After breakfast it was back to the house to finish packing, read a few comics, say goodbye to Pixel and wait for the Super Shuttle to whisk us off to the airport. I think David agrees that the driver was a bit surly -- not to mention the high-speed, almost-like-Mr.-Toad’s-Wild-Ride experience up and down Twin Peaks and through West Portal on our way to the airport.
The check in process was pretty darned easy - there were two queues to the our flight, and for some lemming-like reason, everyone seemed to gravitate towards the queue on the right. David and I had already checked in online and had our print-outs and passports ready, so we opted the line without 3 people in it. Naturally 1 of those three had some sort of issue that require three separate employees to figure out.
But eventually, and after a lot of heavy sighs from David B later, we checked our one large bag and headed for security, where it was off with the shoes, metal and any sort of attitude. I was a little nervous sending my beloved new Macintosh through the X-Ray machine, but all went well.
After David B washed off the mistake he made by putting his hand on the people mover railing (it was filthy), it was off to a Firewood restaurant we found in the airport for a nice Ketel One Greyhound (or two).
The plane is huge. Loading passengers went more smoothly than any flight I’ve been on; I’m now completely curious about flying business class instead of coach - seems nicer.
We’re now sailing through the air over the continental U.S., only a short way through our journey. Now it’s about wrestling with iPods, cables and my Mac -- oh my! But it’s sure nice to connect the iPod to the Mac and watch my movies on a 17 inch monitor - bliss. Meanwhile David B. is really enjoying his neck pillow.
Or he was. We never did get any sleep, it was too hard. The airline served lots of snacks, a meal, more snacks, etc., which was a nice touch. We also met a really nice woman on the plane who gave us lots of advice.
The Amsterdam airport and train stations were huge and amazing, full of noise and hustle and bustle in every language you can imaging. of course the public transit is really incredible and easy to use. And neat looking, too.
As I write this, I’m sitting in our hotel lounge waiting for our room to be made up. The walk here, even schlepping all of our luggage, was still really neat - it really is a beautiful city and there are SO MANY PEOPLE! So clearly keyword is neat. Neat, neat, neat.
Now it’s time for a trip to a coffee shop, then back to the hotel to check in. No sleep for us - go rally through until dark and hope that our bodies adjust.
Later that day...
And boy did we.
We walked all around the neighborhood that surround our hotel - three times I think! But we did eventually wear out enough to brave a short nap. I think it lasted about two hours. And then we rallied again and made our way towards the “Castro” of Amsterdam.
Finding our way wasn’t that easy, only because we took the longest route possible inadvertently. But we ended up finding it, and had the BEST time! We hit a couple of bars - one called April we hit twice.
We met these guys from Washington DC and LA who were hanging out with a third guy (a local). They were, of course, well on their way to being smashed. But they were hilarious.
We also met the nicest bar owner, Nils, who had just opened his bar called "Cafe 't Leeuwtje" or "the little lion" about five months ago. And he gave us an updated guide and was nice enough to notate his favorite few restaurants on it. Norbert, the local guy who was taking pictures of everyone, made us all drink shots of BOLS, which might explain why I don’t remember eating at McDonald’s last night on our way home.
After some much needed sleep and a cappucino later, we’re ready to start the day - which is the day before Queen’s Day, sort of like Pink Saturday before Gay Pride in San Francisco. What day is it? Time is weird right now, when you skip a day. Anyways, based on the crowds we've seen already, it’s gonna be big. And I'm sure, NEAT!
