PEDAL TO THE METAL

 Trip date:  June 22, 2019  [Click on a pic to enlarge]

We had an excellent Dutch breakfast at the hotel with fruit, yogurt, eggs to order, meats, cheeses, some really good croissants, and fresh squeezed OJ.  Afterwards, we collected our bags and went out front to meet with the tour manager, Elliot, and DaeDae ("DiDi"), our cycling guide.  We got fitted to our bikes and learned the rudimentaries of the shift mechanism, locks, etc, and got them set up for hauling the girls and the gear that we wanted to keep with us.  The tour had a van that hauled our main luggage to the next stop.  I wanted to make sure my many meds went with me as losing those would create major problems.  As it turned out, the luggage always arrived ahead of us, safe and sound, at each stop.  I was going to carry Isla (then 6 years old) and John was to haul Addie (4).  Meghan hadn't ridden in many years, and was not ready to deal with a passenger.  I've been used to Loni riding behind on the scoot for a decade, so wasn't too concerned.  Hah.  She and Loni would carry the side pouches with the water, packs, ponchos, etc.  Since those hung low down over the rear wheels, the center of gravity wasn't an issue.

We set out through the streets of Haarlem heading for the seacoast, and encountered a few true hills that we hadn't expected.  I think this first day had the most elevation changes of the trip.  Even these were moderate, but as none of us was a regular bike rider we huffed and puffed.  At one point, we stopped to allow the ladies to catch up.  I was standing astride the center bar of the bike when Isla shifted slightly to look back and the whole bike slowly tilted left.  There was no stopping it with just holding onto the handlebars, and we did a less than graceful sideways tumble with both of us tangled in the bike.  DaeDae hopped over and got us extricated.  I was more than a little embarrassed that we hadn't gone a couple of miles before I dumped us.    I was even worse when it happened again a few miles on.  Isla's pretty tall, so John and I switched girls and I got the lighter and lower Addie from then on.  No further problems.  We rode through green fields, hay fields, wild poppies, and along the sand dunes on the coast for about 15km, when we stopped for lunch at Tulum, a beach resort area.  A side of lumpia, a tuna sandwich, and beer!  The girls played in the sand while we got to know DaeDae a bit better.  He's a student studying International Law and is contemplating Stanford, Harvard, Oxford, etc.  You know which one we pumped for.  As we were to find out, he's incredibly up on American politics and put us to shame with his knowledge of U.S. affairs. 

After a liesurely lunch, we finished our total of 43km for this day in about 5 hours.  Not bad for we septo's.  We went through flat countryside with farms and lots of animals for the girls to spot, and through round-abouts that had bike lanes, to our destination of Leiden and the Golden Tulip Hotel.  Our only casualty was Meghan veering off course into a holly bush when she couldn't make a turn.  Some of the paths have quite narrow portions and sharp 90 degree turns where it's tricky to maneuver.  A scrape, a cut, and wounded pride was the score.  The hotel was a very modern, glass-faced building and was quite nice.  We all opted for nice, hot showers and afterward walked to the old part of town for dinner.  DaeDae took off on his bike to return by train to Haarlem for the night.  He'd return in the morning.

The city is a college town, featuring Leiden University, the oldest in Holland.  It boasts 13 Nobel prize winners and twins with Oxford.  It being summer break, we didn't see many students about, but there were hoards of folks at outdoor cafes.  We ended up at Scarlatti's for beer and comfort food along the Oude Rijn river, a branch of the Rhine delta.  Great for people and boat-watching.

A slow stroll back to the hotel, watch a little Women's World Cup, and ZZZZZ's for our bods.

HAARLEM

 Trip Date: June 21, 2019.  [Click on pics to enlarge]

We got a leisurely start as John & Meghan's 2-star Michelin dinner last night took 4 hours and they didn't finish until midnight!  Five courses with an "eating in the kitchen" theme so they could watch everything being prepared. Very nice!  Once we finished cereal and lugged the bags down that stairway, we waited out front for our van-taxi which would take us to the starting city for our bike tour, Haarlem.  An uneventful and unscenic trip, so no pics.  Our hotel was the Staats, a nifty boutique housed in an 1800's building.

 It was pretty weird inside our room, with the glass shower facing right into the room and an island sink plopped down in the middle.  Strange, but posh.  Stranger still was the menu of "options" one could order.  We did not.  The extra bed was for Isla for the night.

