Ferdinand Bolstraat 333, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

When I last checked in with you, I was coming to you live from the air!! In a plane! Over Canada/the Atlantic somewhere…

 

 

That plane ride was seriously the longest I’ve ever been in a seat, but we made it safe and sound and touched down in Amsterdam at 7:45am. That’s a 7 hour difference between Texas and there. It was 12:45am at home! Just about the time I would be going to bed.

 

I mentioned breakfast (that was pretty lame and tasted worse the “second” time I tasted it if you know what I mean) on the plane. We were not impressed, but I think they were just ready to get us off the plane and on our way.

 

We made it to baggage claim and gathered all our bags, hit the bathrooms (which had orange toilet paper! I thought that was pretty darn weird, so I took a picture of it. Later I was told it was because of the World Cup and Holland’s color is orange)

 

and after going through customs, we headed out to the “mall” area of the airport. These aren’t even a tiny portion of what is there. I snapped these two photos as we were walking out to the taxi’s. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I wanted to go shopping!

 

 

 

Out side of the Schiphol Airport is a whole network of transportation. Buses, taxi’s, and cars picking up and taking you anywhere you need to go.

 

Below Dad and I as we all met at our gate in Detroit. Fresh as a daisy! Ready to fly the friendly skies! The next picture is in the taxi in Amsterdam, a little worse for wear! Nine hours in a plane will do that to you!!

        

 

We found our taxi and all piled in! It was a weird van ride to the hotel. We must have taken the scenic route because we went through a lot of trees, and lots of canals. After we took a bunch of strange turns and I saw an ALDI grocery store near our Hotel, we arrived!

 

Dad and I shared a room on the 7th floor. It was a suite that had 2 twin beds and a sitting area with windows on each wall. The curtains and lights were controlled by a remote, so you didn’t have to get out of bed to turn off the lights. It was all very fancy-schmancy! I felt like a celebrity (because deep down inside you know I am- in my own fantasy world)!

 

 

Here is the view from our room. Gorgeous canal view with rooftops as far as the eye can see. It was really cool to look out at the people riding their bikes and boats along the canal. The whole time we were there the cottonwood trees were releasing their seeds and it was flying through the air like snowflakes! It was quite a strange site!

 

 

After we got settled in our rooms, we went downstairs to view and coordinate the set up for the Conference/Trade Show with Reverse Logistics Associations (who so graciously allowed my Dad and I to be a World Travelers with their company).

We walked down Ferdinand Bol Straat (straat is dutch for street) and took a look around the local neighborhood. Most of the shops were closed. They close at 6pm daily and all day Sunday. The sun rises at 5:15am and sets just after 10pm there, so needless to day, my body was sure turned around as far as when to wake up and especially when to eat!  This night we found a Sicilian Pizza place and had a great meal.

Here, Dad, Leslie, and I are posing in front of the canal by our Hotel. It was about 7 or 8pm at night. Crazy huh? It’s still light outside!!

 

Here is a horrible google map street view of the restaurant we found for dinner. I didn’t really know it’s name and I don’t think it does either. So we’ll call it Sicilia, the Pizza Place. They were sort of friendly and the food was really good. Cheap too. Only 34 Euro for dinner.

 

 

In Europe, if you want a Diet Coke, you have to ask for a Coca Cola LIGHT. If you say Diet Coke, they look at you strange. Everything in Amsterdam came in tiny wee glass bottles. I loved the little drinking glasses. They were so European! (I’m a dork, I know!)

 

 

Here are the three of us waiting patiently on our Italian dinner. I guess we couldn’t wait to get to Italy to have Italian food! I had a pasta dish with anchovies and capers in it (which didn’t taste anything like it had anchovies in it, but whatever, it was good), Leslie had tortellini with pesto cream sauce, and Dad had a prosciutto and anchovy pizza I think. I was so tired I forgot to take pictures! But I got pictures of my two favorite traveling companions!

 

 

We enjoyed our dinner, stuffed ourselves silly, and had a nice walk back to the Hotel. Fascinated by all the canals, I stopped to take one last picture before heading back to our room. It’s 9:30pm here and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was 4 in the afternoon! What a mind bend! Lovely view though, don’t you think?

 

 

All in all, we had a good but long day of travel. This was the start of a hard week of work and tension, but one experience I wouldn’t have traded for anything. I knew this was going to be a vacation of a lifetime!

 

 

Stay tuned for the upcoming installments of The Harms Family Globetrotters take on Europe!