May 7 - 12, 2015 THE NETHERLANDS aka Nederlands (Holland) - Amsterdam & Haarlem (Three Pre-Tour Days and Tour Days 1 - 3) Post 1 of 5

May 7 - 12, 2015  The Netherlands aka Nederlands (Holland)

Amsterdam & Haarlem 

(Three Pre-Tour Days and Tour Days 1 - 3) 

Post 1 of 5

Thursday, May 7th, 2015 - Travel

Did not sleep as well as I had hoped.   Woke up at 3am and did not go back to sleep.  Had breakfast and then Marco and I headed for the airport.  I stayed with Marco & Cristina last night as it would have been a bit challenging to get to the airport on time coming from my apartment, and Marco goes this direction every morning to work, so this made it very nice for me to get to the airport by spending the night with them.

When I printed my boarding pass there was an announcement that said Alitalia was starting a strike on May 7th.  My luck, however, the planes were still flying.  Sure enough when I arrived at the airport, the lines were very backed up and tempers were hot.  At one point, I thought for sure there would be no way I would catch my flight as there was only one luggage check in.  When the man ahead of me had difficulty, the lady left her post and took him somewhere and was gone for about 10 minutes.  That did not make for contented people still standing in line.  Anyway, after luggage check in, security went fairly quickly, however, by then it was already departure time, but the plane was still loading, so no problem. Now, also we waited for the other connecting flights, so we ended up leaving Bari about an hour late.  This would now make me late for my connecting flight out of Milano, but as it turned out, that flight was waiting for our flight to arrive.  The flight from Milano to Amsterdam was very empty.  All in all, everything went without any real difficulty.

 Flying over The Alps

Coming down over Amsterdam

Amsterdam Airport!  Amazing thing happened as I arrived in Amsterdam.  I felt this immediate lifting.  Didn’t even know I had been feeling that way while I was in Italy, however, as it lifted from me, I realized how much I had been missing, 'American type' things and English, and even the people looked and acted like ‘me’.  It was such a wonderful feeling! What a great feeling to be in more familiar surroundings!  As soon as I stepped off the airplane and entered this 'world', I felt amazing.... felt like USA surroundings!

On this flight from Milano to Amsterdam, I met a very nice young couple with two small girls.  They were the nicest couple and so very helpful.  They offered to help me get from Amsterdam airport to the train (inside the airport), then to Haarlem and make a train change (walked a bit), then get on the right bus from the Haarlem train station to my Hotel.  Things I have been doing since I arrived in Italy a year ago, however, this was a great help, since I wasn't familiar with it here in Amsterdam and could have eventually got it all figured out, but what a help to just have someone do the thinking for you!  I really enjoyed meeting this lovely young couple. 

They have a five year old who looked and had the same mannerisms that my 4 year old granddaughter.  She was adorable!  Also, the 9 year old was super sweet and wanted to be helpful.  These nice folks told me to call them if there was anything at all they could help me with during my stay in Haarlem.  Wonderful people.  A very sweet note I received from Sarah, "Hello Carmen, glad to have met you! I hope you found your way OK to your hotel after the long journey from Bari! We have unpacked now and caught up on some missed sleep from the holiday :) Big day for us Brits with the election results today...not the result I would have liked but hey ho, life is good here! Hope you enjoyed your trip to Belgium if you made it there? We are off furniture shopping tomorrow, then celebrating Mother's Day on Sunday (Tilly is doing a stunt workshop in Amsterdam, she's looking forward to it!). The girls said you reminded her of their Granny, they don't see her very often. It was lovely to meet you and hear about your interesting travels have fun! Sarah

Haarlem Train Station.  These pictures I took the next morning as I caught the train to go to Belgium.

I was so tired by the time I arrived at my hotel about 3pm, and all I wanted to do was take a nap, since I had had so little sleep the night before, so that is exactly what I did.

I booked this hotel in Haarlem for three nights, prior to joining the tour group on the 10th, as I wanted to do some personal things in Amsterdam and go to Belgium before joining up with the group.  It was a very beautiful hotel with great amenities.  (The rest of my hotels were included in the price of the Group Tour with the exception of this one and the two additional days I stayed in Paris after the tour ended.)

Van der Valk Hotel, Haarlem, The Netherlands (Holland)

This was the last great hotel I had for the remainder of my tour travels, although, they weren't terrible, just small and cramped and no frills... anyway more about that later

Around 9pm I got up called room service for a small bite to eat, then went to bed. Van der Valk Hotel is a great hotel.  Glad I stayed here before joining up with the tour group on the afternoon of the 10th.

