Day 1 - Departure/Arrival

The Departure

So tonight we arrived at the airport, courtesy of the ever-gracious Caitlin (THANKS CAITLIN!); whereupon we trundled to the British Airways Counter and waited 20 minutes for their shift to change and check our bags. Our bags are packed, with extra space and weight reserved for bobbles and things for the return. Itineraries were sent, and the fur children are being take care of, thanks to the awesome Kristina! Thanks Kristina!!

Our flight to London was delayed because of the atrocious weather in the DC area tonight, and it turns out that we would not make our connector flight to Amsterdam from Heathrow's INFAMOUS "Terminal 5." The British Airways staff was able to get us on a KLM flight after a long layover in London, to put us at Amsterdam Schiphol airport at 7pm local time. We are coordinating with our AirBnB for the first two days to get the arrival details set

We nestled at an airport bar and drank until we felt it was close to boarding time and hopped on the plane to London! We made it to Heathrow at about 11:30 am local time after a horrendous flight over in a Boeing 747 with a busted cabin air conditioning system. The cabin was hot the entire way (for me at least). I was able catch a few Z's but not too many.

We ambled into London, tired and in desperate need of coffee. We found it, and began the 5 hour wait for our connecting flight to Amsterdam. While waiting in the airport, (Terminal 4 - thank jeebus not Terminal 5), we checked out the View Heathrow Observation Deck and watched planes take off and land. That was a neat opportunity.

We hopped on our KLM flight and we were pleasantly surprised to learn that we had made an error in our concept of travel and time. It's like when you get that chance card in Monopoly for which "The bank has made an error in your favor."  We thought we would be on the plane for another 2-3 hours and were very pleasantly surprised to hear that we'd be back on the ground in under an hour!

The Arrival

We were glued to the windows as the Dutch landscape came into sight. Looking over the polders and buildings we marveled at the amazing splendor and natural beauty of the Netherlands, and we had not even gotten out of the plane yet! Jessi leaned over me and started taking pictures through the window, as we made our final approach into Amsterdam.

Very excited to finally be here, we skipped off the plane and made our way through passport control/customs. We watched in awe as EU citizens went through an automated passport control system, which includes a self scan of your passport, followed by a robot taking your picture to confirm your identity! Super cool! Why can't we have these things for US Citizens??! Can we not have nice things?!

After we made it out of customs, we got ourselves a Netherlands SIM card for my unlocked iphone bought our OV-Chipkaarts (basically like WMATA Smart Trip Cards) from the GBV folks at the Schiphol Airport train station. We hopped the intercity train to Amsterdam Central Station and grabbed a cab from there to our AirBnB for the night. Our AirBnB host seems nice. He is an older Dutch gentleman with decent English, but not the best. I was able to communicate with him a bit more fluidly in German, as I *bungled my way through the Dutch pronunciation of things. During the tour, our host mentioned the toilet being downstairs separate from the bathroom (this is typically European - they don't shit where they shower, folks). So later tonight I crept down the steps to "check it out."

Welp, in exploring this I met an old scary friend mine from my study/intern abroad in Germany days, the SHELF TOILET. Have you ever heard of the shelf toilet? It's a Germanic TORTURE DEVICE, used to confuse and disgust the rest of the world. Basically, you do your....ahem.... business onto a dry shelf in the toilet and then water washes it off the shelf and into the um....hole....which is located in the front. Think of a functional toilet design. Now think of the exact opposite of that. That's how these things are designed. Just so you know...there is always a toilet brush nearby/next to it. Use of this brush is um...encouraged/required.

The Dutch, like the Germans, are also a very methodical and time/order-oriented species. One common thread in Dutch homes are the calendars hung in bathrooms or other common spaces with room to write birthdays/annual events. These calendars typically do not have the year printed on them and the pages are religiously changed from month to month. Would not want to forget little niece Lindy's birthday. "Let's keep that on the calendar in the bathroom, which will hang there in perpetuity." I LOVE IT!

We settled in and ate something we bought in London to eat when we landed. Jessi teetered off to sleep, exhausted from the day's travel. Here I am at 11 pm updating our blog. Tomorrow, we are going to explore the city a bit and possibly trundle into the Rijksmuseum (Imperial Museum), which is host to the greatest collection of Dutch art history in the world. 

We are spending a few days here in Amsterdam, soaking in the art, culture, and food, before we head off into the wild blue yonder on the biking portion of our trip.

*German vs Dutch: Here's the thing about German vs Dutch. They are two completely separate languages, but they have the same Germanic Indo-European roots. English is heavily influenced by both. I can use this to my double advantage....BUT.... (a big but).....pronunciation is a whole different game, folks. I've tried to pronounce the names of at least 3 distinct places while here and have been met with stares. I know where they are and what the words mean....but my brain is wired to interpret in German. I need to step away from that.