Keith’s Amusing Musings

Editor’s Note:
All posts dated between November 2004 and June 2005 were imported to Keith’s Amusing Musings on January 21, 2006 from my previous travel blog. I decided to delete that blog and move all its content here which some readers may find disruptive considering Keith’s Amusing Musings did not come online until October 2005. The good news there will be only one blog, Keith’s Amusing Musings, going forward. Enjoy these older stories.

Our first vacation experience on African soil was both memorable and enlightening. Mozambique is a country that is still in the early redevelopment stages in terms of infrastructure and economy but the country and its people have a timeless beauty that made the 5 days/4 nights we spent on Benguerra Island enjoyable and rewarding.

First a few facts & figures:

• Benguerra Island is inhabited by ~500 people with fishing being the primary way of life. As a carryover from colonial rule and similar to mainland Mozambique, the local people speak a dialect of Portuguese.
• Marlin Lodge was built by locals using native materials and opened in 1997. Each of the builders received a certificate of completion following their training which enabled them to ply their new trades in other developments.
• The lodge consists of 20 private, beachfront chalets built of wood with thatch roofs and gets its power from a generator that runs every hour of every day.
• The lodge employees a staff of 120 (20 management, 100 workers). The workers are predominantly from Vilanculos and Benguerra Island, the management from South Africa. Everyone is extremely friendly.
• Each day’s stay at the lodge includes all 3 meals served in the lodge’s dining area during fixed periods: Breakfast from 7-10AM, lunch from 1-3PM and dinner at 7:30PM. Each server is assigned to a group/chalet for all their meals. Our server was Filimon who is from Vilanculos and was meticulous and thorough whether serving scrambled eggs or lobster.
• The currency of Mozambique is the meticais (MEH-ta-cahs) currently with M23,000 equal to $6.30. The severely lopsided exchange rate is due to the extreme inflation in the country during the 1980s as part of the 15-year civil war which began in 1977 decimating the country and its economy. U.S. dollars and South African rand are the preferred currencies of Mozambique and the locals try convert their meticais to either of these whenever presented the opportunity (e.g., change is always given in meticais even when one pays in dollars).
• There are a few creature comforts at the lodge including clean water from the tap, air conditioning in each chalet and a fully-stocked bar near the dining area. However, as to be expected from island life in a relatively poor country (from 1988 to 1990 the World Bank listed Mozambique as the world’s poorest country), there are even more sacrifices one must be prepared to make to adjust to daily life here including no TVs, no telephones, no snacks, no stores, very little ice and minimal refrigeration. However, the absence of most these niceties afforded us ample much-needed opportunities to rest and relax.

Our initial 48 hours at Marlin Lodge were dedicated to catching up on sleep and relaxation, in general, until we got our bearings. The temperature was in the upper 80s during the day with very high humidity in the morning and evening whenever the sun wasn’t high in the sky.

On day three we took a tour of the island offered by Marlin Lodge. Our tour was guided by Pedro who is from Vilanculos and was very amicable and knowledgeable. With fishing being the primary industry on the island, the land is pretty barren dotted by the occasional hut. The islanders make extensive use of the native fruit and nut trees to round out their diets and gather drinking water from wells. We drove by a couple scenic lakes which are apparently inhabited by crocodiles and a huge sand dune (which we climbed) on the north side of the island.

Day 4 was our most eventful day. We snorkled in Two-Mile Reef out in the Indian ocean (there was no land in sight!) We also had an authentic “bush bath” where the Marlin Lodge staff setup an elaborate miniature outdoor bathing oasis on the deck of our chalet using native foliage and buckets. It was a very pleasant experience once we got over the potential for embarassment sitting naked in a bubble bath in a bucket about 20 yards from a public beach shielded by tall leaves tied together to form walls. Day 4 was also laundry day so we gathered all our garments, itemized them on the provided laundry list and calculated the load of laundry was going to cost us $32 and didn’t include any dry cleaning! Apparently, getting your clothes cleaned on this island is a luxury. Since we only brought enough clothes for 4 days (see the earlier entry about our packing woes) there was little we could do.

We departed Marlin Lodge just before 11AM on Thursday, December 9. Our flight departed Vilanculos for Nelspruit, South Africa at 1:15PM. We were on our way to the Leopard Hills Lodge in the South Africa Sabi Sand Game Reserve aboard a twin-engine prop plane with just the two of us and the pilot.