 Next morning, scouted out this very beautiful hotel.

Friday, May 8th, 2015 - Belgium

I got up early as I wanted to go to Antwerp, Belgium and I had a fabulous breakfast at the wonderful buffet.  Haven't had bacon for a very long time... it tasted wonderful!

After breakfast, I caught the train over to Antwerp, Belgium.  The tour group I am joining doesn’t arrive until the 10th, but I came to the Netherlands early as I wanted to do a few things while I was there, and going to Belgium was one of them.  

A few views of the countryside in Amsterdam and Belgium. 

I had to change trains here and when I sat down, across from me were these young ladies.  They were so unique, I asked if I could take their picture and they said sure and gave me these beautiful smiles. 

Also on this train, this man sat across from me and was a daily commuter.  We struck up a conversation and interestingly, we talked about the 'middle east' and he says 'his' people do not agree with what the radicals are doing.  He says it is not really about religion, but seems to be some sort of mind control.... I found this very interesting.  Very nice young man.  Anyway, he gave me his business card and email address and wanted to stay in touch.

Antwerpen !!!  What a train station.  It is a double-decker!!  Trains come in the bottom AND if you look at the upper level in the picture below, you will see a train up there also.  A very WOW train station. 

As soon as you ride the escalators to the top, you see this 'art'.  It is Post It notes!!!!  There were two of these giant pieces.  They were also handing out Post It note samples. 

I had a handelsmerk!!! (trademark for Starbucks)

Outside of the Antwerp Station 

bikes, bikes and more bikes.  More about this later.

Diamonds and Chocolates !  There were two streets and up and down both sides every shop was Diamond merchants.  On every corner a Diamond merchant and dozens of others I saw during the day.

Lunch ! 

 Black Licorice.  I really like black licorice, but have never seen so many varieties before!

Inside the Antwerp Station

 Trains above and trains below.  Can you imagine the strength this building must have to withstand the thunder and rumble of a train up this high and other trains coming in below and people walking everywhere.  Amazing !

While I was in the train station in Antwerp, there was a man and his wife there waiting for the same train as me.  The man was over 7 feet tall.  I asked if I could take their picture, but she said, 'let me take it with you in it' .  That was nice.  Now I can show my friends in Italy that I am not the tallest person!, that I am not really that tall!!!  hee hee

What a great day I had in Antwerp.  However, Belgium is not a ‘neat and tidy’ as Holland, but still a beautiful country. 

After my day in Antwerpen, caught the late train back to Haarlem.  All I wanted to do was head to my room for a good rest, as I had plans for the next day as well.  I stopped at the front desk to inquire about where I could get a fruit drink and take to my room.  She suggested the bar, as the restaurant was closed.  It was right there next to the hotel desk, so I stepped in there and sitting there was a lady from America.  Anyway, she was in a discussion with the waiter about ‘this was not what she had ordered’ and after much discussion between them, I said, “here, let me have it, I’ll eat it”.  Anyway, she looked at me and laughed and said, “You have to be an American”.  Long story short, she wanted to visit after that and asked me to join her, so I did for about half hour.  She is from Texas and is a freelance journalist.  She had been here already for 3 weeks and was so happy to have someone to visit with.  Anyway, she wanted me to stay up later, however, I really needed to get to bed.

Saturday, May 9th, 2015 - Keukenhof Gardens in Amsterdam

Next morning I was meeting up with Ursula Martin, originally from New Zealand, however, she did live in the US for a while, but now labors with Annagret in Holland.  Annagret’s mother passed away, so she was in S. Africa, and I didn’t get to meet her.  Also a young student from Belgium, Ruben Mondè, who lives in Antwerp, but comes to Amsterdam on the weekends to visit, etc.

We made arrangements to go to the Keukenhof Gardens.  As many of you saw the pictures I posted on facebook, these Gardens are absolutely spectacular.  This was one of the primary things I have ever wanted to do in Holland, when I had opportunity to come here.  Now I got to do it.  It was great.  Also, they had live music, and other things in the gardens.  These gardens are 79 acres and they plant seven million bulbs a year. It is only open about 8 weeks a year.  It is open March 24 to May 16 next year (2016) if anyone wants to plan a trip there :)

We were there for several hours and could actually have spent at least 2 days there just to see it all.  Beautiful beyond compare!  I just couldn't stop taking pictures!!!