Haarlem is much more laid back than Amsterdam, much less crowded and frenetic.  We got here around 11:00, so after unpacking we went looking for a clothing store so I could get a shirt.  Found a nice store, and a nice shirt, at a gulp price, at least by my standards.  Oh well, Loni says it looks good on, and should be good for future trips as well.  Had lunch at another waffle/crepe place, not as gigantic as the last one.  We had scheduled another canal cruise, so we walked through the main plaza on our way there,

and along some small canals.  Our cruise turned out to be exactly what we avoided in Amsterdam.  Big long boat (not shown), covered over with glass ceilings (so plenty of hot sun, not so much breeze), and a recorded commentary that told us very little.  Mercifully, it only lasted 50 minutes.  But, it did have one very excellent feature.  They provided slices of real apple pie with whipped cream, and they were excellent.  The girls concurred.

Somewhat sated with pie, we returned to the hotel for a brief crash, then off to the main plaza for people watching and some beer (detect a theme here?).  On sunny evenings, there are zillions of folks out and communing.

We had dinner in a huge sushi restaurant just off the square.  Again, excellent.  We'd gotten most of the way back to the hotel when Loni realized she didn't have her RED HAT!  That hat, or its replacement, has been on her noggin for at least a decade of our travels.  It's how I locate her in crowds.  We hustled back and, thankfully, it was still there. That silly thing draws comments wherever we go, and she was very happy to get it back.

 

WE GOGH, GOGH, GOGH

 Trip Date: June 19-20, 2019

[Click on any pic to enlarge]

We managed to get some sleep last night, but it's always a challenge at the end of 30+ hours of being up, long flight, unfamiliar bed, and late night trolleys.  Breakfast at the flat, then a walk through a light-but-steady rain to the Van Gogh Museum, about a half hour slow stroll.  We all got wet, but dried out pretty quickly once inside.  This is a hot ticket, with timed entry by reservation only, so I had booked it online before leaving home.  Had a nice tour, and we agreed we liked his later works best, but it was all good.  This poster in the lobby was the only place we were allowed a photo, so selfie it is!

After the museum we walked some more and ended up at a Pizza restaurant for lunch.  Fortunately, the rain had stopped so we could eat al fresco.  Since John and the girls had left coatless, we hunted up a clothing store and John bought a very nice jacket.  Alas, we couldn't find anything suitable for the girls.  We returned to the flat for a rest before taking off for our 4:00 afternoon canal boat cruise.  Before leaving home, I had researched options for these cruises and found literally hundreds of them.  I wanted to avoid the long, glass-topped mega boats with dozens of passengers, and I found great reviews for a small, owner-operated one that had tons of enthusiastic reviews. They were right!  Rederij Paping is the operator, and Googling that will bring up his site and reviews on Trip Advisor.  (I tried to insert a link, but Blogger keeps screwing it up.)  That's our boat motoring off.

Our pilot was Bob, 60-something, who's been doing these tours for 20 years after ditching a career in tech in the Boston area.  He and his family live on a canal boat, and he is a real history buff.  We got a top-notch commentary as we cruised about.  A nice thing about a smaller boat is that we got to go in narrower passageways that the big guys miss.  Plus, being able to dialogue with your operator was a plus.

After the cruise (a little over 90 minutes), we had time to stroll a bit before dinner and stumbled upon a Dutch icon, the Tulip Museum.  I thought the ones outside were the prettiest.  Then it was time to look for a dinner place and we ended up at La Florita, eating outside at a linen-clad table.  Tongue appetizer (yum!), lamb tagliatelle for Loni and a turbot for me, with gelatto for dessert.

After a cereal breakfast the next morning, we went out walking again.  Amsterdam is a maze of streets and canals, and we made good use of Google maps' pedestrian views as we meandered.

We steered towards the De Hallen shopping area to window shop in its old warehouses/train station setting.  Best of all, we found a Dutch pancakes emporium which was something I had been lusting for.  Yes!  Loni and I split two dishes, one a savory ham & cheese, the other a sweet apple, almond, calvados and whipped cream wonder.  Call it a late breakfast.  Yeah.  Afterwards, more walking around until it was time for a beer break.

Refreshed, we continued exploring. 

One of the most extraordinary places in the center of Amsterdam can be found behind a door on Spuiplein. It leads to the Begijnhof (Beguinage), a medieval inner courtyard where the women of the Catholic sisterhood lived.  The place is amazingly serene in the middle of the bustle and crowds of Amsterdam. The Beguinage was established somewhere in the 14th century to house the Begijnen. These women lived like nuns but were more independent and had more freedom. The Catholic faith was banned in the 16th century, and the Begijnhof was the only Catholic institution that continued to exist because the houses were the private property of the women. The last Beguine died in 1972.  Loni is in front of the Englese Kerk (English Church) dating from the 1400's.

