Arrived....

We had smooth and uneventful flights to Amsterdam yesterday, starting with a chauffeured ride to the International terminal of the majestic New Bern airport by our good friends Scott and Cindy. Those of you who haven't experienced this grand airport yet really should... While waiting for our flight, we got a surprise text from our daughter Crissy saying that she was going to be in Atlanta airport the same time we were. She was returning back to Seattle after going to one of her friends wedding in Nashville. What a great treat it was to meet her there for a couple hours before we each headed in opposite directions! We hope all part of a good omen for our trip to come...

We are staying in a town outside of Amsterdam called Haarlem. We had never been there yet so it was a great opportunity to explore... Yes, Harlem in New York was named after Dutch town here, but that is all it has in common. We love being here and sampling some of the local culture and seeing the sights. We went to the Frans Hals (famous Dutch painter) and Tylers (oldest Dutch) museums, in between lots of coffee and eating Dutch treats to fight off jet lag. That along with a delicious dinner in an Indonesian restaurant got us through a restful night, along with some beer, melatonin, and Tylenol PM.

Spent the next day putting the bikes together in our hotel room and sorting out our stuff to put in our bike panniers, and what to leave behind in the suitcases that will stay here in storage. You always have seconds doubts about what to take. Then again there are practical weight limits for the bikes and our legs to haul down the road and up hills later on. So don't be surprised to see the same outfit in many pictures..

The sun was shining (did we get lucky again?), so we postponed some of our packing decisions and took a train into central Amsterdam to explore and search for flowers and sweets to take to my cousin, Mattia, who lives in Amsterdam. Mattia is married to lovely Wanda and have a wonderful son (Michiel) and daughter (Lisa). We tried getting together last year on our way through Amsterdam, but just were not able to arrange it. Really glad we were able to finally meet and had a wonderful dinner at their home. We hope that one day they can come and visit us in North Carolina.

Tomorrow will be the first leg of our bike trip towards the city of Utrecht. Another city we have not been to before. Utrecht was also the start of this year's Tour de France bicycle race... More tomorrow.

Linda in New Bern Intl Airport

Surprised to meet our daughter Crissy in Atlanta!

Town square of Haarlem

Walt's first meal back in Holland ("Uitsmijter")

Goat cheese sandwich for Linda

Holland has millions of bicycles, all different. I love taking pictures of them but Linda warns me to not lose our Blog audience with too many pictures of them..

In the Frans Hal's museum. One of his more famous paintings.

Linda in our first Indonesian restaurant of the trip.

Church tower at night.

Bikes in suitcases, waiting to be assembled..

If the klompen fit....

Wonderful paintings in the Teylers museum.

This display made me sad. It was a sketch book done by an explorer in the 1700's of the ruins in Palmyra, Syria. The same ones that ISIS blew up with explosives a couple weeks ago... Really terrible..