  

A terrible thing (well terrible for me) happened today... my camera battery died and would no longer take a charge, or at least that is what I thought it was.  Here it was only day two of my 27 day journey and I needed my camera for sure!  Thank goodness I had taken most of the pictures I wanted at the Keukenhof Gardens before it died.  I now only have my phone camera, which doesn't take near as good of pictures, however, I was really glad to have it.  I will be looking for a camera shop real soon! Sadly, I have another camera at home, but didn't want to carry extra things, so you guessed it, it is at home and I am here!
  

I returned to the hotel around 6pm, then Delissa Parish (the American lady) wanted to have dinner with me, so we met at the restaurant around 8 and had a very nice dinner and visited until about 10.  I was very tired as it had been a long day.

She had asked if she could go to church with me on Sunday, since it was Mother's day, and that was the plan as we left each other that evening, however, next morning, she overslept and wasn’t ready when Erik came to pick me up.

Sunday morning, May 10th, 2015 - Church and meeting up with friends

What a beautiful drive through the countryside this morning with Erik.  I am really loving the Netherlands.  It is definitely somewhere I could see myself moving to some day...

Erik Iedema; what a nice young man and also was my translator for church.  

We went to the home of Edwin de Jonge, and it was very very lovely as was their family.

I got to meet Danny’s grandmother… what a special treat.

Also, loved being with all these wonderful people… I felt so ‘at home’!   Mrs. de Jonge served cake & coffee.  The real brewed coffee!!!! and then everyone was so nice to let me take a group picture.  I sent the pictures off to Danny as soon as I could, since he knew all these folks and was very happy to ‘see’ them again.  Also, a picture of his grandmother… he loved that.

In front is Johannes & Marieke Stevens and their baby Esmee.

Klaas (left of Erik) and Sue (very left red jacket) Van t Veer 

with their daughter Lydia and boyfriend Ben and Lydia's sister Noa.

Ronald and Teunith de Jonge and their daughter Marlies. 

Marlie's cousins are Lydia and Noa, also Elise (red hair) and Elise's sister Lisette (blond hair). 

Leon (blond hair) is Lisette's boyfriend. 

Sitting at the very right is Krijntje de Jonge (Edwins wife) Edwin in picture above where I am standing in this one 

(Krijntje, Klaas and Teunith are brother/sisters)

Jouke en Els Ynema are the elderly couple in the middle. 

Johannes and Marieke Stevens and their baby Esmee in front. 

Right from Jouke is Anke Wamsteker if I'm right. 

Left from where Els is sitting is Hildegard Dieperink.

Now, it is time for me to get back into Haarlem and at 2pm I need to meet up with my tour group for the first time.  Loved having some time in the Netherlands to do a few things that I wanted to do before heading out on the tour.  I had checked out of the Van der Valk Hotel I had been staying in, since on the tour, all hotels are prepaid and arrangements already made.  This is a real advantage of a group tour... no thinking, just along for the ride and enjoyment. 

My next hotel. Ambassador City Centre with the group.

Erik brought me back to Haarlem and dropped me here at the ‘new hotel'.  I had time for a quick bite to eat before meeting up with the group tour. 

Let the Tour begin:

Sunday, May 10th, 2015 afternoon - Tour starts at 2pm 
  

Tour Day 1:  Haarlem (Light walking day)

After we got acquainted and had all our instructions of how the tour would proceed and all had introduced ourselves and told a little about why we were on this tour, we then chose a buddy. A very nice group.  26 of us all together.  They were 11 married couples of 25 years and more (for one couple it was 38 years!).  Then there was a mother and her 35ish year old daughter, and myself and one young man, Duncan, from New Zealand.  His partner was not able to make the trip, so Duncan came by himself.  (He did not reveal this to me for several days, even though I suspected as much). Since we were the only two 'solo travelers', he immediately asked me to be his 'buddy'.   (I'll explain more about how the buddy system worked later).

Martin was our Group Tour guide and coordinator who would be traveling with us the whole time and Peter would be our bus driver, however, we wouldn't meet him until tomorrow morning.  Both were very qualified and had done this tour and various other tours for this company multiple times. Sure makes things run smoothly when there is lots of experience involved.

Now begins the thousands of pictures (7495 to be exact) which will tell the story of our tour, beginning here in Haarlem and our Group.

The group gathered outside our hotel ready to start our first tour.  Our guide here is the one holding the pink bag.

