Packing for this trip was an adventure in itself. The first two weeks were difficult only in that we have no planned itinerary and excursions could range from fancy dinners to canyon hiking to laying around on the beach and everything in between. However, I had a full suitcase for guessing and so I'm hoping I brought enough variety. If not, yay for laundry :). For the rest of the trip, how to pack everything you need for nine weeks when you really have very little idea of the limits of excursion possibilities and you may be carrying everything you bring on your back for long periods of time? I must have packed and repacked a bajillion times, but ended up really happy with what I brought. We'll have to see how I feel about the stuff in a few weeks, though walking around the airports so far hasn't been too bad.
We got to the Detroit airport and realized that there were no restaurants to eat at outside of security and so Mom, Dad, Galen and I simply enjoyed some coffee and muffins, chatted a bit, took some pictures and soon said goodbye. The flight to Amsterdam was fairly uneventful. It was crazy dry in the plane, but chapstick and a lot of water helped with that. One highlight, free beer. The dinner they served also wasn't bad. There was a good number of movies/ tv shows/ games/ etc. to choose from, though we mostly snoozed and chatted. Well, I snoozed. Galen makes a good pillow :)
Soon the eight hour flight was almost over and we were admiring the morning lights of Amsterdam. A quick walk through the very nice airport and it was on to the next flight. One note, the restrooms are labeled "toilets" and the rooms, gentlemen and ladies rather than men and women. I also didn't realize that all of the signs would be in English, though the announcements were in a number of different languages and this took quite awhile. We were boarded before I heard English. We're currently waiting for a group of passengers from a delayed plane and then we can take off and begin day two!
I'm luckily sitting by some very nice women who are translating for me so I don't have to wait for the english updates. They're headed to Paris for a few days of shopping. How nice that everything is so close in Europe. Also interesting that they've been to New York city and found it to be very much like Amsterdam, but LA was completely different to them.
P.S. The internet connection is pretty spotty so I'll post when I can and put up the photo albums later.
Location:Toledo and Amsterdam
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