage. Then we took the train into the center
of the city from Schiphol, located an inexpensive hotel, and dragged our remaining luggage there. That’s where I discovered that the ground floor is not Floor 1 in most of the rest of the world, it is Floor 0. We carried our luggage up 4 flights of STEEP steps to our room, which was small and clean with a separate shared shower and toilet. The key was on a large brass knobby thing, and you have to give it to the desk clerk every time you leave and pick it up when you come back. We went to bed early with the window wide open to the traffic hum, and woke up the next day to a very nice breakfast.
We tried to take in as much of Amsterdam as we could, although at one point Bob went to the park while I took a nap. Otherwise, we took 2 canal rides, 1 in each direction; I really liked the houseboats with many flowers in pots. We toured the Jewish history museum and the Rijksmuseum, a flea market and outdoor photo exhibit, went to galleries, and ate outdoors at cafes whenever possible. It is such a beautiful city, and
I imagined myself living in one of those narrow old houses - old like 400 years old. There were many people riding bicycles, and the Dutch are generally very fit - the one exception being that almost everyone smokes, and we even had cigarette smoke drift all the way up to our hotel room window on the 4th floor at night. Bob and I decided that the Americans are likely to die of obesity and the Dutch of lung cancer. We walked all over and managed the tram and train very well.
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Jessica Gaines
non-member comment
Glad I found your blog!!! I'm really looking forward to learning all about your experiences. Thanks for keeping this journal. Wishing you both all the best!!