Our first tour was a walk around Haarlem and to the De Adriaan Windmill.  In addition to Martin, we had Local tour guides our entire trip, so we got the 'real flavor' of each city/area.  They were very informational and knowledgeable and everyone of them was exceptional in my opinion, in their presentation.  Some more 'flavorful' than others, but that was just personality.  Great guides, all of them.

 Greg & Margaret from Los Angeles, CA in foreground (married more than 30 years).  After this 21 day tour we are currently on, they are going on to Turkey for 5 days, then London for 5 days.  They are on a very long journey!

 Our Group

 Haarlem was a beautiful city!

 A place to order handmade violins.

De Adriaan Windmill

Pictures taken from atop the windmill

John and Kathy from San Antonio, TX (married 38 years) and our guide giving us a very descriptive tour.  She was actually from Russia, and had a very 'thick' accent, but was very humorous.

Love the windmills !  Our guide gave us a lot of history of how they are made, the different types, their purpose, and how they were used during WWII (everywhere we went the War was a big part of everything we saw and how it affected the people.  These Dutch people were just disposable to Hitler along with the Jews).

A little history of the Netherlands… as told by our local guides. Holland is very tolerant (liberal) and accepts everyone as they are. Therefore, you have Red Light districts, that are legalized and government controlled and they have houses for them. (At least you don’t see any of these people standing on the street corners plying their trade). Here in Haarlem (picture below), this is right next to the church on the left. Most of the windows are hidden from the street view. Just six windows are visible from the street.

I am sure there are tourists that pass through or visit the church without even noticing the red lights. Thankfully, as far as I could tell there were no one visible. Also no visible drug dealers.... why?...

because, they have government controlled ‘coffee’ shops, which are not coffee shops at all, but Marijuana shops.  People go in there and smoke marijuana openly.  They cannot smoke a regular cigarette inside a building, however, they can only smoke marijuana inside a building.  They can sell it inside, but not outside.  Our guide stopped us in front of one of the shops and a man asked us if we would like to try it, that the first one was free.!!  One man in our group actually did… I don’t think it was his first time…. Just my thinking on it :)

And the shops that support this business....

That evening, we all had dinner together at an Indonesian Restaurant. Our tour guide throughout Haarlem this afternoon was also a waitress at this restaurant.  All breakfasts, and group dinners and lunches are paid by the tour.  Very nice!  For our few free days and evenings to tour on our own, (whatever we wanted to see outside of our prearranged group tours), we had a few lunches and dinners on our own, which we paid for, but if it was a group meal, it was paid for by the tour.

Our first group meal.

Now it is about 9pm and I have had a very long day, starting early this morning to get packed up and leave one hotel, catch a ride with Erik to church, and then get back to this new location by 2pm to meet up with and start on this tour. Time to get some rest as breakfast is at 7am and the group meets up again at 8am for our train ride to Amsterdam.

Monday, May 11th, 2015 - Amsterdam

Tour Day 2: Amsterdam Museums (Strenuous walking day)

A fairly long walk to the Haarlem train station, then our ride into Amsterdam.  The train was standing room only, as this is the main transportation for people going into work in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam Train Station

Inside the city and out, is all bicycle traffic.  Some cars, but only ever saw parked ones, except on some of the main roads.  Everything else, was trains, buses, a few motorbikes, trams and bicycles.   Caught the tram for a ways, then the rest of the day was all walking.  Lots of walking.  More about walking later.  Now lets talk bikes.

Roads here are designed for the 18 million Bicycles here.  There are 21,800 miles (35,000 kilometers) of bicycles paths here.  The roads have no center line. The outside lanes are for bicycles and the cars share the center lane, keeping to the right white line.

Bikes at the train station

Bikes in Haarlem in front of our Hotel

Bikes in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Police estimate that between 50,000 and 80,000 bicycles are stolen each year, or sometimes 'borrowed' as our Haarlem tour guide pointed out.  When you forget to lock your bike or accidentally leave the key in the lock, and your bike is stolen, then you look for another one that isn't locked and you 'borrow' it.  Sometimes you even bring it back :)

She also stated that they all ride bicycles not for their health, but because they are cheap transportation and parking is such a problem for automobiles, that it is faster to get where you are going on a bike.  They also buy inexpensive bikes, because anything of value will sure be stolen.  If you have a nice bike, you only use it for special occasions and hopefully don't have to 'park' it anywhere.

Okay, lets tour Amsterdam.  

