Our Big Step – Continued

Flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi.  I played tetris, soduko, and solitaire (all the inflight entertainment system).  I had a soda and nuts, then ate meal,  then ate another meal, then ate another snack (I guess the Dutch really want to make sure their passengers not hungry when they get there).  It was only a 7.5 hour flight.

Arriving in Nairobi was an experience. It was sort of like our 1^st trip to Jamaica 11.5 years ago (but the airport wasn’t as nice or modern).  Welcome to a movie from the 1950’s.  Air-stairs, walk across the tarmac, enter the terminal building…..  you get the idea.  The most memorable thought I had at this airport was that it was HOT and STICKY.  When we were called to board the flight on Ethiopian Air, and again had to walk across the tarmac, it was BEAUTIFUL outside…..I wish someone inside had had the foresight to open a window.

Arrived at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ~ 12:00am. 6/7  We did have to go down and air-stair to the tarmac,  but they had a bus waiting to take us to the terminal,  The terminal building was nice enough, seemed much more modern, and was not unbearably hot.  Going thru immigration, then getting an on-site VISA, then going through passport control, then getting our baggage, and finally going through customs was much more convoluted than entering The Netherlands.  It reminded me more of visiting Jamaica or Aruba.  The Hilton hotel in Addis has a 24hour manned desk at the airport.  We did not have any trouble arranging transport for our one night at the Hilton.

This Hilton was nice enough,  but the rooms haven’t been updated in a LONG time.  The bed was comfortable,  the room and bathroom were clean, the staff friendly and helpful and there was water and soda in the mini-bar (expensive of course)  so we were happy enough.

We were up and out the door at 10:00.  We first went to a pancake house on one of the canals (don’t remember the name) and had bacon and cheese pancakes.  The pancakes are more like crepes.  Really yummy.  Afterwards we went to the Rijksmuseum.  It was smaller than we thought – when you look outside it looks like a sprawling 16^th Century castle.  Inside it’s just 2 floors with 4 or 5 small galleries on each floor.  The St. Louis Art Museum is bigger.  However, what it made up for in little space was an incredible collection including original Rembrandts that took up a whole wall and the colors so bright and bold they were lifelike.  Our favorite was De stallmeesters (The syndics of the drapers’ guild).

After the museum we went back to Albert Heijn to find Adam painkillers as he had a horrible headache.  Apparently you have to go to a pharmacy to get painkillers.  We also got some laundry detergent, and had to ask a fellow shopper if what we were getting was laundry detergent and not bleach as our grasp of Dutch is non-existent, LOL!

We next went to the Diamonte Museum and the Coster Diamond Factory and got to learn how diamonds are fashioned.  Later on we found an “apotheek” (pharmacy) where of course we spent a half hour marveling what we can get over the counter verses prescription compared to the States.

In our wonderings we somehow found a whole row of antique stores, and eventually made it to an Indonesian Restaurant.  We had never had Indonesian food.  Apparently it’s a bunch of small dishes that you dish into a bowl with rice.  When I say a bunch, we counted no less than 17.  It was yummy.  Some of it was incredibly spicy (I think my lips went numb for a while) and some was just flavorful.  We had beef chicken pork, tofu, veggies, peppers, etc.

Made it an early night and came back to the room by 7:00.  We did laundry, packed and drank wine and ate the last of the aged gouda.  Nighty Night.

Had our first funny smell experience at the pancake house.  Someone on both sides of us was having a morning smoke with breakfast.  We would have expected the afternoon before when the Leidseplein was packed solid, and not in the morning.  Who knew?  The funny thing about the boat ride was that it was the one and only time we ran into someone who didn’t speak English.  The boat captain.  Yep the tour was done via recording.  There was someone on the boat who was from Oregon who sat by us.  She didn’t complain about him, but she gave the impression that everyone should speak English.  I know English is the universal language, but it seems really selfish to make that assumption.  On the other hand, we must have blended enough with the locals because we did run into a few people who started speaking to us in Dutch and once they realized we don’t speak it, actually apologized and said they thought we were Dutch.

The Van Gogh museum was absolutely fascinating.  All most of us know off-hand is the work he did when he started going insane – that was marked with the bright colors and broad brushstrokes.  That was only the last couple years before he committed suicide.  The work he did before that period is vastly different.  He went through a still live phase, and other phases that was nowhere near impressionistic (is that a word?).  Other work featured where from many of his contemporaries, and those who studied under him.  After seeing the bigger picture of Van Gogh’s work, you can see his influence on other artists of that time period.  One that stuck out was “Skull of a skeleton with burning cigarette” painted between 1885-1886 before he really started going mad.  You could buy postcards of many of the paintings, including that one.  I could think of a few people I would want to send that postcard to. 

Regarding our dinner, we are the type who don’t really want to hit the touristy restaurants when we go anywhere different.  “Bar American” just didn’t appeal to us, and neither did Burger King or McDonalds (though I did peek through the windows and the menu wasn’t as different as I expected – just that mayonnaise is a bigger condiment than ketchup, but we already know that).  It’s just that even in the areas we went to that seemed less touristy had either an Indonesian or Argentine restaurant on every corner.  I can understand Argentine – Gaucho chefs are masters in steak preparation and the Dutch love their steak.  It was good, and the malbec (which was their house wine – funny) was very good (and freeeeeeee).

We feel nearly human again.

Off to explore Amsterdam.

