WEDNESDAY MORNING IN AMSTERDAM

It's Wednesday morning in Amsterdam - and we're well on our way. We had an uneventful flight from Vancouver to Amsterdam arriving on time into dreary grey skies. Our luggage had been checked through to Nairobi from Vancouver so it was an easy and fast walk to the airport hotel to drop our carryon luggage and after a welcome shower we were off on the train into Amsterdam central (the train station is right in the airport - down one level) the tickets are 7.60 euros each for a same day return ticket. The pilot had promised us sunshine later in the day but it was not to be! On the busy streets of Amsterdam every language under the sun was heard and we wandered the really interesting streets for several hours - amazing cheese and wine stores, tourist stores and the inevitable sex toy and marijuana stores - here smoking dope is a daily occurrence for many locals and tourists and the sweet smell of the smike can be smelled everywhere. Just as the rain was about to start, we managed to find the wonderful little back alley restaurant Saint Paul's Lounge (right next to - you guessed it right - St Paul's Church!) that we had enjoyed back in 2007. We enjoyed the most incredible, oh so fresh, bread and cheese plate along with hot chocolate and red wine. Then back on the train for the 15 minute ride back to Amsterdam Schipol airport and 25 minutes after leaving downtown we were in our very welcome comfortable beds and looking for a good night's sleep. We did get several hours of sleep by persevering through the every 2 hours waking up and are hoping to have our internal clocks somewhat in shape by the time we hot Kilimanjaro on Friday. Clockwise Amsterdam is 9 hours ahead of Vancouver and Nairobi is 10 hours ahead of Vancouver, so we are well on our way to adjusting. We arrive in Nairobi at 8pm this evening and are now off to check in for our flight.

Jan