This is the church at the corner of the street where the Anne Frank Museum is.

Our first tour of today was the Anne Frank House. The name of Anne Frank is forever linked with Amsterdam. The Frank's had fled Germany to go to Amsterdam, where it was 'safe', however, it soon became 'unsafe' and they had to go into hiding. We all read her Diary when we were in school. Now to get to go and see this place was really touching and heart wrenching. Nothing like seeing things for oneself to really get the gravity of what happened in this country in WWII. Very moving to see where this actually took place and hear about all this history. 

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the Anne Frank house, so I have posted these two from the tour book we were given.

The museum displayed many such letters and documents written by others, which any one of them could have become a book, so really The Diary of Anne Frank speaks for all these poor people who faced such suffering and pain.

It was a shop, and from the outside it looked like a shop, but on the inside they had placed a bookcase to hide the narrow, tiny stairs up to the Attic/Annex.  We got to climb those very stairs and walk through those tiny rooms.  There was a bathroom up there, but during the day, they could not use it or walk around (creaking floors) or make any noise.  They had to keep the windows blacked out.  That would be very very difficult, especially when she could hear the other young children in the streets.  No sunlight, no fresh air, couldn't move around or talk aloud... would have felt like a prison.  

Here Anne, her sister and parents hid with another Jewish man named Fritz, and Mr. & Mrs. Van Pels and son, in this secret annex in the rear of the building for three years, before they were betrayed to the Nazi. Anne and her sister both died in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in March 1945 but her father survived his ordeal in Auschwitz and returned to Amsterdam. The Diary of Anne Frank was discovered and published by her father in 1947.  Anne's father, Otto Frank, was the only survivor.  All the others died in the concentration camps. Also given the same treatment was anyone helping to hide them.

They told us that in recent years, a relative of those who betrayed the Frank's has come forward and identified them. For many years no one knew who had betrayed them. This made me curious, so when I had a chance, I looked it up and if anyone else would like to read it here is the web site.  Very interesting.  http://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/jul/29/artsandhumanities.highereducation

From here we had a walk around the city.  Wow, love these old houses on the waterways.

Learned about the six main different Gable types.  
1 - point - the most basic gable is shaped like the triangular roof behind it. 

2 - cornice - makes a pointed roof appear horizontal.
3 - step - triangular and lined with steps like the one in the picture above.
4 - bell - looks like a bell like the one in the pictures below
5 - spout - a rectangle at the peak
6 - neck - a broad straight segment setting atop rounded contours described as shoulders.

I have several pictures here, see if you can find the other types.

 The buildings are tall with multiple stories and narrow because taxes were based on frontage. Notice the one with the four windows stacked straight up. Also the next two pictures; the white one and red one, between two brown ones, hiding behind the tree. Sorry I tried... I miss my camera :(  This phone just doesn't work as good for me, of course I'm not sure how my old camera would have helped the tree get out of the way :)
 Was unable to find a camera shop open today, also keeping with the group makes it more difficult to find one. 

The white one is much more visible.   

Also notice that most of the buildings have a facade which is actually leaning forward and a big hook attached at the top. Why? Because all the products and / or furniture you want to move in or out of the house has to be lifted through the windows, the staircases are far too narrow and too steep to allow any maneuvers (even with a suitcase!). The hook at the top is for the rope on which things are lifted and the leaning front helps you move things up.

Many of these buildings are actually leaning to the side. That is because the ground underneath is reclaimed land from the sea and lakes. It is a coastal lowland, and most of it is below sea level. Even that which is above sea level is only about 3 feet above. What a great old city though. So much history here. When I find time, I want to read more about Amsterdam. This city fascinates me, even though, it is very liberal and I'm definitely not!

Now time for lunch at La Place.  Awesome place to eat… never seen such a beautiful display of soups, salads, sandwiches, desserts.  Lunch on our own today... meaning we paid for ourself, not a group lunch.

Still missing having my camera. Just think how many more pictures I could have taken  today. :)  I have been using my phone camera and even though it takes fairly decent pictures, I much prefer my camera.  Much easier to keep ready to shoot pictures and also a wrist strap to keep from dropping it.  Was very concerned about dropping my phone/camera all day, then I would have been totally out of luck taking pictures. Then you wouldn’t get to see all these wonderful things :)

After lunch, we headed to the Rijksmuseum. This museum possesses the largest and most important collection of classical Dutch art. The guide said it has nearly one million pieces of art. The artist most associated with Amsterdam is Vermeer and Rembrandt, whose work, and the work of his pupils, is displayed here. Rembrandt's masterpiece De Nachtwacht (The Night Watch) is one of top pieces of art of the museum.

