Odysseus

Odysseus
Our Barge, Odysseus

Friday, June 15, 2007

The First Netherlands Post-Tuesday, May 29


After what seemed longer that the Jamestown settlers boat ride in the other direction, we arrived in Amsterdam at about 8 am Wednesday the 23rd. I don't know how people can justify bringing a hyper 1 1/2 year old on a trans-atlantic flight but everybody in the front of the US Air 767 paid the price. Ear plugs didn't even work. No sleep was had. That made our first day in beautiful Amsterdam something of a trial (stay awake, stay awake!) but after only a couple of days we have successfully defeated jet lag.

The weather mostly cooperated. The first three days were perfect: sunny and warm. We had some rain overnight Saturday but Sunday was pretty nice. Monday afternoon it began to rain but as we were in the Van Gogh Museum it wasn't really a bother. It was cold and blustery the day after that for a day trip to Haarlem but we haven't used half of the sweaters we packed.

The apartment we booked for the first week was great. It's a small studio on a very quiet side street but just one block from the bustling street market on Albert Cuypstraat. Everything can be had there from vegetables to luggage. One night for dinner we had roasted chicken from one of the stands, potatos and veggies from another and cheap wine from a third. Don't need any luggage.

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