The Fog of Travel

OK we're still in that fog of travel where things happen like you swear you lost your glasses only to find (an hour later) they are in your pocket and you take naps from 1 to 4 in the afternoon (at least 30 minutes longer than my usual nap).

 

Bottom line here is we made it and had a pretty good trip.  Iceland air "Saga" class is about like domestic first class - that is seats don't recline much etc so we spend most of the trip awake.  Food and drinks were OK (not the quality of Air France) - they had  Tangeuray for Gin and Tonic so it wasn't a bust by any means.  Going through iceland wasn't bad - a seven hour flight followed by a three hour flight. Because of the PE Fran had to get up every couple of hours anyway so I guess we wouldn't of slept no matter what.

 

You have to go through security again in the EU because US and EU security protocols are different - I'm not sure how other than we didn't have to do a backscatter in Iceland.  Then through customs.  Not biggie either way as they were efficient and polite.

 

Once we got to Amsterdam we found the bus #300 that took us to the Haarlem train station, again this was a breeze.  Fran spotted the bus at the airport and negotiated the ride with the driver before I realized she wasn't with me (see Fog of Travel).  The Google walking directions from the Haarlem train station were spot on.  It was a 10 minute walk which we needed followed by a 3 hour nap, also needed.

 

After the rest, we went for italian food (I know we're in the netherlands but we needed COMFORT food).  The guide book recommended a place whose name we couldn't remember.  We walked to the general area and lo and behold an Italian Place!  We realized leaving the joint  that there were two places right next to each other and the book had recommended the one we didn't go to.  Actually we both thought ours was GREAT.  We went to the one on the left.

 

 

Here's Fran (see Fog of Travel) with wine (I was actually taking a picture of my beer in the foreground but Fran got in the way).  Her expression is pretty much how we felt.

 

And what tops off Italian food in the netherlands?  Why of course Gelato!

As you can see this brightened the mood quite a bit.

 

Updated on my Mom:  According to everyone Mom is doing fine.  She had to stay in the hospital a few days while they get her meds figured out.  Love you Mom - listen to the Doc's.