 

We'd had enough walking for the day, and retreated to the flat for some laundry and flop time.  Meghan and John went out to celebrate her recent promotion, so we took the girls out to Pastis, just a short walk away.  Again, great food beautifully served.  We are eating well in Amsterdam.  Back to the flat, bedtime stories for the girls, and to bed.  I discovered that I'd left one of my three super-travel shirts (wash and drip dry) at home.  Augh!  Can't get by for a month with just two, so more shopping in the offing.

Don't know whether this is just a very old abandonment or some sort of street art, but it seems symbolic of bike-crazy Holland:

 

 

 

 

TRIPLE PLAY

 Trip Date: Jun 17-18, 2019

 

Finally.  It's only been 14 months since we got back, so it's about time I got around to documenting one of our best trips ever.  It all started with a casual comment by DIL Meghan about doing a family vacation somewhere.  She tossed out biking through Holland, and Loni immediately ate it up.  Biking?  Us?  Yeah, we have bikes, and they get trotted out maybe once a year if we're lucky.  But we're dead game sports, right?  And, Meghan offered to do the legwork!  Well, all righty.  After many weeks of researching, she came up with a company and a plan.  Cough up the dough (cough, hack!) and we'll be ready to go with a late June start date for the tour.

Of course, I couldn't leave it at that.  After all, we're paying big bucko's  for the flights over and back, so we have to amortize them to the max, right?  After Holland, the kids were going to go visit friends in Stockholm, so we would be on our own.  I dove into some research of my own for options to extend our stay.  After much digging, the stars aligned and we had our plan.  Right after the end of our bike tour, there was an 7-day cruise to the Norwegian fjords on Holland America Line, departing from and returning to Amsterdam.  Then, our old favorite, Collette Tours, was running a 9-day "Imperial Cities" tour starting in Prague, then Vienna, and finishing in Budapest, with a day stop in Bratislava thrown in.  It started two days after the cruise got back, so we added a quick train trip to Berlin to pass the time.  This all sounds so smooth now, but the planning, tickets, reservations, etc. were, um, challenging.  Once done, we started practicing on the bikes, set up an itinerary, and waited for the big day.

Chuck picked us up and ferried us to LAX and to British Air.  This was my big mistake of the trip.  Chasing a reasonable fare for economy+, I made the bonehead decision to use connecting flights instead of direct to Amsterdam.  We'd fly to Heathrow and change for the hop across the Channel.  Of course, this adds mucho hours to an already long, sleepless day and night.  We had a 4.5 hour layover.  Ugh.  I will say that I managed to snag the primo seats in the eco+ category, and we had virtually no complaint with the plane (an ancient but just-refurbished 747 at the end of its life), the seats, the entertainment (I think I watched 4 movies), or even the food.  We were off!

We came in right over London on our approach to Heathrow, and had a fine view of the London "Eye" below, all 443 feet of it.  Heathrow is huge, and we walked for an eternity to get to our departure terminal for the next leg.  This does not bode well for our return, when we will have only 90 minutes to connect from our flight from Budapest to our flight home.  Worse, we have to go through security again on both legs.  We found seats for the layover duration, but no chance of a snooze as they were hard, upright, and in the midst of a ton of other travelers.  I had purchased a SIM card good for most all of Europe that would last us to just the end of the trip, so I spent part of our wait reading the instructions, swapping out my Verizon SIM, and activating the new one.  I wasn't any too sure I understood the directions, but it seemed to work, so we were good to go.  We were going to use What'sApp to communicate with John & Meghan, which turned out to work very well.  

The flight over was only 40 minutes, most of that circling, and we grogged our way through customs and baggage claim and got a taxi ($60!!) to our apartment in Amsterdam where we would connect with the family.  We would be at Marnixstraat 360, a third floor (they call it 2nd) walkup with very narrow stairs.  Arrow points to our balcony.

Our bedroom was in front, with a view of the street, streetlights, and trolley lines below.  Also within hearing distance of the street and trolley lines below.

