Saturday, May 12, 2001.
The seats on the 777 afforded some sleep, but we were still pretty discombobulated arriving in Schipol airport in Amsterdam. A short walk from the gate led us to the passport queue...
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| Obviously a popular place to visit... |
The passport line up moved along quickly, and our passports were stamped after a couple of questions. Since we had brought only carry-on luggage, there was no waiting at the luggage belts, we headed out of the secured area where Ruud was waiting for us...
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| Would you accept a ride from this man? |
Ruud drove us to the Tulip Hotel in Amsterdam, which is one of the nicer hotels in the area. Most European hotels tend to be very small and have single beds, we were pleasantly surprised to find a double bed in our room...
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| A real bed! | The TV is also an alarm clock... |
And the view of the city from our room was great!
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| The view west... | Looking northeast... |
The challenge now was to stay awake - we had not had enough sleep on the airplane, and 10am in Amsterdam is 1am back home... we allowed ourselves a short nap and then went in search of lunch. Eventually we found a cafe and had some baguettes and caffienated beverages.
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| Need... tea... | I smile in my sleep... |
Leaving the cafe, we wandered past the Rijksmuseum (people's museum). There's a passage directly through the building where a number of buskers were playing.
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| Approaching the Rijksmuseum... | Look, its big, and it has an open-air passage right through it! | |
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| The passage has a beautiful arched ceiling... | The back of the Rijksmuseum, you can see the passage at the bottom... |
A bit more wandering led us to the leidseplein, a big square where buskers performed and lots of beer was being served while people watched football (what we know as soccer) games on TVs in the various bars around the leidseplein.
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| Want beer? | Spot the naked bum! |
Fading again, we headed back to the hotel - along the way we saw a familiar vehicle and bumped into some friends. Only a short time after we returned the phone rang - Stevie-baby had arrived in Amsterdam! By now it was 6pm and time to search out some dinner, we found a nice Argentinian restaurant a short distance from the hotel.
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| This picture is for Donny... | I'm not jetlagged, honest! |
We took our time in the restaurant, and wandered the leidseplein on the way back to the hotel, finally getting to bed after 10pm. Over dinner we had planned to meet up with Steve for breakfast and then tour some sights of Amsterdam before boarding the bus to the conference site in Veldhoven the next day...