~10:00 am we are at the Satellite Sports Bar and Pancake corner at the Leidseplein.

Interesting, had grilled sandwiches and “A” pancake with apples and cheese (Huge and yummy).

Walked about 2 blocks to the BlueBoat Company for a boat tour of the canals (about 75 minutes).  What a fun time and very informative.  Got to see all kinds of places.

We decided to visit the Anne Frank house. Please take note, it is NOT located on Anne Frankstraat (Anne Frank Street),  but is actually located across town on Prinzengracht Straat??  Huh?  Who da thought.

We walked past the Westerkierche (sp??) one of the oldest/largest protestant churches in the city.  Considered taking a tour of the bell tower, but apparently it has a limit to the number of tourists that can go through it, and it was full for the day.

Had lunch at corner pub, (HUGE meatball with peanut sauce cut in half on a bun – knife and fork necessary, even though they called it a sandwich).  Wow, Yum.

More adventures on the trams, Took the #12 across town (after a few missteps trying to locate the correct stop) back to the Museumplein stop.

Walked across the Museumplein “Museum square” to the Rijksmuseum, but we were approaching closing time,  so we decided to wait until tomorrow,  and instead walked back ~1 block to the Van Gogh Museum (open until 10:00pm)

Fascinating, Great, Wonderful, Exciting, New (well old stuff).  Most fun was the happy hour in the lobby, complete with a DJ spinning Euro Techno.

Back to Leidseplein for dinner (Gauchos Argentinian Steakhouse).  Food was good, a mix-up in the kitchen led to a long wait,  but the manager comp’ed our wine. (We weren’t too upset, and sitting down felt really good, so we weren’t throwing a fit anyway).

Back “home” to bed.

Well its ~10:00am, and we are REALLY in EUROPE.  We have arrived at Schipohl  International Airport in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Customs was the easiest thing ever.  Find the Passport Control Desk (Very Well Marked). Enter the line labeled “All Other Passport Holders”, not the one labeled “European Passport Holders”.  There was no one in line. We presented our passports, got stamped, and walked through the doorway into Amsterdam.

Found the storage area for baggage, put 3 of our 4 checked bags (The Kid’s bags and both of the Donation bags) into the storage locker, and paid with a CC.

Then we located the IAmsterdam booth and picked up our pre-ordered and pre-paid IAmsterdam cards. (These were great, what a bargain, each one included 2 cards, 1 was a 72 hour public transit card (good for GVB Busses, Trams and Underground), entrance to about 40 Museums and tours (including the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum), a Canal tour of Amsterdam with 1 of 2 different companies, and discounts at a variety of restaurants..

We took a taxi to the Nova Hotel to store baggage until check-in,  were informed that our apartment at the Nova Apartments (part of the hotel, but located off-site) was clean and ready for us to check into early. The very nice lady at the check-in desk gave us directions by tram from the hotel to the apartments, A short walk to the tram-stop, then a 15 minute ride on the #5 tram to the Museum Plein stop, a 2 block walk, turn right, continue ½ block to the apartments on Nicholas Maesstraat, and we were at our temporary home for the next three nights.

Love the apartment, it is not very large (2 rooms, a small bedroom with closet and a main room with sitting area, dining table, and kitchenette (complete with Fridge, Dishwasher,  Stove top, combo oven and microwave, and dishwasher), and then a modern private bathroom.

After getting settled, We hopped the #5 tram (with our GVB passes) back in the direction we had come for 3 stops (Vanbaerlestraat, Hobbemanstraat, then Leidseplein)  the last is an entertainment district,  we were hungry,  but as is typical,  could not decide what we wanted to eat.

We walked around for another couple of hours trying to decide on food, then finally wound up back where we started near the tram stop at a pub called “The Three Sisters”.  My sandwich, grilled Salami and Cheese (Gouda of course), never tasted so good.  We also tried a local appetizer “Bitterballen” (small croquetes filled with warm meat and a sauce or something that I have still not been able to identify, but was super yummy).

Then back toward the apartment (we are both very tired – time difference is + 7 hours from St. Louis DST).

We asked a passing local where we could find a supermarket (after a little confusion she finally figured out that we meant “Grocery”) and to our delight, it was right across the street from the Museumplein tram stop under a sloped green roof with grass on top, (part of the park “Museumplein”= “Museum Square” is a large open green space) and down the escalators.

We purchased soda, cheese, red wine, crackers, and juice for the morning.  All of the products, except for the soda Pepsi and 7-up were labeled in Dutch but we were able to muddle through.

Back to the hotel with intentions of wine, cheese (48 month aged Gouda) and crackers.

Instead, we both fell asleep before 7:00pm and slept straight through until 7:30am the next morning.

We finally got to bed about 4:00 this morning, Alarm clock is set for 8:00am.

At 8:30am, Felicia continued packing (and repacking to comply with baggage weight rules) while I completed some last minute shopping.

Tien came by at 11:00am to pick us up for the ride to the airport (Thanks Tien, Leann, and Tien’s parents).

Thanks to the wonders of the internet and early check-in through the website, baggage check was completed easily at curbside with no difficulties. (easy-peasy)

After a 40 minute delay, we were airborne for Detroit, MI.

Arrived in Detroit approximately 1 hour late, still plenty of time to catch our flight to Amsterdam, NL. (This flight was also running late, but since it was our current destination, NO PROBLEMS).

This was a really long flight, longest that either of us have ever been on.