The apartment was large, with a nice kitchen and bedrooms at the back for the family.  While certainly adequate, the furnishings were somewhat spartan and tired.  I made good use of my sleep mask and earplugs, as Amsterdam doesn't sleep on my schedule.  It was quite nicely located, in the middle of the range of things we wanted to see, so it worked out well.  No fun hauling our bozo suitcase up those stairs, though.

Although running on fumes, we needed some food so we took off walking to find a restaurant for a light dinner.  We found a good one, and the girls even got to self-scoop some ice cream from the proprietor's supply.  Whew!!  this long day was finally at an end.

SAYONARA

 TRIP DATE: Sept 7-8, 2018

All of Collette's tours end with a group dinner.  Some of them have been great, others only so-so.  This one was great!  Falsely billed in our itinerary as a geisha show, our performer actually was a 16 year-old novice (although quite advanced) called a maiko.  Frankly, we wouldn't have known the difference.  Maiko means "dancing child," and they have to live in a geisha house ("okiya") for five years to be eligible to become a geisha.  They are not supposed to have a cell phone, carry money, or have a boyfriend.  Their costumes are generally more colorful than those used by a geisha, they have a red collar at the back, and only the maiko's lower lip is painted red.  Geisha as a profession is not that old, dating from the 1750's.  Ours was a sweetie.

Our dinner setup was quite nice.  The group was seated at four or five tables.
 

This is the startup setup.  Hors d'oeuvres, I guess.  Very pretty.

However, disaster was waiting.  Loni can't eat shellfish, and Alice can't eat chicken.  This was communicated to the restaurant via our guide ahead of time.  Unfortunately, they took this to mean vegetarian as they didn't want to chance causing a reaction.  Thus, all the fine sushi, fish, duck and other goodies were substituted by tofu in every dish for the gals.  Augh!  That was NOT what they wanted.  Indeed, Alice also cannot eat tofu!  Their reactions were priceless.

Sadly, there was no going back.  No re-dos.  Yoshiko to the rescue, at least for Alice, as our sweetheart guide exchanged her meal for Alice's.  I split all of mine with Loni, so we each at least had a taste of everything.  Loni and I also split some of the tofu, but there's only so much of that stuff you can take.  Each person's rice was cooked in individual pots placed over a small flame at each placemat.  When the flame burned the wick down and went out, the rice was done!  Seemed to work for everyone.  I hope they have an industrial size dishwasher in the back.  Here's the sushi and, I think, some sort of dessert.

 

It all was quite good.  Kudos to Collette for not skimping.  As this was our last night, and we weren't sure we would see anyone in the pre-dawn departures tomorrow, we gave Yoshiko her tip envelope at the restaurant.  Of all the guides we have had, and they all have been at least good, she was the best.  She was a great scrambler when the typhoon upset our plans, she worked tirelessly to help people make reservations, and was always cheerful.

The next morning we made one last assault on the excellent breakfast buffet with pastries and made-to-order omelettes, tanking up for the uncertain day ahead until our 2:00 flight.  

 

We finished our packing and I made reservations online for a Morro Bay RV get-together six months hence.  Today was the day that the reso's opened and they fill up fast.  Yea, internet!  At 10:00 we took off for the airport in a shuttle with C&A and another couple.  We got there in plenty of time, and check-in was quick, so there was time for a lunch.  Unlike the chain stuff we suffer in the U.S., they serve real food in Japan.

Sayonara, Japan.  You were everything we had hoped for!

TEMPLES AND SHRINES: KYOTO

 Trip Date: September 6, 2018

My sloth in catching up on these posts is getting worse.  I think nearly two years post-event is a record.  "Yesterday" was a rather sobering outing to Hiroshima; today should be a bit more upbeat.  Kyoto is loaded with shrines and temples, and we will hardly scratch the surface.  

Each morning of a bus tour day, Yoshiko would post her hand-drawn maps in the bus to "orient" us to where we were.  They were always amusing, sometimes helpful.  The big maps at the venue ranged from cryptic to excellent, as was this one for the Golden Temple. 

Kinkaku (the Golden Pavilion) is a shariden, a Buddist hall containing relics of Buddha.  It is part of a Zen Buddhist temple that is formally named Rokuon-ji.  The gardens and buildings are said to represent the Pure Land of Buddha in this world.  He could do a lot worse.  The place is beautiful, and is a World Cultural Heritage site.

These photos are a triumph of rudeness over civility.  The place was jam packed with tourists, mostly Japanese, and it took a bit of shouldering to get any shot without a lot of bodies in it.  The upper two levels are covered with gold foil on lacquer, and a phoenix stands on the peak.  The pond is the center of the gardens, and the rocks were donated by provincial lords of the various periods.  No one is allowed inside other than the monks.