The composition of this drawing is amazing.

The Night Watch

The pool outside the museum where some (Ben) took their shoes off and stuck their feet in :)

The Van Gogh Museum is also located nearby, and Martin was very kind and offered me the use of his Museum pass, however, they would not accept it.  I walked over there and they said I wasn't "Martin".... how did they know??... they didn't check my ID :) hee hee .  I think Ken and Karmen went there also, however, they had purchased tickets before they came.

After this, we took a canal cruise.  It was a glass enclosed one, so unable to get many good pictures from the boat.  Also it was completely full and didn't allow for any moving around to possibly get a picture or two, so contented myself with leaning over the person at the window and getting these few, but was extremely afraid of getting bumped and dropping my phone in the water.

Canal boat ride

Now we are off the boat and walking back to Amsterdam Centraal (Train Stn) to catch our train back to our hotel in Haarlem. This is when the 'buddy system comes into play. Everyone has to check to see if their buddy is there, every time we catch a bus or train etc. This way no one gets left behind. Buddies cannot be husband's and wives. They each had to be someone else's buddy. The reason for this is a good one.... if they wander off together like husbands and wives usually do, there would be no one checking on them. But if each one has someone else as their buddy, that means two people will be checking to make sure they are there.  You only had to make eye contact to make sure your buddy was there, but important.

L to R: Michael, Eva, Margaret, Kathy, Vannie, Ginette, John, Wayne, Tina... still missing a few :)

After we arrived in Haarlem, everyone was on their own for dinner this evening.  I had a wonderful vegetarian pizza and drink for only $8 Euro’s.  There was a local couple and another man sitting across from me and they were having a lot of good laughs. The old man had such an infectious laugh, I couldn't help but smile, even though, I didn't understand a word they were saying.  After I finished dinner, I was so exhausted by this time, as it was about 9pm, I went directly to my room and to sleep.


Tuesday, May 11th, 2015 - First bus ride and Arnhem Open-Air Museum headed for Germany

Tour Day 3:  Now we take to the road in our Bus!  (6 hours on the bus and Light walking day)

As I mentioned on day 1 "Martin was our Tour guide and coordinator who would be traveling with us the whole time and Peter would be our bus driver"

Martin the Tour Guide / Coordinator, divorced, lives in Wales.  

 The bus

Peter the Driver, divorced, lives in Belgium (I think?)

I added the marital status of both of these men, because this type of work does not lend itself to strong marriages.  Would be so hard on a marriage for your mate to be on the road all the time with only a day or two at home between tours.

Tuesday morning, Tour Day 3, breakfast at 7am again, then packed and ready to get on our Tour bus at 8:15.  What a nice bus!!  What a great way to see all these countries.  Someone else doing the driving, riding along in a very luxurious bus and only 26 people.  Everyone gets two seats each and still many rows empty.  No crowding, it is very nice.

(credit for this picture goes to Tina)  I am the white hair on the right, way back about the middle of the bus.  Row 2: John & Kathy, row 3: Duncan on left and Ben and Eva on right, row 4: Wayne on left, Ginette on right, Row 5: Jim on left and Lynn on right.  As you can see everyone had two seats and couples had the row usually.  We were definitely not crowded.

On this, our first day being on the bus, I got some very nice views and pictures of the countryside, while the windshield was still 'unbugged'.  It was my privilege to get to sit in the the front seat of the bus this day.  However, that was my one and only day to get to ride in the front seat.

Throughout the total journey, it was nice that everyone got a chance to ride looking out the front at least once.  However, one person rode there five or more days in a row and then additional 4 or 5 more days... everyone can draw your own conclusions as to why this happened ;) , but if anyone was really concerned, they could have asked and sat there I'm sure.  This was the only real grumbling I heard this whole tour, so I consider that a minor thing considering all the people and personalities thrown together for so many days and nights.  Seems like no matter how old we get we are still like children about wanting to ride 'in front'.  Sometimes couples would 'race' to the bus just to be able to claim the front seats. This makes me smile :) .  All in all, was no real issue.

After the first day, all the rest of the days on the bus, I sat near the rear side door. As some may know, I have a little bit of claustrophobia, so sitting where there was no seat to my right, where the door was, made it feel like I had more room and an easy escape :)  Was a great place to sit with lots of leg room and off the bus quickly at stops.

