Garry and Joan; Travels for the less(or more) adventurous!: Waking up in Amsterdam

Waking up in Amsterdam

So this is our most recent trip and when I finish copying and pasting this batch of stories and photos, our travel life up to this point will be out there for anyone or everyone to see. I have had lots of help from Joani and I think that for both of us, this had been a great trip down memory lane. We intend to take as many more trips as time, money and health will allow, but from now on, no more emails! Just this blog. I hope anyone who has been receiving my emails will continue to follow our adventures and if anyone new comes along, welcome aboard. This last batch of emails and photos is from a trip we took to the Netherlands and Greece. Hope you enjoy it. We did.

Hello All

It is Saturday morning in Amsterdam and I am overloaded with thoughts. Far more than I imagine you want to hear. But since I’m writing and you’re reading….Too bad for you.

First and foremost, we had a wild overnight flight from Toronto. At least 2 straight hours of turbulence which the pilot informed us was everywhere. He couldn’t go up or down, or side to side to escape it and so we had to go through. Several of the passengers (including Joani) were very uncomfortable. Some, (including Joani) were also physically sick. Except for feeling bad for Joani, it didn’t really bother me. Sure there were some interesting swoops, dives and shakes going on, but once you’re up there I figure, “what the heck, enjoy the ride”. I tried to tell that to Joani a couple of times to no avail, and at one point in time when she seemed to feel her worst, I even tried to sing to her. Didn’t work to well!! She gave me a stern, “NO” and reeled to the bathroom to, as previously mentioned, get sick. I’m hoping that it was more a commentary on how she felt, than my singing voice!!

We finally got to Amsterdam at 10:30 Friday morning and it was a beautiful sunny, warm day. We picked up our luggage, easy peasy and I thought, wow this is much better, right until we got into the main part of the airport and tried to sign on to the airport WiFi. Nothing!!! Not on my laptop or Joani’s Tablet. This was a problem as we were supposed to email our host in Amsterdam before we left the Airport.

How we got a hold of our host is a story for another time but suffice it to say that we still haven’t solved the internet problem and until we do, this email will remain a word document that will not have photos attached or be sent to you all.

Shades of China all over again. I need to become an I.T. guy.

Garry

A long P.S.

It is now Saturday evening. We have been to two museums. One of course being Van Gogh's. Man was I keyed up for that. Joani was worried that it might not meet my expectations, but on the contrary it exceeded them. The museum is laid out in order according to his age, and I don't mind admitting I was feeling overwhelmed and very sad by the time we were coming to the last couple of exhibits. Joani said " I felt that before I knew about Van Gogh; now I feel I know Van Gogh." High praise from Joani, but I've always felt I knew, loved and just felt sad for him. To have such a genius be so tortured and die so young. We then visited the Rijksmuseum in the afternoon and saw some Rembrandts, Vermeers and other cool things and then headed downtown and went to Media Mart (their version of Best Buy) where one of their tech guys helped me to get my computer WiFI working, which is why you're receiving this long winded email.

I'll try to keep the next one shorter, but in my defense we've had an interesting 60 hours.
Anyway some Van Gogh photos,