Keith

Editor’s Note:
All posts dated between November 2004 and June 2005 were imported to Keith’s Amusing Musings on January 21, 2006 from my previous travel blog. I decided to delete that blog and move all its content here which some readers may find disruptive considering Keith’s Amusing Musings did not come online until October 2005. The good news there will be only one blog, Keith’s Amusing Musings, going forward. Enjoy these older stories.

After a pretty restful night of sleep on the flight, we arrived in Jo’burg Sunday morning around 10 am. Upon exiting the plane, we had to go through customs. Again, it was uneventful. After exiting customs we looked for our guide, Gordon. It was good to know that someone was there to help us get to our next flight, because the airport was a bit chaotic. We quickly found the sign with our names and did introductions. Gordon helped us navigate the airport to the ticket counters to get checked in for our Pelican Air flight to Vilanculos. Gordon went over all our travel documents with us, and gave us a few pieces of advice for traveling and enjoying our trip.

After checking us in and getting our luggage on its way (I was a little nervous since this was the first time we were parting from our belongings), he directed us to security and customs to catch our 6th, and final, flight to our destination. Gordon informed us that the terminal doesn’t make boarding calls. So, we needed to be at the gate at the scheduled boarding time or we’d miss our shuttle bus to the plane. (We were on a 36-passenger prop plane.) Because of this we decided to hang out at the gate rather than wander around the airport for an hour. It was really interesting to see all the different races and ethnic/religious garb in the airport. The funny thing about the small airline we were flying on is the two people who checked us in and handled bags at the ticketing counter, were the same people who collected our boarding passes, and drove the bus out to the plane. Our flight started boarding late, but we were still on track for an on-time departure. However just as the plane was loaded and doors closed the flight attendant made an announcement that we were still waiting on the bags to make it to the plane. Almost an hour later, a pickup truck showed up with the luggage.

The two hour flight to Vilanculos was choppy. The prop plane worked overtime through the windy weather. We landed on a small landing strip in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. The only thing really visible was a small building. We entered into the “airport” and had to go through the customs process. The customs agent was a small man who appeared to be frazzled because two flights came in at the same time. (Our flight was obviously late, and they weren’t equipped to handle that many people.) We learned that Mozambique requires visitors to buy a visa and pay an entrance fee to visit the country. $55 later we were on our way. After the Marlin Lodge representative gathered up all the guests, we hopped on the van on our way to the boat. We quickly noticed women and children walking on the dirt roads carrying water jugs and other items on their heads. The driver pointed out a few landmarks on the way…the hospital, the banks, a football field and two cell phone towers. :-) This small town had not one, but two towers!!!

After about 10 minutes, we arrived at what appeared to be a local beach, and the driver turned off the van. There were a lot of people looking at us. And I must admit I was a little confused. The driver informed us to take off our shoes and roll up our pants because we were going in the water. He pointed to the boat floating just past the shore, and we realized that was the boat to take us to Marlin Lodge. We essentially pulled up to a public beach with no fancy pier, so we had to walk through the water to get on the boat. As we all started taking off our shoes, men started carrying our bags onto the boat. I watched as one of the men carrying the bags walked through the water and realized the water was deeper than I expected. Given how short I am the water was going to be up to my waist. Keith carried me on his back which the locals seemed to find amusing.

The boat was fast and bumpy because of the waves. Benguerra Island is about 8 miles off the shore of Vilanculos. The boat ride took about 20-30 minutes. I was proud of Keith because he usually gets seasick on boats, but he held up pretty well. When we pulled up to the island, we had to jump out and walk through the water again - luckily it wasn’t as deep. As we made it ashore we were greeted by one staff member passing out cool, damp towels, and two others welcoming us to the island. We were directed into an open-air lounge and served passion fruit juice while our hostess, Nicolene, gave the group a run down of the lodge and daily schedule. At that point, we did the official check-in process and were escorted to our room by Eva who gave us a tour of our chalet. We had a t-shirt and sarong on our bed with a congratulations postcard welcoming us to Marlin Lodge.

After almost 48 hours of traveling including 6 flights and 1 boat ride, we were in Africa!!!

TB

Editor’s Note:
All posts dated between November 2004 and June 2005 were imported to Keith’s Amusing Musings on January 21, 2006 from my previous travel blog. I decided to delete that blog and move all its content here which some readers may find disruptive considering Keith’s Amusing Musings did not come online until October 2005. The good news there will be only one blog, Keith’s Amusing Musings, going forward. Enjoy these older stories.