As we were walking around, a teacher with a handful of students in tow asked if we had a minute to answer a few questions for their English homework assignment.  Sure!  Each one asked basic questions in turn (where from, why here, where else have we visited, etc.).  Every one took notes furiously.  Their eyes were like saucers when Loni started rattling off all the countries we have visited.  Cute.

Next up was the Nijo-jo Castle, completed in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan after a long period of civil war.  His Shogunate (1603-1867) was one of peace and prosperity.  He announced his appointment as Shogun by the Emperor to the feudal lords at the Nijo-jo castle.  In 1867, it also was the site of the announcement of the return of power to the Emperor, ushering in the Meiji Period.  No photos were allowed of the interior, so this exterior shot will have to suffice.  Loni getting her shot at the right.

 

Our tour was a shoes-off affair, to protect the tatami mats.  Lots of painted screens, decorated ceilings, wide corridors, gardens all around.  Much more extensive and elaborate than the samurai house we saw.  As we exited there was, natch, a store with various stuff to buy.  Only one caught my eye -- a green matchi beer, considered a local delicacy.  Had to try it.  Meh.

Refreshed by the bog brew, we moved on to Fushimi Inari Taisha in southern Kyoto, the most important of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, 233 meters high. Foxes are thought to be Inari's messengers, thus the many fox statues across the shrine grounds. The shrine has ancient origins, predating the capital's move to Kyoto in 794.

 The building in the lower right is the main entrance pavilion, and the upper right shows the beginnings of one of the torii trails.  Here's a shot I snatched from the web:

None of the trails was ever this uncrowded.  They were absolutely choking with tourists, mostly Japanese.  This same scene is in the lower left, below.  Curious as to why this entrance is guarded by unpainted toris.

While it was fairly spectacular to see thousands of these things in seemingly endless tunnels, the heat, humidity, and crush of humanity eventually made it an "I gotta get out of here" moment.  Time for a relax and a fan.  One of the fox statues is on guard.

This trio, out for the day in costume (rented by the day), were happy to be photographed.  the whole point of dressing up was to be seen, right?  Then it was back to our hotel, the Westin Miyako, which was very nice and located amidst a lot of green areas.  Chuck posing by one of the sculptures at the entrance.
 

Loni in the outer lobby area, and the local English rag with updates on the typhoon.  The locat Kansai International airport closure was very bad news for many of our group who had reservations on flights home originating there.  It was under a foot of water, being built on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka Bay, reachable only be a single bridge (or boat).  Unfortunately, the bridge got smacked by the freighter that broke loose, and was sufficiently damaged to require closing.  A couple thousand souls were trapped at the airport.  Our group members started desperately trying to rebook their flights home from aTokyo airport.  Collette was able to help those who had booked through them, but the rest were on their own.  Ack!  To make things worse, they still had to get from Kyoto to Tokyo.  Some braved the bullet train on their own (a transfer somewhere was required), others were transported by Collette via bus, a nine hour journey leaving at 6am. Double Ack!  We are going out of the older, domestic Osaka airport on dry land, to connect with our flight home from Tokyo's Narita.

We ate dinner at the hotel's "gourmet buffet" which, at 4500 Yen (about $40) per wasn't cheap, but it was all you can eat and really quite good.  We had sushi, salad, soup, veggies, meats (beef, duck, mutton, chicken, salmon) and lots of dessert options, of which I made a comprehensive survey.  We rolled back to room 222, fully sated and thankful we didn't have to deal with trying to make reservations home.  One of our party was exhausted and in tears in the restaurant, and words of comfort were all we could offer.  

Our last day was on our own until the farewell group dinner that evening.  We chose to stay within walking distance of the hotel as there was plenty to see close by.  Virtually next door was the Nanzenji Temple, whose grounds are located at the base of Kyoto's forested Higashiyama mountains.  It is one of the most important Zen temples in all of Japan and is the head temple of one of the schools within the Rinzai sect of Japanese Zen Buddhism.  This is the Sanmon entrance gate, which dates from 1628.

 Trio of stiffs on pathway to gate.

 

One of the shrines inside.

After the temples, we made our way over to the Murim An private gardens.  Would that I could recreate this place in my back yard.  Don't think it would survive in drought-ridden SoCal.  This was peaceful bliss epitomized.  

Serenity now, as Mr. Costanza would say.