Everyone else tended to move around a bit, except John and Kathy who always sat in the second row and Patrick and Vannie (they are a very lovely couple from Florida... more about them later).  They loved the very last seat in the bus and sat there the whole time after day one. No one else seemed to want it, anyway if they did, they never made it known.  :)  Once in a while, I would go back and sit for a little while with them to visit and it was in fact a very great place to sit.  Was a little higher and could actually see all the way to the front of the bus.

All in all, everyone seemed content to just ride along, listen to their music (when Martin wasn't entertaining us with local music or sharing information about what we were seeing, or going to see, or what we needed to do as we arrived at different stops), take a nap, or like me, try to sort some pictures and record notes for my blog.

Peter, the driver is required by law to stop every few hours for a twenty minute break, so that worked well for everyone, as we all needed to stretch our legs, go to the bathroom, get a bite to eat, etc. Today is our first day on the bus and we are headed for Germany but have one last stop in The Netherlands first.

The Arnhem's open-air museum, which is much like Lincoln's New Salem, near Springfield, IL, where all the buildings were shipped and re-set-up here, to simulate an 'old' Dutch village.

Clothes washer.  Clothes were only washed once or twice a year.  Whites were first spread out on the grass where they sun bleached them for a couple of days, then they were washed in these hugh tubs with mechanized agitators... pretty vigorously too!

Here they were rinsed

Making linen paper demonstration

huge amount of pressure applied to it

We toured the compound for about 2 hours, until lunch time where we all lunched together on Dutch Pancakes. Yummy!!! Tour paid, all except our drinks… coffee etc. We almost always have to pay our own drinks, except when they are providing a formal dinner with wine, then the wine is furnished.  This happened a few times, as Martin stated; wine is cheaper than bottled water in these countries where they produce so much of it.

Breakfast pancake with egg and bacon

 Apple pancake with raisins or chocolate chips (I can't remember now)

Cheese pancake

We sat four to a table and they brought one pancake on a plate like this, which we then divided into four and all shared.  After a while they would bring the next one for us to try.  If you wanted, you could use a very concentrated syrup called Treacle (I think) over the pancake or just eat them plain.  They were very good.  

After lunch, continued to walk around the village for a while.

Wayne and Ginette.  Loved hanging out with this couple from Saskatchewan.  They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary while they were on this trip.  This table was staged, so they posed with it and looked so 'at home' here.  Love it !  Wayne was recently retired also.  So many on this tour were around my age, making this a very enjoyable tour/trip for me.  Also seeing so many happily married couples still in love after all their years together was really lovely to see.  After being in Italy for a year, I could really, really appreciate this... things are certainly different in Italy... a very openly promiscuous country :)

Ben and Eva

 Everyone toured a bit more after lunch, then all back on the bus by 1:30 and on the road south.  Beautiful smooth roads… so nice compared to the Italian bump, bump, bump.  Someone made the comment to me that Europeans call Italy the ‘Third World country of Europe”.  After they said that, I had to give that some thought and that is certainly true to a degree.  They are considerably backwards in so many ways and especially the south of Italy where it is much poorer.  However, that doesn’t change anything for me.  I still Love Italy!  And although I mentioned earlier how nice and almost a relief to be with my own kind of people again, I will certainly be happy when I return to Italy.  I have really grown attached to those people and love living where I do.

I took this photo shortly after we returned to the bus from lunch and everyone was about half asleep.  Shortly after this photo, I looked back and sure enough, most of the men were asleep!  John in dark glasses, Eva & Ben behind him and Patrick & Vannie to their right.  So far all the people are wonderful travelers.  Not any grumbling that I’ve heard, but we made stops fairly often, and this certainly helped, especially since the bus driver preferred we not use the toilet on the bus :)  Once when we were stopped in a city, someone actually returned to the bus and used that toilet instead of a public one... this did not make Peter very happy :( 

Now we are just traveling along (will be a six hour bus ride today) and this is really nice, as this is the first time I have found time to record things for my blog since I left Italy almost a week ago.  I stop often and look up and around, as I don’t want to miss a photo op.

I had hoped to be able to post my blogs as I traveled along, however, it soon became apparent that would not be possible. Internet was sporadic and very slow... impossible to upload pictures, so I will do my best to get this blog finished and posted when I return to Bari at the end of the tour/trip.  I am scheduled to fly home on June 1.