The subtitle of this entry is Pajamas and Macadamia Nuts in reference to this previous entry.

TB says I’m being too verbose so I will take steps toward brevity in this and future entries.

We arrived in Frankfurt from Paris at around 3PM, Saturday, Dec 4th, after an hour flight. Frankfurt & Paris are 9 hours ahead of Seattle. One thing we noticed about the Paris and Frankfurt airports was the relative ease in getting through customs and security. While they obviously had similar equipment & procuedures as other airports the process reminded us of the pre-9/11 U.S. procedures. For example, we didn’t have to remove our shoes and we didn’t have to remove our laptop from its bag. Also, the customs agents looked at our passports, looked at us, stamped the passports and pushed us along in about 30 seconds. Contrast that with our 2-hour trek through U.S. customs on our return trip from Amsterdam and the virtual strip-search in practice in most major U.S. airports today.

Our “second day of travel” started with a six-hour layover in Frankfurt in the Lufthansa First Class lounge. This lounge was fully-equipped like an upscale bar, restaurant & hotel all rolled into one. The picture to the left captures its modern décor. Shortly after our arrival to the lounge, we took showers in their fully-appointed private bathrooms which each had a separate shower and bath, robes, slippers and toiletries. After the refreshing shower we surfed the Internet using the lounge’s compliementary wi-fi service while snacking on smoked salmon, shrimp, fresh fruit and fresh olives. This was some of the freshest tasting food I have ever experienced especially the decadent desserts smothered in Belgian chocolate.

We boarded our Lufthansa flight to Jo’burg at around 9:30PM and headed to our first class seats on the upper-level of the Boeing 747 aircraft. We were very pleased that this flight had the same sleeper seats as the Lufthansa flight out of Detroit that was cancelled. None of our bags fit in the relatively small overhead storage and there was no underseat storage. The fear of being separated from our bags for the entire 10-hour flight was quickly allayed when one of the first class flight attendants said, “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of storing your bags. Just have a seat and make yourself comfortable.” This was a vastly different reaction than what we’ve received in economy class seating. We were handed our pajamas and our bags were whisked away to a storage closet near the galley.

To avoid jinxing this flight like the last Lufthansa flight, I decided to change into the pajama top while the remaining passengers boarded and the plane was prepared for departure. Immediately following, we were in our seats chomping on macadamia nuts and choosing our selections from the dinner menu. One “wow“ from this part of the trip was the 5 flight attendants dedicated to the 16 people traveling in first class. They were in constant motion: While one tended to beverage needs, another took meal requests, another helped get passengers physically settled with pillows, power converters, etc.

The plane departed on schedule and as we took to the air we looked at each other and smiled. Southern Africa had been beckoning for months and we were finally on our way.

Keith

Editor’s Note:
All posts dated between November 2004 and June 2005 were imported to Keith’s Amusing Musings on January 21, 2006 from my previous travel blog. I decided to delete that blog and move all its content here which some readers may find disruptive considering Keith’s Amusing Musings did not come online until October 2005. The good news there will be only one blog, Keith’s Amusing Musings, going forward. Enjoy these older stories.

Only two flights into our itinerary (Seattle to Chicago, Chicago to Detroit) we hit what seemed to be a disastrous snag. It was one of those snags that made us immediately regret our decision to opt out of traveler’s insurance.

Our “day of travel” started at 4AM, Friday, Dec 3rd, after just 3 hours of sleep as we were up late Thursday night making final preparations for our trip. The major cause for the late night was packing everything we’d need for 3+ weeks of travel well enough to carry on all our bags. What made this so challenging is the weight restrictions for the flights between Mozambique & South Africa - we had to stay under 33 pounds per person.

Things we learned from this packing experience:

• Books & magazines weigh too much.
• Toiletries are deceptively heavy.
• Don’t forget to factor in the weight of the luggage everything is being put in.
• Big feet means heavy shoes.

Our flight departed Seattle at 6:20AM to Chicago on United where we had about an hour layover before connecting to Detroit (also on United). We got to Detroit with no problem and decided to hang out in the Lufthansa Senator Lounge for the hour prior to our flight departure. The time to board the plane came so we made our way to the gate where the Airbus A330 was waiting.

