The Netherlands or Holland...which is it?

We arrive in Amsterdam Central and take our train to a little town (some direction) from downtown. The town of Hilversum was our new home. It was beautiful! Cobblestone streets, amazing bike paths, quaint shops and a really cool little pub called the Carousel. We had just eaten dinner and Dave said want to have a beer somewhere? I gave him a blank expression, which made him laugh. I taught him a travel tip and it was this....walk slowly down the street and listen......for what he asked. I said,"For music and laughter of course." and so began our connection to new friends and culture in the little hamlet of Hilversum. Several things were quite different in Europe then they are at home. Observations: 1. They don't bring you the bill unless you ask for it. That was an interesting waiting game at several restaurants, I would look at the waiter/waitress they would look at me, I would nod and they would nob back, but no bill. We finally figured out that they find it rude to plunk down a bill before it is asked for...wow what a concept. 2. Every beer they serve comes in a glass with that beer's name on it. (That is a lot of different glasses) 3. When they pour Amstel (especially) they take what looks like a paint stick and wipe the head off, lots of beer down the drain. 4. All the bathrooms are small, Dave barely fit in many of them. Big people have extra struggles in Europe. 5. Take cash, many places want your card pinned and chipped. I don't even know what a chipped card is. 6. People don't say 'bless you' to strangers, or at all. 7. People in the Netherlands are a bit stand-off-ish until they feel comfortable and then you are family. Not sure the french open up ever. 8. People in Norway will come up and ask if you need help if you just stand there with a puzzled look on your face. 9. Candles are used a lot! 10. People play with their children, a lot. 11. Biking is a was of life, and it doesn't even have to be a "cool" bike, in fact most are just functional. 12. People will sit outside at a cafe, even if it is cold, in their shorts and dresses. I am tough, but I could not do that. 13. When asking someone if they speak English the most common response is: "Of course"

Red wine my ass

Paris: What keeps people trim? Red wine they say. I think they need to consider smoking and stairs. It was rather a shock to see soooo many people smoking, everywhere. While they walked, while they ate lunch, while they breastfed their babies in the park, while they stood in line, while they were making out (people do show a lot of affection here). It was a bit discouraging. Then came the thing no one tells you about. The stairs. They are everywhere as well. To get down into the subway to come up out of the subway, to use every bathroom that is in Paris is down a circular flight of stairs. Paris is not a very wheelchair friendly place. Actually Paris is not a very friendly place period. They children were all very nice and would engage, not so much the adults. On our first day in Paris we took the subway into town (very easy to use and figure out as long as you knew where you were going) we stopped a little outside cafe (very Parisian) and had a beer (ok two) and I had to use the restroom, which were down a flight of stairs and in a very small closet. As I was in the stall the light in my stall went out, the stall was completely sealed. Total black. I have to feel where the paper is the lock (that took a minute) and the flusher (ok, I gave up on that until I could open the door and could peak) I went to wipe and leaned forward banging my head on the door which caused me to giggle and then when I stood my elbows hit everything else the room I started to laugh, then as I struggled with the locking mechanism and door handle I was almost in hysterics with laughter. I am sure I left an impression on everyone else in the room. The sites were fun and we met many wonderful tourists waiting in line with us. Our host was wonderful and when our time was up we were ready to move on. The best site was the enormous train station that we left out of. Just gorgeous. Watching the board that keeps track of all the trains is a masterpiece. It is not electronic, but rather copper plates that rotate individually to find the right letter or number or space to spell out the train name and which gate it leaves from. We also came across a very nice young man that helped us in the Europass line find a free way to use our pass to get to Amsterdam. He worked so hard to get us to understand what he was trying to tell us (he is working on his English) Dave and I had to change trains 5 times to get to Amsterdam, but it allowed us to get acquainted with the different systems that are used in the various train stations. We were off, little did we know that stairs would become a constant in our trip of traveling Europe.

Have you ever had that feeling that maybe you should have reconsidered a decision? That is how I felt as I sat in the fuselage of the small airplane that we took from Flint Bishop to Chicago. The plane was delayed by 2 hours and I was stressed that we would not make our flight to Paris. The delay was caused by high winds in Chicago. There were high winds everywhere, especially the tail section of the plane we were on. I have never moved in so many directions simultaneously except as a child on the tilt-a-whirl. Wow, what a start to a vacation. When we got to Chicago finding the correct plan was a chore, no one seemed to know where our plane was. We ran (backpacks and all) to two different concourses (of course to the very freaking end of them) before they put us on a shuttle and we drove across all the runways to get to the international terminal where we were the last people on the plane and there was a man in our seats (he thought we weren’t coming) and we barely got my son’s backpack in the overhead bin. It really should have been checked, but the guy in Flint said go ahead and good luck. The flight across the Atlantic was very bumpy and sleeping was not going to happen. We got into London and to be honest I have no idea how we made our connecting flight to Paris, that part is a blur. In Paris we figured out how to get from the airport to our proper stop on the metro and we walked up out of the subway to a foreign land. We were at a corner where several streets, it always seemed like more than 5 have to cross in order for there to be an intersection, nothing is at right angles. We guessed which direction we should walk in (our directions said to walk toward the hospital, really?) As we were trying to figure out where to find the street signs (they are carved into the sides of the buildings next to the intersections) a man standing next to me said, “Are you Kelly.” It was Hakim our first Airbnb host. I said yes, how did you happen to know we would be here at this time? He smiled and said, I always come out to the street at this time looking for Americans. A friendship was born. I must say it was easy to spot Dave and I in this neighborhood, even minus the large backpacks and exhausted expressions. We were in a very ethnic part of Paris, very Arab/African/South American. It was wonderful!

The walk-about: without being prodigal.

I have convinced my 21 year old son to spend 6 weeks with me in Europe to explore new cultures. This is an attempt to get him to love travel and see the world through citizenship rather than isolated beings co-existing.