Landing in the Netherlands

The Pre-Tour day, Netherlands
My long flight from San Francisco via London to Amsterdam was exhausting. I arrived at the Amsterdam airport the day before the tour was to start, and sleepily boarded a bus across the street which took me to the scenic historic center of Haarlem. The landmark I was looking for was a huge cathedral, and I soon spotted its spires and headed in that direction. The Dutch people I approached for directions were very friendly, and most people spoke some English. The street on which Hotel Joops was located was similar to several other street names, and after a few detours around a couple blocks, I found the hotel. I was surprised at how large my room was, and I had two large picture windows facing the church. There was a street fair going on when I arrived, so I went out to explore a bit. I felt like I was on a movie set, with vendors selling interesting foods, flowers, toys, comic books, every kind of ethnic restaurant, and such quaint stair-step rooflines and interesting architecture. After sampling some street vendor food, I went back to the hotel, exhausted, and decided to email home, shower and go to bed early. I went right to sleep. When I awoke, it was past 9:00, and bright outside. I assumed my alarm did not go off. I dressed, put my sunscreen on, and went outside, only to find that it was nighttime! The sun did not set until after 10 PM. Feeling like a complete fool, I walked around a bit, had a beer at the bar below the hotel, and went back to bed.

Tour Day One- Still laughing at myself for the previous night’s mishap, I woke at a reasonable 8:00 hour and went down to breakfast. Our tour guide Ferdie Menghi and assistant guide Drew Dickson, and five female tour members were there. Ferdie is Belgian, and speaks many languages fluently, and I’m sure has a sense of humor in all of those languages. Lynn, Angela and Kelly were also from California, Jenn was from Massachusetts and Darlene was from the state of Washington. We got to know each other a bit over an elaborate breakfast buffet. There were a couple types of eggs, bacon, ham, cheeses, different kinds of breads, yogurt, fruit, and more. I found out another tour member had the same experience that I had of getting up the night before thinking it was morning, so I didn’t feel so silly.

Five of us decided to take the train to Delft, about a half-hour ride from Haarlem, since our tour did not start until 5:00 PM. The smaller town of Delft is well known for its blue and white ceramics, which most of us ended up purchasing as our first souvenirs. I loved the cobbled streets, the storybook homes and shops, arch shaped bridges, canals with lily pads and swans looking for fish. We went from shop to shop watching ceramics being painted, checked out another street fair, peeked inside of churches, and of course did some people watching while sampling hearty Dutch beer on the square. We took a scenic horse and buggy ride around town. In every direction, it looked like a picture postcard.

We got to Haarlem in plenty of time to meet our fellow tour members. My roommate for the next two nights, Nancy, arrived a little later than most. We met as a group in the breakfast room, where we had a short get- acquainted meeting. We had a wide array of ages on our tour, from 15 to 70-something. There were only 3 married couples in our group. There were 3 mothers with their teens, and a couple sets of friends traveling together, but there were more people traveling alone than I imagined there would be.

We embarked on a walk around the historic center of Haarlem. We met a local guide who pointed out places of interest and who had some stories to tell. When it was dinnertime, people went in many directions. Several of us went to a Turkish restaurant. Drew, who is part Turkish, helped describe dishes for us to make informed choices. I had a marinated lamb dish that was excellent. The beer was so good that I had 2 or 3! I didn’t sleep as soundly as I would have liked, the part of jet-lag that we all experienced.

Day 2
Our group gathered after breakfast bright and early and walked to the train station, where we boarded a train for Amsterdam. Ferdie had us chose a “buddy” who we would check on at each juncture of the trip. We went on a walking tour, hopped on a bus and went to the Anne Frank house. It was both sobering and a remarkable reminder of the strength of the human spirit. Ferdie took us for a walk through a quaint Dutch community built for widows with lovely gardens. We had a group lunch in a restaurant at the top of a building with 360 degree views of Amsterdam. We headed to the Rijakes Museum, which was full of incredibly realistic classic Dutch oil paintings. Across the street was the Van Gogh museum, and being keenly interested in the Impressionists, I was trying to soak it all in, like a sun bather soaks in the rays of the sun. After that, we met back at the Rijakes and then the group took a wonderful scenic cruise in various canals around the city in a canal boat. We took another walking tour, most of us chosing to pass through the “Red Light district” and past various “koffee shops” (all legal in the Netherlands, of course) before returning to Haarlem.

We had a group dinner at an Indonesian restaurant, another new cuisine for me. Ferdi really knew how to chose restaurants. He ordered an array of foods for each table so that we had a variety to sample. As there were some vegetarians on the trip, everyone had plenty of dishes that they could eat. Again, the food was very good. Some of it was sort of like Chinese food, and some was similar to mild Indian food. It was a busy first day! I fell asleep with my clothes on when I got back to the hotel.

Day 3
We had to finish our buffet breakfast and meet with our luggage in front of the hotel by 8:15 AM. Our bus driver, Juan, a transplanted Spaniard who now lives in Belgium, met us a short distance from our hotel. We said goodbye to Haarlem, and headed in the direction of Germany. The brand new air-conditioned bus, was clean and comfortable, with a sound system, and adjustable seats. We had a cooler in the front containing water, sodas, beer and wine. There was enough room for most people to have two seats if they cared to.

Our first stop along the way was a gigantic flower distribution center containing acres of flowers, with little trains and conveyor belts of plants being moved from one place to another, and bidding rooms where buyers from all over the world order a billion dollars worth of flowers each year.

Our next stop afforded us a bit of exercise walking around a 200 acre open air “museum” in Arnheim, full of authentic thatched roof buildings, windmills, and old time shops which were moved to this site.

It was nice to walk around and get some fresh air out in the country. We had an interesting array of pancakes for lunch before heading back on the bus

The Netherlands had been the perfect place to start a trip abroad. It was a friendly country, flat and green, easy to get around, with plenty of people who spoke English.

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