We boarded quickly as we were two of the lucky eight travelers flying first class. The is the first time we have flown first class internationally so we were practically childlike oohing and aahing over all the cool gadgets and perks being heaped upon us. The sleeper seats which fold out completely into beds was the first “wow“ as we got settled. With the memory of the price my knees paid on our coach flights to/from Amsterdam still fresh in my memory I was ecstatic by the amount of space we were afforded. By far, the biggest “wow“ was the pajamas (all the way down to the socks) they provided first class passengers. Three of the eight (all guys) actually changed into these pajamas while the rest of the plane was still boarding. This was too much for TB and me. We remained in our street clothes which, as it turned out, was wise.

We all sat there consuming massive amounts of macadamia nuts, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and just generally being pampered. About 30 minutes after the flight was supposed to originally depart, the captain announced there was a problem with one of the engines found during the startup procedure - something around the engine not accelerating correctly. The problem was being investigated and the engine repaired but our departure would be delayed. That didn’t bother us as we were receiving first class treatment and had a 14-hour layover in Frankfurt. There really was no need to rush in our minds so we didn’t think much about it.

Just over two hours past the original departure time, the captain began an announcement in his grave, apologetic voice which could only mean one thing: The engine could not be repaired and our flight to Frankfurt was cancelled. At this point, we remained calm but the reality of the potential impact this could have on the remainder of our trip, coupled with the quantity of macadamia nuts I’d ingested, started to make me ill. The first class flight attendants addressed the eight of us saying how sorry they all were and that Lufthansa would do everything they can to re-route us to our final destinations. They said the ground crew was already at work contacting other airlines and hotels and that the first class passengers would get expedited service. Those three guys had to quickly change out of their pajamas and then the eight of us were escorted back to the main Lufthansa registration desk where they had a crew of agents at the ready.

We explained that we had a long layover in Frankfurt before making our connection to Johannesburg so as long as they could get us on a flight to Frankfurt that evening we would be okay. The head agent said there were no other flights to Frankfurt on any airline that evening - it felt as if someone had punched me in the gut and I could see TB was about to go on the offensive. I informed the agent that Frankfurt is not our final destination, we had to get to Jo’burg on our original schedule since we had guides & transfers scheduled on a strict itinerary and, lastly, we had all our luggage with us. She told us there was a flight on Northwest to Paris leaving in an hour they could put us on but we would need to wait until we arrived in Paris to figure out how to get to Jo’burg.

After watching all the seasons of The Amazing Race, we weren’t too concerned about our abilities to execute such a detour but the thing we did find concerning is we wouldn’t be given anything (paperwork, vouchers, etc.) except their word that someone in Paris would do what they can to get us to Jo’burg. The Northwest flight was really our only option so we didn’t have much leverage. They took us down to the Northwest ticket counter to get our boarding passes and reassured us that they had done all they could do. Skeptical but hopeful - since we had no alternatives and were out of time - we rushed to get on the Northwest flight to Paris.

In that short period of time in first class on the Lufthansa flight that was cancelled we had quickly become air travel snobs. The Northwest flight had two classes of service (coach and business) and their business class was not the same as first class on the Lufthansa flight. First, there were 30 people in business class. Second, the seats didn’t fold completely horizontally. Lastly, there were no pajamas or macadamia nuts. :crying: But, we were on a plane to Europe that night which meant our honeymoon itinerary could still be salvaged.

We had a fabulous sea bass dinner and ice cream dessert and watched The Manchurian Candidate. We then slept most of the way to Paris.

Total travel time from Seattle to Frankfurt: 24 hours

French phrase of the day: Je ne parle pas Français which means I don’t speak French.
German phrase of the day: Ich nicht spreche Deutsch which means I don’t speak German.

This blog entry was written from the Lufthansa First Class lounge in the Frankfurt airport. They have complimentary one-hour Internet access. Stay tuned for what’s sure to be even more harrowing adventures…

Keith

Editor’s Note:
All posts dated between November 2004 and June 2005 were imported to Keith’s Amusing Musings on January 21, 2006 from my previous travel blog. I decided to delete that blog and move all its content here which some readers may find disruptive considering Keith’s Amusing Musings did not come online until October 2005. The good news there will be only one blog, Keith’s Amusing Musings, going forward. Enjoy these older stories.

Unfortunately, our bodies had not adjusted to the 9-hour time difference so the day started early at 3AM.

Since I was unable to force myself to sleep, I decided to use the wee morning hours to take a few pictures of old Amsterdam around our hotel. TB was having no part of it and opted to lounge in the bed. After getting dressed and gathering the photo equipment I was off.

