I Bless the Rains Down in Africa

1 july 2022

Time for the usual pre-travel panic to set in. It is interesting. A fairly recent phenomenon the last few major trips I've taken. The day of the trip, I don't want to go. I want to lay in bed and pet my cats. I don't want to do all the things I've been meticulously planning for months. Once I'm at the airport, I'm fine. I'm not afraid of flying...I'm not afraid of my destination or of being alone...so I don't know why it happens.

The good news--I had a great Uber to the airport with a woman from Colombia! She had something hanging from her rear view mirror that said Colombia on it, so I asked and it turned out she was from Medellin! We had a wonderful conversation about how awesome her country is (and she asked a lot of questions about middle school since her son was about to start).

Had to check in with Delta again (why is this happening now, even if you complete "Fly Ready" online?), and while I was standing in the long line (after about 10 min or so), a guy comes over and takes ten of us out of line and moves us over to a different counter with no line! What? And thankfully, all docs checked out, including my Kenyan visa that I wasn't sure would work since it was only good for 3 months and I had bought it more than 3 months ago. I tried contacting their consulate several times about that, but never got a response. Thankfully, no problems.

As I was headed to security, I heard from my friend that she was running a bit late, but otherwise, everything going FAR too smoothly, lol. Since lately I seem to have rocky starts to my trips that turn into amazing ones...I'm worried what a SMOOTH start to my trip might mean!

Had some Chinese food while waiting for my friend and for my flight.

2 july 2022

Didn't get much sleep on the flight to Amsterdam (as per usual), but left the airport to head into the city. I had pre-purchased a transit pass to get around with, as well as tickets to the Rijksmuseum and a canal cruise. As per usual, Centraal Station was confusing and it took a bit before I discovered where the luggage storage was (turns out they no longer have lockers at the airport)...but we finally got to the Metro and to Rijksmuseum.

Our plane had been a bit late, and that added to the confusion at the airport and Centraal looking for luggage storage meant we were late for our scheduled museum time. Luckily, they still let us in. Didn't have a ton of time, so headed directly to the Rembrandt area to check out The Night Watch. It is being restored, so it isn't on a wall--it is inside a glass case where they can work on it while people can still see it. Pretty impressive.

We wandered around a bit, then went out back where the sculpture garden and fountains are...and my old friend "Big American Hot Dog" stand was still there! We had a dog and then headed over to the canal for our cruise.

A beautiful open air boat (not one with the windows on it)...no microphone, so I couldn't hear what our captain was telling us about what we were seeing...but Amsterdam is just as beautiful as I remember. Something I don't remember about it--naked men riding bikes through the city! As we were cruising, a ton of bikes went riding by--ridden by naked men of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Some even stopped to wave at us! Turns out it is an annual thing--The Naked Bike Ride to protest against cars on the roads: https://nltimes.nl/2022/07/03/nude-bicyclists-cycle-amsterdam-annual-naked-bike-ride

After the cruise, we decided to head back to the airport because we didn't know how long it would take to get back through security, etc. Luckily, no problems--and we are back on the plane headed to Africa.