Just arrived

So, we have arrived. And it’s pouring rain! They say we have brought a blessing of rain with us – it hasn’t rained in almost a year here. We are hiding in our room, feeling dumb after a very long travel day(s). Terry says that studies show that being sleep deprived makes you dumb. And the tricky part is that you still feel like you are functioning. When we landing in Amsterdam yesterday, we knew we were tired, as it was 4am our time (1pm in Amsterdam), but were determined to at least have a peek at the city during our 8 hour layover. We caught a train from the airport and were downtown in 15 minutes. Very efficient (the train that is... us, not so much).

It was a sunny, chilly but comfortable, 4 degrees. We took a one hour canal tour and Cody took a million pictures. It was so quaint. Brick buildings, skinny row houses, houseboats, arched bridges, bicycles everywhere. After the canal tour, we had to see the infamous red light district. It was pretty cool at first to actually be there after hearing so much about it, but the feeling quickly turned from cool to extremely uncomfortable. It’s just wrong for a mom (me) to be walking past prostitutes, peep shows and drug shops with her son and husband.

Amsterdam seemed like such a contradiction to me – quaint and picturesque at the same time as being seedy. My first impressions:

• The people are tall, all very fashionable.
• There is a much higher black population than I expected.
• The place is LOUSY with bicycles – they are EVERYWHERE, even more so than in Tokyo. Huge parking lots just for bikes. No one wears helmets. They all seem to be comfort bikes – didn’t see any speed or mountain bikes.
• Loads of grafitti.
• Great bakeries – we had yummy sandwiches at a neat little bakery run by a Greek and an Iraqi who were both very friendly
• Rows and rows of brick buildings (aparments?), none very tall maybe 4 or 5 stories at most.
• Beautiful doors (many painted black, but all different, hopefully the pictures will do it justice).

I think Terry and I will go back on our layover on the way home. I didn’t get to see any old fashioned wind mills, which I guess you have to go farther out for. There may be a few tulips in bloom in March when we are on our way home.

Now, to Nairobi.

We are hiding in our room at the Methodist Guest House. It's raining as I mentioned, something we were NOT counting on! We are in a suburb of Nairobi, so it is safe here. We are all tired, I think I said that already. We did manage to sleep on the plane, but the 9 hour time difference and the 30 hour travel day will likely have us a bit wonky for a few days. It is so nice to know we will be here for a long time so we can relax into it.

We were met at the airport by Janet and Daniel from Exotic Expeditions. Janet is a 31 year old Rotarian with impeccable English which she mastered after 2 years of theatre training. In addition to owning the travel company, she also is a television newscaster. She helped us to book our first few days stay and our safari which we will take in February before Cody goes home.

I’m feeling like my dumbness is kicking in, so time for a nap I think (it's 3am back home, no idea what time it is here, afternoon sometime I think)… more about my first impressions of Kenya to come later. We all feel pretty blown away to be here!