Kylin's European Grand Adventure: Day 1

Well, the trip started off on a somewhat sour note when we went to certify our eurarail passes. I noticed a sign that said they only took Visa/MasterCard with a chip and a code/pin. It was no problem in that we had already purchased the passes; however, we discovered that we need to reserve our seats on the trains as this is the busy season and we could end up standing even though we purchased first class passes. Tomorrow's reservation cost us E39 so we saw that our cash could easily be depleted before half our trip is over if we had to pash cash for all our food/reservations/incidentals and our debit card is also chip free. The hotel graciously allowed us to use their phone to call our credit card company. After about an hour on the phone, we think we have a chip card and it should be delivered to us in Homburg next week -- if all goes well. Still have a few hoops to jump but we think that is resolved. I say all that to say that we did not get to play tourist that much today. We did the hop on/hop off bus tour (not that great) and a canal tour which was really wonderful.

It was a beautiful bright blue sky and sunny day here with temperatures in the low 70's. A treat even for the Dutch!

So here are a few facts we learned: at one time there were 30,000 traditional windmills in the Netherlands but there are now only 4,000. There are approximately 2,500 house boats in Amsterdam strictly regulated by the government and while they are built on boats, they basically are immobile. The cost of the permit depends on the size of the boat. There are 90/91 islands here with 160 canals. The central train station is built on 9,000 wooden piers. The level is the canals is a fine art designed to keep the dry wood dry and the wet wood wet. The buildings are not high here because the older ones were built on wooden piers; hence the need to control the canal levels. In central Amsterdam there are lots of parks, museums, statutes and wonderful flowers. Pot is smoked freely here and John now can recognize its odor! Almost everyone here rides a bicycle. They have lanes for them, you see them parked everywhere, women ride them to work wearing dresses, etc.

We end up here so will see the Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank house then.

So, so tired. Head to Copenhagen tomorrow and it will be a long day on the train.

Our surroundings for lunch at our hotel, the Renaissance