In the coming days I will attempt to update you on our travels and visits why we are in the US. I am still learning how to use a smartphone and have never been good at selfies, so any pictures you see of us were probably taken by others. But we will try to share some pictures as well, so keep an eye on our photo site if you are interested in those.
We start with “The Tale of the Hotel/Motel”
Our trip began before we ever stepped foot on an airplane. First we had to get to the amazing flying machine. This is the tale of how that came to be and what ensued.
Early in the morning we were already rushing about, scrambling and scurrying as one does at the last minute. The house had to be made ready to lay dormant for two whole months.
Surprisingly, an amazing amount of work needs to be done for dormancy – perhaps a bear would know about things like that. Everything needed vacuumed (well, not everything, but you get the idea), foodstuffs had to be put away or eaten, dusting, wiping, scrubbing and bed-making-upping had to be finished. You see, the vacancy will only be partial. Halfway through our absence, the house will receive guists. At the end of our time away, just before we return, good friends will also enjoy the house. So everything had to be ready to use, but as empty as possible.
By midday we were as ready as we were going to be, and anyway our ride to the train station had arrived. Yes, we were taking the train to the airport. Once at the station we figured out how best to motivate our bags along – this was something we would be doing a lot of, so we had to discover the best method. We had done well in keeping our bags to a minimum, though not a bare minimum – we were after all going to be gone for two months, beginning in the Spring and ending in the heat of summer. But balancing one little bag on a big bag and rolling the other two worked quite well.
On the train we had to be careful tht the rolling bags didn’t run away, but we arrived at Schiphol with no real drama. It had been a pleasant if not quiet ride (we sat in the area meant for bicycles). At the airport we had arranged to have our hotel pick us up at the airport (yes, we were already doing a hotel and had not even flown one foot). Since our flight was very early, and we would have to be very very early to be on time, we had decided to spend the night in Zwanenburg.
A city of swans – that is what one imagines. And once we found the water, we were not disappointed. Which was more than we could say about our hotel, which was actually a motel. Mind you, the town itself is very quaint and quiet. Our room at the hotel had to be accessed via an outside door, past other hotel guests enjoying the late evening sunlight and then opening our door into our room. But we had a room and we were thankful.
Plus, we had swans, and shoarma, and seats. This was important after we had taken a short walk around Zwanenburg and then into Halfweg, walking halfway into Scott’s memory of when he used to bike past this area on his way to Dutch lessons in Amsterdam. Walking down memory lane is always energizing, but we hadn’t eaten since leaving home, so we were very pleased to find a shoarma restaurant open and serving.
Back at the hotel we were frustrated to find the internet not working. Most of society today runs on the internet and we still had to check in to our flight. But that would have to wait for the next day, which was fast arriving and would come even faster for us. We awoke at 4:30 and got everything ready for the bus to the airport which would leave at 5:30 for our flight at 7:30. Sitting near the check-in desk meant that we had internet, so all was right with the world, just as the bus arrived, loaded our luggage and we departed in the cool morning sunrise of the Netherlands, on our way to America, via Great Britain. But that is another tale.
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