AMSTERDAM!

Well we made it across the pond. Only 1250 miles to go...

We arrived yesterday afternoon after two relatvieltyt smooth flights (layover in Spain, ironic huh?) The most stressful part of the day was the debacle of a last minute perscription pick-up fgor me at a pharmacy. I was at the airport waiting with our ungodly amount of cargo for early check-in to begin and so Diego, and Diego's mom & dad had to do the dirty wok (ie. trying to pick up the Rx for me). Apparently I am Jorge's daughter in law, Adriana herself and also Adriana's niece. Luckily it was all cleared up in the end. WHile all this was going on, I was having a lovely chat with a Bosnian woman also waiting to check bags.

Our original plan had been to try and a take a train to the hotel, but that was more realistic in theory than in practice. While the boxed bikes were not incredibly heavey, they were very bulky and combined wtuih the two suticases containg all of our supplies, figuring out how to get on a train and any walking involled would have been next to impossible. In the end we took a cab. Despite the price, 75 euro for 14 km, it was a good decision. Our taxi driver spoke English, but didnt really seem to understand it. He kept suggesting we go to bars and clubs, most likely a saavy business strategy, trying to get tourists drunk so they call taxis..

Our hotel (bicyclehotelamsterdam.com) definitly serves out purposes. It has the steepest stairs I have ever climbed and the room is quite small, but it's clean and the staff is very friendly. This morning we had a very carb-heavy breakfast (cereal and toast) provided by the hotel, the highlight of which were the numerous spreads available (Nutella, honey, various jams, peanut butter and ice cream jimmies??) They have a bike storage shed that we used yesterday as a makeshift workshop to put together Diego's bike. It was quite the process, seeing as neither of us have ever put a bike together before (handle bars, saddle, pedals, and both wheels were all disassembaled for the boxing process).

Before tackling the bike assembly yesterday we had lunch at a cafe near the hotel. Given that it was our first expereince with a dutch menu (and there was no english translation) it worked out pretty well. The only hitch in our lunch was the fact that from somewhere above us somebody (hopefully a kid and not a hitman) kept shining a little red laser beam on outr table. WE could not figure out where it was coming from. Slightly disconcerting but at least we werent sniped..

After taking a nap (neither of us slept on the planes) and setting up the bike, it was almost 11 pm and we had a diffocult time trying to find a place for dinner. We ended up at a bar that let us order food as ong as we ordered the same dish. We washed down our cheese cannolinis with of course some belgian brews (Heiniken). On our walk back to the hotel we stumbled across another bar that upon first encounter seemed to have live music playing. It was live music of a sort: some very bad a cappella sung by a guy from Las Vegas. Think a cross between a very stoned Carrot Top and Richard Simmons gone yoga instructor. ONLY in Amsterdam...If that guy could get a gig here, Diego would have no problem. (We have of course my clarinet, his travcl guitar and both of our voices. We figure if funds run low, perhaps we shall do some busking later in the trip..)

I am on the public computer at the hotel and there are people waiting, so more later!