Amsterdam

We don't have much to show for our nearly five days in Amsterdam. We were there principally to put the Grey Wanderer in storage before our return to the States, to get it ready for storage, effect a variety of repairs, give it a good cleaning, and to sort through things and pack, with one eye on the coming year in California and the other on returning to Europe in 2012. Three days of sheets of rain didn't help with our sightseeing program either.

We'll do Amsterdam more properly, especially the Rijksmuseum, one of our favorites, when we're back in June of 2012. We EasyJet'd to Britland on Saturday afternoon, the16th, carefully weighing in both checked and unchecked baggage so as to avoid the various surcharges. It was a mercifully short 45 minute flight. From Gatwick we took the National Express bus into town (5.50L for us seniors) and then the Underground to our B&B in East Finchley, north of the city. The bus ride took 90 minutes, but was comfortable and a great opportunity to visually re-acquaint ourselves with beloved Britland, leaving the driving to someone else. Our stay here will be relatively short, with no opportunity to re-visit Beastleigh Dorking on-the-Bum or other favorite country sites.

We stayed at a place called Droompark Sparnwoude,

outside Amsterdam, beyond the port; apparently a state or

national park, there were several campgrounds, very

popular, not so many campers, but many, many static

trailers and rental units; they honored our ACSI card which

made the cost relatively reasonable; and good bus service

into the city

But our first two days were spent not in camping or cleaning,

but in having some work done: the BBQ regulator (something

we never and never have used) failed, causing a serious

propane leak; we finally had it removed and the line capped at

a Volvo truck center in Amsterdam, the third referral

And then there was the partial failure of the Go Charge

dual battery charger, which took another day to analyze,

and (partially) work around; sheesh! the thing is two months

old and probably hadn't two weeks of usage

So, anyway, we appear to be in Holland (this

is from Friday, the one day it didn't rain)

And took the bus into Amsterdam, not to see anything in

particular, but just to walk around and do the ambience thing

A major part of which is drinking in the streets

and the consequent effluence, relieved, as it

were, by these strategically but not discreetly
located outdoor pissoirs

A street scene or two

Two

Vicki in line for the world-famous "vegetarian" pommes frites

at VleminckX (since 1887); they were decadently good,

especially with the curry sauce