Arrival in Amsterdam

After spending a very short time in our newly acquired 1984 Volkswagen van, the kids christened it, "Smelly."

Our flight from San Francisco landed in Amsterdam during a full gale, a wind that knocked over the port-o-potties in the parking lot and made our first breath of European air quite exciting. We were met at the airport by a friend of a woman who sold us a a red 1984 Volkswagen camper van over the Internet. The rest of our first day was spent completing the transaction, a somewhat surreal episode made foggier by lack of sleep and food.

A jolly Dutch guy chainsmoking marijuana cigarettes spent the afternoon helping Scott learn the ins and outs of our new car, while the kids and I took refuge in the office of Turner Imports - which doubled as Donna's kitchen. Donna is the cheerful owner of Turner Imports, a company she started that specializes in buying and selling used Volkswagens. She was originally from Ohio, but has been a resident of The Netherlands since the mid-70s. Her office/kitchen was accessible via a set of very narrow stairs above a garage, where her Turkish mechanic spent his time assembling and dissembling about a dozen Volkswagens. She kept the television on, so the kids and I could watch Some Like it Hot with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon while we completed our business.

Our bed and breakfast hostess cranked up the volume on a radio station playing American oldies while she chatted with us in Dutch.

We spent the night at a bed-and-breakfast run by a 75-year-old friend of Donna's who spoke no English. She rented us a single room at the very top of the third floor of her house. When she saw all of our bags (10 duffel bags, a saxaphone and a microscope) she cackled in a very cheerful way that communicated her complete disbelief at our traveling style. Her stairs were so narrow and steep that one had to dodge the heels of the person climbing directly in front, and it was nearly impossible to push our giant bags up to our room. We ended up piling most of the bags in her front entry and climbing down the stairs when we needed something in the morning. It snowed that night and was very cold, but we were quite snug in our tiny little room at the top of the stairs. Not much sleep however, due to the odd hours, odd beds and the snoring of the only person who fell asleep.

Breakfast was cheerfully served the next morning by our hard-of-hearing hostess, who kept two radios on high volume, both tuned to stations playing American oldies. She cooked us soft-boiled eggs, and served a large platter of bread, meats and cheeses. Kate was very happy to be given a box of chocolate sprinkles to shake on her white bread. Breakfast was identical both mornings, with lots of completely indecipherable conversation.

Hannah and Kate shivering in the freezing slush in front of the Anne Frank museum.

We spent our first full day in Europe touring Amsterdam, a beautiful city with much to see. Using the handy tourist circle bus, we visited a flea market, a Van Gogh museum, and the very interesting Anne Frank House. The kids fell asleep on the floor of the museum however, while Scott went out in a total blizzard to find a place to eat. We settled on Indian, as it was the closest and quickest place we could find, before retreating to the trains and a cold ride back to Utrecht.

The next day we headed off in our smelly, noisy, strange and perfectly roomy camper van to visit our friends in Strasbourg, France.

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Amsterdam | Strasbourg | Montpellier | Lisbon | London | Desserts | Bilbao | Segovia | Vitoria

Donica Mensing
dmensing@unr.edu
Last updated May 1, 2002