 Really??? Burger King???  One of our stops along the way... well I wanted to get a feel of America again, so I got it :) , however, I have not been in a Burger King even in the USA for more than 30 years.  I do not eat fast food ever!!!  Horrible stuff ! (my opinion, but then, this is my blog) :) hee hee
Later we also stopped at a McDonalds, however, I will have to say, neither of these places are anything like the ones in the USA.  Here they were very classy joints!

It is now about 3pm and we are just entering Germany. As we crossed out of and into each country, Martin would play the Anthem of that country and we would all pass around and wave the flag of those countries.  Was a nice touch :)

Small German towns along the Rhine River. and in the distance, I am just starting to see the many Germany castles that in the Rhineland.  Hopefully tomorrow we will see more.

Now we have arrived in Bacharach, Germany and checked into our hotel, an old half-timbered hotel in a medieval village.

Now a little about Rick Steve's Tours and hotels.  All the hotels are definitely 'quaint' and only two on our entire tour had elevators... sort of (more about those later).  

On a Rick Steve's tour, couples get larger and better equipped rooms than solo travelers.  As a solo traveler you can have the option to 'room' with another solo traveler of the same gender, thereby getting a larger/better room, or, as Rick Steve's puts it in his book, you as a solo traveler, will get the most 'undesireable room' in every hotel, since they are the smallest or most inaccessible or have no views and are the hardest rooms for the hotel to 'rent'.  

Now, if you insist on having your own room and not sharing with another person, you can pay an additional $1000 to insure that you get these most 'undesireable' rooms.  Well, I chose to share a room, since I didn't want to pay extra, and I was hoping to get a little better accommodations, however, since I was the only female traveling alone, there was no one to share a room with and therefore, I got the 'undesireable' rooms anyway.  Duncan was the only other solo traveler and unfortunately for him, he paid the extra $1000 "to insure that he got the 'undesireable' rooms".  He would have gotten the same rooms without the extra money, like I did, since he was the solo male traveler, but of course he didn't know this and didn't want to share a room.

  

In addition, as a solo traveler, the cost of the tour is already more, so this really does add a bit of insult, as if our money isn't good enough to give us an equal room.  I felt a bit like we were subsidizing everyone else.  However, I knew this before I chose this tour, so I accepted it, but... 

This part of the Rick Steve's tour is probably the only real thing I did not like about it.  Now as you can see from this picture, the first night, I really had quite a nice room, albeit...

even though my room appeared quite nice, it was in the basement and it smelled very musty and the rug on the floor appeard to have gotten wet at some point in addition, it was very dirty.  Also my one and only window was actually the curb of the street and the wall of the house across the street :) . Not much of a view especially when this hotel was right on the Rhine River. The best part about it though, was it WAS in the basement.  Everyone else had to lug their bags up two, three or four flights of narrow stairs.

None of the hotels we stayed at had elevators except two.  More about how that worked as we arrive at each one when I will post about it.  Throughout the Tour, we had two nights at each hotel, with the exception of one night in Beaune, France, so not enough time anywhere to get too concerned, and furthermore, we spent very little time in our room.  The only ones who did were Patrick and Vannie, as they both got sick for a few days and stayed in and rested to get well.

This room was a very large one compared to some you will see later.  I could actually turn around in this one and even had a place for my suitcase :)

 Before dinner, we had time to wander around the town a bit.  We had a group dinner in the hotel.

 Best soup ever!! and an awesome group dinner this evening.  Poor Margaret though.  The waitress was bringing very large, tall glasses to beer and when she lifted one from the tray, the other one tipped over and the entire glass was dumped on her.  She was soaked!!  At least we were eating in the hotel where we were staying, so she could go to her room and change clothes.  She then had to wash them in the sink, since we had no laundry facilities here.

Since we have now arrived in Bacharach, Germany on the Rhine River at the end of day three, I will let this be enough for this blog post, it has gotten very very long !

Next Post will be Germany and Austria, Tour days 4 - 7, May 13 - 16

Anyone from the Tour reading this, don't fret if you are not featured in this first post... your turn will come, I promise :)  I have broken these blog posts into Countries (except Germany & Austria are together), so this is only Post 1 of  5.  More to come.... MUCH more to come !

Each blog post seems to be taking me days to prepare, so don't get anxious... I will post the others as soon as I can.  Now it is the weekend and I have things I must get done and on Sunday's I am gone all day, so will resume working on this on Monday June 8th.

Fino ad allora, arrivederci !