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Monday, July 09, 2007

European Vacation Update

I am trying something a little different. I am typing this posting on
the train between Amsterdam and Vienna. We are not online on the
train - but I do have power. I made my own adapter with a cheap
extension cord that I brought along. I then got a local plug -
Netherlands/Belgium/Germany - and put it on the extension cord. It is
not a converter - it is just an adapter. You have to make sure your
appliances can run on 220 volt current. Our computer - CPAP - and
shaver - all run on 100 to 240 volts - so it is fine to use with
them. This way I can plug all 3 appliance in at once - in the train
or hotel.

So far on the trip - we have spent the nights of -

July 3 - on the plane over
July 4 - Brussels at hotel
July 5 - Brussels at hotel
July 6 - Brussels at hotel
July 7 - Amsterdam at hotel
July 8 - on the night train (Orient Express) to Vienna
July 9 - probably Salzburg
July 10 - probably Nordhausen
July 11 - probably Cologne
July 12 - airport Brussels
July 13 - flying to New York City

We plan to tour Vienna - Nancy wants to go on the Sound of Music Tour
- is in the Austrian Alps.

Then go to Nordhausen to tour the place where the Nazis made rockets.
They built an assembly line inside of a mountain - they would
assemble rockets - they would go in one side of the mountain as parts
and come out as finished rockets on the other side. they made about
7000 rockets this way. It was all built with Jewish slave labor. It
is said that 6 people died for each rocket made.

Hopefully - we can fit a boat trip on the Rhine River somewhere
between - Frankfurt and Cologne. The boat trip is covered by our
Eurail Pass.

So far the weather has been good. In Belgium is was cool - in the 60s
- some misty rain - and lots of overcast - but that cleared in the
last couple of days. The two days in Amsterdam were sunny - breezy
and 70s. It stays light here until about 10:30 at night. Nancy got up
this morning at 4:30 and it was already light out.

I will send some pictures when I get on a regular internet connection.

We toured the Van Gogh Museum on Amsterdam. There was a tragic figure
- he killed himself when he was 37 - lived in poverty - painted like
crazy near the end of his life - and now everybody is making a bundle
off his paintings.

The canals of Amsterdam are much wider than the canals of Venice.
They remind you more of the Seine River than the canals of Venice.

Two of the nicest things about Amsterdam - besides the marijuana and
call girls - are the large number of neat bikes and scooters. They
even have special separate roads for scooters and bikes with separate
street lights. The bikes are what we used to call - English bikes -
very plain - no wide tires - few gears if any - and no shock
absorbers. They were very basic but durable bikes. Many were
configured with big carriers - carts - baskets - seats. Bikes
outnumbered cars by about 20 to 1. Most of the cars were very small
and had diesel engines - but they ran cleaner and quieter than our
diesels. No wonder cars are so small there - gasoline was $8 a gallon!

We are stopped at Cologne right now - giant cathedral right along
side the tracks. We plan to come back here via a boat trip. We just
crossed the Rhine River - pretty wide here. Cologne looks like a neat
city - we crossed the Rhine 2 times there and now are on a high speed
rail to Frankfort. In Frankfort - we will pick up our night train
with sleeping compartment. Right now we are in a first class
compartment - that seats 6 - but we have it alone.

An Amsterdam report would not be complete without a report about a
trip to a "coffee house." There are 100s of these places - they are
not allowed to sell anything with alcohol in it - but they can sell
marijuana and hashish. Of course - a trip to Amsterdam is not
complete without us going inside. The room in the front is like a bar
- but with everyone sitting around smoking funny cigarettes. Many of
the coffee houses were showing soccer games live. In the back room
there is a counter and shelves full of many different brands of
products. They hand you a menu - and you can pick out single pieces
or packs. Prices ranged from 3 Euros to 90 Euros. when we asked about
them - they were conveniently out of 3 Euro items. The guy was sizing
us up - so I said forget about it - we had a train to catch in an
hour - and I did not want to be "tripping" around Amsterdam like Jim
Carrey - as our train pulled out without us.

9 AM - We slept well in the sleeping compartment. We were served
breakfast in bed. Then the porter broke down the beds giving us more
room in the cabin. We took turns getting cleaned up for the day and
waiting in the dining car. We are pulling into the station - I will
send this message as soon as I find a signal. Austria looks very nice.

We just pulled in next to the real Orient Express - London to
Istanbul train - the one from the book - "Murder on the Orient Express."

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