The early morning air was brisk but not too cold. Since it had stopped raining just a few hours earlier everything was still damp. Traipsing around a foreign place alone during the late night/early morning I was somewhat concerned for my safety. The otherwise tolerant Amsterdam community was still reeling from the murder of Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, and the anti-Muslim backlash in its wake. However, as an aspiring photographer, I was determined to begin capturing parts of our trip that would otherwise go unseen. Also, since I was armed with my tripod I figured I could mount a solid melee attack if provoked.

For my first shot, I decided to photograph the Hotel Pulitzer’s façade. The first thing I noticed was the number of people out and about. Pairs of women on bicycles, groups of guys on foot, the occasional taxi, I was never alone which surprised me given it was an early Saturday morning. I guess New York is getting some competition for its billing as “The City that Never Sleeps.” I setup the tripod low to the ground (the center of the lens was about 18” from the pavement) to capture the brickwork leading into the hotel in the foreground with the hotel’s main entrance in the background. This required that I sit on the damp ground to take some meter readings and compose the final shot.

The shot to the right actually consists of two separate images blended together using Adobe Photoshop. The first photo was taken after metering the highlights & midtones. The second photo was taken to bring out the shadow detail. This is the digital equivalent of taking multiple exposures on the same negative in film photography.

The second item on my photo to-do list was to capture one of Amsterdam’s famous canals with some combination of a bridge or landmark in the background.

As luck would have it, Hotel Pulitzer is a block away from Westermarkt (“western tower”) located on the corner of Prinsengracht & Raadhuisstraat. You may recognize Prinsengracht as the street on which the Anne Frank house is located (one block north of Westermarkt). I took the shot to the left which shows Westermarkt and the Prinsengracht (“prince canal”) just outside Hotel Pulitzer. I took the photo to the right shortly thereafter to better showcase the architecture and grandeur of Westermarkt.

I had to do the “double exposure“ trick for the photos above as well. Doing so allowed me to capture details in the tower and its surroundings. Such is the expense for taking pictures before sunrise with minimal natural light and insufficient artificial illumination.

The last photo I took on this outing is to the left. It’s simply one of many secondary thoroughfares running radially toward the city center intersecting Prinsengracht. It gives a feel for the density of the homes and shops typical throughout Amsterdam. It also highlights the quantity and quality of masonry found throughout this historic harbor city.My hands were starting to get cold so I headed back to the hotel to kill some time processing the photos and beginning the day’s blog entry. It was now about 5:20AM.
 

By the time TB was ready to start our day of touring I had already been awake for 7 1/2 hours. We decided to head down to the Pulitzer restaurant for a “full American” buffet-style breakfast. Apparently, “full American” adds eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes and other cooked foods to the pastries, cereal, juice/coffee/tea of the continental breakfast. Since we were in Amsterdam we decided to do as Americans do (uhh, wait a minute). Thankfully, they also provided smoked salmon and fresh-squeezed orange juice which made the €25,00 per person (~$33.00…for breakfast!) price tag infinitesimally less shocking. We Americans have been hearing the market reports stating how the U.S. dollar is lagging other major foreign currencies (particularly the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen). Well, nothing drives this home quicker than a European vacation. Look at it this way: Things cost roughly the same in Amsterdam as they do in the U.S. For example, the hotels here also attempt petty larceny charging €4,00 for the bottled water in the minibar. The kicker is $100.00 in U.S. currency currently converts to about €77,00 (before commissions) so that bottle of water costs us poor Americans about 30% more in Amsterdam. Expanding ones geographical & cultural horizons through foreign travel isn’t cheap but it’s worth every cent.

€ is the symbol for the euro which is the new currency adopted by the majority of European countries (with the notable exceptions of Great Britain, Denmark and Sweden) which began circulating in 2002. I should also mention Europeans use the comma the way we do the period and the period the way we do the comma when numbers are involved. I guess this is inline with driving on different sides of the road and using different units of measurement. On the last issue, I actually wish the U.S. would convert to metric (we all know “two liter” and “400 meter relay” so we’re practically there, right?) but I digress.

Immediately following breakfast we headed to our first destination, Centraal Station, to depart on a canal tour. We made a quick stop at the AVH supermarket near the hotel to buy a strippenkarten which is basically a multi-trip tram ticket that can be used multiple times on the same trip by different people. The price for the “strip card” was €8,50 and would get us both to Centraal Station and back following our canal tour in addition to getting us back to Centraal Station on Sunday to catch a train to the airport. We had already confirmed with the concierge that we needed to catch the #13 or #17 tram to reach Centraal Station and we only had to wait a short time before the #13 arrived. The Amsterdam public transportation system, like other European cities, is top notch. The electric trams are modern with displays showing the next stop, news and weather information. The entire process of boarding and unboarding the tram was highly efficient save for the ticket clerk who sits in a small booth onboard the tram and validates tram cards, stamps strippenkarten, and even sells tram tickets for passengers who come aboard unprepared. Having a single person responsible for all these activities at each stop tended to create a logjam whenever large groups boarded the train.

