Feb 9, 2020 - Sun Feb 9, 2020 - Arusha and towards home

Try was we might to sleep in, the early night, the noise level outside and in the hotel (including call to prayer at 5am, a church service at 6am and the din of our hotel kitchen), prevents us from doing so. We are both up, packed and ready by 9am. Our flight isn’t until 9pm so we have decided to go to Kitamu Coffee for breakfast. Not only is the coffee excellent, but also their breakfasts. We stay for a couple of hours enjoying the excellent wi-fi and catch up on correspondence. John & Freddy pick us up around 2:30pm and we drive to the...

Sep 29, 2019 - Nijmegen, Netherlands

Nijmegen is pronounced just like it is spelled if there was no'j'. It is the oldest city in the Netherlands, over 2000 years in existence. In 1940, the Netherlands was invaded by Germany with Nijmegen being the first Dutch city to fall into German hands. On 22 Feb 1944, it was heavily bombed by American planes, causing great damage to the city center. It was ruled an accidental bombing caused by poor communications and chaos in the airspace. The Germans tried to use the accident to turn the Dutch people against the Allies but it didn't...

Sep 28, 2019 - Willemstad, The Netherlands

Okay, here's the story: The country is The Netherlands. The people of this country are called Dutch. Holland is a province of the country. There is a North Holland and a South Holland. Both are very large and are on the North Sea. So when their sailors went out and about the world, they would say they were from Holland. So that's where the confusion comes about the difference in Netherlands, Dutch and Holland. We got it from "the horses' mouth", actual natives from this country. Willemstad is a very small village; just 2329 people. It is...

Sep 28, 2019 - A Tale of Four Cities (Dutch)

We’ve now come full circle back to where we started in the Netherlands. Our base city, Leiden is a city of canals and we are in a very old Dutch row house complete with an impossibly steep and narrow spiral staircase and sleeping in the rafters. On the plus side we have an amazing view of the canal from our living room window ( and the rain, a spin off from Hurricane Humberto which is putting a dampener all over Europe at the present time) and we are right in the centre of things, on the very spot where the Leiden market sets up twice a...

Sep 8, 2019 - September 7 - Saturday. Maastricht, Netherlands

September 7, Saturday It rained in the night, but the morning was simply overcast. We were hoping for dry weather because today we were going to Maastricht in the Netherlands to pick up our friend Frances from the train station. Frances was our neighbour when Marilynn, my cousin Darlene and I did a house exchange to Buitenpost in the Netherlands. She and her husband Piet were very good to us, taking us places and recommending things to do. We were glad that she was willing to take the five hour train ride in order to have a reunion. Our...

Sep 4, 2019 - Kinderdijk

In the wee hours, we passed through a couple of locks and were docked in Kinderdijk when we got up. After breakfast in the dining room, we met with our group for the walking tour; a local man named Kees ("case") was our guide. He was quite informative and injected both some Dutch and some humor. We toured a windmill after learning about water management and the windmills' role in that, including the old-school mechanics and materials. A miller must be licensed and live in the mill with his family. (There are only three female millers in...

Sep 3, 2019 - Joining the Cruise

After another good night (we recommend the hotel), I had breakfast. We packed, sent our bags ahead as instructed, checked out, and relaxed in the lobby until the bus to the dock was ready. As we boarded, we were offered lemon-scented towels to freshen up. Lunch was being served in the Aquavit Lounge while our staterooms were cleaned.

Sep 2, 2019 - A Day in Amsterdam

We had great sleep and woke to the TV alarm we had set. We enjoyed the included hotel breakfast buffet. We purchased our 24-hour tram pass and were dropped near the Westerkirk, around the corner from Anne Frank's hiding place. (Tickets are only available online and I purchased ours two months prior.) The tour was very informative, even for someone who has read a lot prior; an audio tour was included. It was not as heart-wrenching as I expected. Notable were the narrow, steep stairs and the postcards and celeb photos Anne glued onto the...

Sep 1, 2019 - Arrival in Amsterdam

We arrived at Hotel Movenpick, Amsterdam about 11:00 a.m., via Viking Hotel shuttle. Our room had been upgraded to top floor, with a great view of river IJ. It bustles with water taxis, ferries, and canal tour boats, as well as touring longships. We had lunch at 4,33 which is just around the corner from our hotel. (Sampler of mushroom soup, Dudok croquette, egg salad....Serrano ham w/tomato tapenade) I was not feeling well, and took a nap. We weren't able to do any sightseeing that day. Jet lag was pretty bad. We had dinner at Silk in the...

Aug 22, 2019 - Amsterdam - Day 2

We're trying to figure out downloading pix from our cameras. In the meantime we used our tablet this evening. Today we took a tour of the palace and strolled around until lunchtime. After that we meandered through the streets and visited a few stores. We went back to our room for a snooze. We decided on Thai for dinner. The pictures posted are pre/post dinner.

Aug 21, 2019 - Amsterdam, day 1

We left Chicago on Tuesday afternoon about 40 minutes late but arrived in Amsterdam 30 minutes early. We arrived on Wednesday morning. A big jump in time that we`ll gladly get back when we fly home. I had pre-arranged a taxi pickup at the Amsterdam airport. A good decision. The driver met us at baggage claim and helped us with our luggage. Our hotel is in the heart of the city. Our room wasn't quite ready so we checked our bags and walked to a local restaurant that was suggested by the concierge. We had a lite but tasty lunch. After an...

Jun 21, 2019 - Addendum

Last night as we wandered the city of Harlingen, we were approached by a curious young lady who led us to Le Tjollen, a seafood restaurant. She kept up a monologue switching from English to Dutch to other languages always assuring us we would like the food....especially the fish stew. We had seen the restaurant the previous evening filled to overflowing with a lineup. So Gord tried the fish stew...mostly salt cod but good and I tried the Norwegian lobster...5 very small crayfish...I doubt they had ever heard of Norway...but okay. From here...