Arrival in Holland!

After a fun adventure in Chicago and a close call in the O'hare airport with Melina and Kayci, we just made it to our flight and were on our way... While I was seated in the very back of the plane, unlike the rest the group, (not to mention the other passengers) I had the luxury of an isle seat with no one on my left side either! It turned out to be a fairly comfortable flight, landing in Amsterdam a little behind schedule at 9:30 this morning...

Right away we went to the Anne Frank house and museum, a very eye-opening experience, to think that 8 people were in hiding there for 23 months is mind boggling, and most definitely humbling. After a quick bite to eat (I chose a small sandwich shop, yum!!!) we were back on the bus and headed to an outdoor museum. This museum had exhibits on wooden shoe making, pottery, jewelery, and the highlight for most of us, CHEESE!!! It was wonderful! With samples and all!!! It was all I could do to not buy a wheel, but tryin to get into conservation of money mode :) Speaking of which... I never called my debit card company to alert them of my travels... maybe I should get on that...

After our time at the museum, it was time to go to the churh in Haarlem and meet up with our hosts, Rudy and I were placed together for the next two nights with the most charming, hospitable couple, they're wonderful! The language has been a bit of a barrier, but between Rob's (our host) broken English and Rudy's knowledge of German, similar to Dutch, we're geting along just fine! Had some great conversation and time to enjoy music together before dinner, and then DINNER!!! It was fantastic! Four courses, all of them homemade and delicious, or "lecker" as we were taught to say... After stuffing ourselves, I plopped down on the ouch for a bit to watch some football (soccer for us Americans) while Rudy caught up with facebook... Now he's in bed and I'm up typing!!!

It's been a long and eventful day, have had a lot of fun already and it's only day 1!! Looking forward to some more sightseeing tomorrow and then our first concert in the afternoon! It will be sad to leave Rob and Maria Friday morning, but hopefully we will keep in touch!

Let me know what all you'd like to hear about my time here, should be able to post again tomorrow night as well... But it's off to bed for me! Been up for who knows how long, no real sleep on the plane this time, hopefully that doesn't stay true for the rest of my time over here :)

Blessings,
John