We arrived at Centraal Station without much fanfare in under 10 minutes. From there, we had a short walk to the Holland International ticket booth to purchase our canal tour tickets for €8,50 per person. We then queued (European for “stood in line”) with about 40 other people to wait for the next vessel. Our tour was scheduled to depart at 11:45AM so we had about a 20-minute wait.

Once we got situated on the tour boat and things got underway the one-hour tour was pretty uneventful. We toured each canal enveloping the city center and also cruised along the Amstel river for a bit. We learned about the different types of gables present in Amsterdam architecture (both homes and warehouses) and how every home (new and old) has a hoisting hook at the top to provide a method for getting furniture and supplies to the different levels. Apparently the stairways within the homes and warehouses are built narrow and steep to save space which makes it impossible to carry large items up them. The last interesting thing we learned is Amsterdam was originally a marshland so all the buildings sit atop wooden and concrete piles that go 30-40 meters down through the peet to firm sand. In fact, Amsterdam got its name because a dam was built on the Amstel river to protect the early inhabitants from flooding. The settlement became known as “Amstel Dam.“ I’m not sure how the L became an R but that’s how Amsterdam got its name, so we’re told.

At the end of the tour we decided to take a walk around the area and just started wandering aimlessly. Our walk took us past restaurtants and shops including a sex museum which we didn’t bother to explore. In some bizarre way we ended up doing a big circle back to Centraal Station. It was around 2PM. Since we planned to visit the Anne Frank house at 5PM we decided to go back to the hotel to rest beforehand. We proudly boarded the #13 tram with strippenkaarten in hand. We noticed there seemed to be a lot more people traveling by tram at that time and things got crowded pretty quickly. We waited patiently for our stop (Prinstengarcht/Westermarkt) to be announced as the tram whisked us away. Several minutes passed and TB asked me if I thought we had been on the tram that long on our way to Centraal Station. It did seem we had been on the tram longer than before but I wasn’t sure and, always the patient one, said things were probably going slower due to the increased traffic and tram occupancy.

After several more minutes we still didn’t recognize any of the areas, landmarks or stops so I asked TB to look at her map. By the time we realized we’d missed our stop the tram had gone beyond the area covered by the map! As it turned out, our stop was about 4 stops from Centraal Station. We were 10+ stops beyond that. We casually strolled off the tram at the next stop to avoid looking like lost tourists as we proceeded to catch the next tram back. We both kicked ourselves for making such a rookie mistake since we pride ourselves on having detailed information and flawlessly navigating directions during our travels. Of course, one positive is we briefly saw other parts of the city that we had not planned to visit. We boarded the inbound tram and were disheartened to learn, since we overshot our stop by so much, we actually went outside the zone limit usually covered by 2 of the 15 available stamp slots on the strippenkaarten. The inbound trip would require 3 slots per person which meant we would only have 5 slots remaining to get us to Centraal Station when we departed Sunday on our way back to the airport. We didn’t know if 5 would be sufficient for the both of us.

Back at the hotel, TB took a nap and I worked on the blog entry and picture processing until the time came for us to head to the Anne Frank house. The Anne Frank tour is a must-do for anyone visiting Amsterdam the first time. The lines have a tendency to get long as the tour is a self-scheduled, self-paced stroll throughout the house in which Anne, her family and 4 others hid to avoid the Nazis. The tour cost €7,50 per person and, indicative of its popularity, its program was available in 8 languages. It took us about an hour to complete the tour. The most memorable parts for me were seeing the small quarters the 8 people were restricted to for 2 years and being able to read (actually “look at” since I don’t know German) a couple of Anne’s actual composition books which comprise her diary.

We returned to the hotel at around 5:45PM and just hung out in the room watching The National Geographic channel. We ordered room service at around 9PM and watched more TV. TB went to bed around 11PM and I stayed up until almost midnight working on the pictures, editing the blog and tinkering with the camera.

Dutch vocabulary word of the day: huis (HOOSE) which means house.

Keith