We are home…safe and sound…and possibly even on this time zone. I think we slept for like 12 or 13 hours last night…but I feel refreshed and will work on getting caught up around the house. The last 24 hours of our trip were probably the worst…but honestly, if those are all of the issues we had, then I’d say we had an outstanding trip! Let me explain:
Amsterdam was exactly as expected…very touristy and packed with people. I’m not sure I’ll ever need to go back there again. Our hotel was very nice, but old…very old…and because of that, there were no elevators. Typically this would be fine…especially at this point because we’re so used to walking and stairs. Our room is up on the 2nd floor (that’s actually the 3rd by Europe standards) and the stairs are, well, how do I explain this? Ummm…almost straight up and definitely not to code! That was fun…NOT! But the view from our room was outstanding (as you saw in the picture on my last post). The downside was that there were a ton of people walking around on the sidewalks below, so it was noisy and Lord knows we were getting a contact high from all of the marijuana smokers! Ugh. Somehow we slept okay (a good 4.5-5 hours) and made it out the door on time to get our taxi. After wandering around the airport for an hour and a half, we made our way through the long lines, the pat downs in securtiy and to our gate where we immediately were able to get on the plane. At this point, we realize our original seat choices were changed and we had the front row seats. Good news here was we had a ton of leg room. Bad news was, we had nowhere to stow our stuff under any seats! The storage space above our seats were “for emergency equipment only” so we were screwed! Keith had to find a place for both of our suitcases somewhere down the aisle (fighting all of the people getting on the plane!) and then after we tried to hide our other stuff under our legs…the flight attendants were onto us and took our other stuff away to stow underneath somewhere else. I was very nervous that our stuff was not right there near us…but it was all accounted for in the end.
Now that we’re settling in for our long 11 hour flight, we realize that the TV screen on the wall in front of us was only showing in 2 colors (orange and black) instead of full color. Our trays popped out of our armrests…but were made for size 2 people so we had to eat on our laps (which was NOT easy). Somehow, we had a smooth flight and made it home on time. The best thing about the flights were these little things my Dad told me about…”Ear Planes.” I’m telling you, I’m never flying without those again. I have major ear issues when flying and on both flights, I had hardly any pain! Thanks for that Dad!! So, we get off the plane in Portland and have to go through customs, security, etc. We declared all of our stuff, but apparently, my tulip bulbs were contraband and taken away from me! All of that work to hand pick all of my tulips (not to mention the price we paid!) were all gone in a matter of moments. The customs agent was really nice and sympathetic…but I was really upset about getting ripped off in Amsterdam. No one told me I had to have “official” bulbs! Ugh. I guess I’ll know for next time.
So…that’s it. Our Europe experience was an overall success. I think we both agree that we enjoyed Germany MUCH more and our favorite place to visit was Monschau (the place that had the castle ruins and the glass blower). Over the whole trip, we experienced the European culture…got to visit some really awesome places…learned some historical things…and enjoyed being on vacation. And really…isn’t that what it’s all about?
Thanks for keeping up with our blog. I enjoyed creating it for you…I hope you enjoyed reading it.
Until our next vacation! 🙂