5:30am wakeup call! We had to be dressed and ready with our luggage outside of our door at 6:30am. The idea of leaving our luggage just sitting outside of our room was a little unsettling, but we did decide to go down to breakfast around 7:00am. We enjoyed the buffet and strong coffee again, and met the group in the lobby at 7:45am to wait for our coach. (We did see our luggage on the cart!)
It was a very cool morning. I'm not sure of the temperature. We boarded a coach and rode to the port at the English Channel, stopping once to pick up a couple of more passengers. We boarded the "Pride of Callais" ferry, and embarked on our hour and a half ride across the channel to France. Oh, the drive to the ferry was around two hours. I cat napped, while Bryan enjoyed the scenery. The ferry was HUGE! People even take cars on them! There were several lounges, bars, a couple of places to eat, stores, and gambling.
We had a "self-service" lunch (of nothing traditional) and ejoyed getting a view of the white chalk cliffs of Dover as we left England!
We got off the ferry at a little after 1:30pm England time, but it was 2:30pm now local time. We walked out to our coach to meet our tour director. I should mention that we didn't have to show our passportsto leave England and enter France. We met our tour director, a small Italian woman who appeared to be around our age, named Chiara. She had a beautiful, thick Italian accent, and Bryan and I enjoyed hearing her talk.
We labelled our luggage for the porter, and boarded our coach for a minute, to drive to some toilets before heading to Amsterdam.
These toilets will be the subject of my nightmares for YEARS to come. Walking up to the restroom, I could see women walking out, gasping for air, their faces horrified. I did not end up using these toilets (which were free, by the way). I made it in to a stall, but was overcome by nausea, and had to escape for air. I decided I could wait!
We reboarded our coach, and Chiara gave us passport forms to fill out. This information is given to our hotels. She gave a good commentary on our way out of Callais, France, in to Belgium. Again, no passports were needed since Belgium is part of the European Union.
The drive through Belgium was uneventful. We saw agricultural areas, some industrial land, and stopped at a little after 6:30pm at AC Restaurant to eat. It was a self-service place, kind of like an MCL in the US. It had very nice toilets for .30 euros each. Bryan had Moules with Pommes Frites (muscles with french fries), and I had schnitzel (like a pork tenderloin) and pommes frites. The staff at the restaurant was very nice, and spoke with very good English. We had coke and diet coke with dinner. I looked for our favorite Belgian Wheat beer, Blue Moom, but they didn't have it.
Another .30 euros later, we were back on the road for another hour and 30 minutes to Amsterdam. It only took us around 15 minutes to drive into the Netherlands. Chiara gave a lot of information on Belgium and a brief history of the Netherlands. She also said that in the red light district in Amsterdam, people can buy drugs in coffee shops, and prostitution is legal! She did mention that there is a limit to how much drugs you can purchase! :-0
We saw several giant windmill power stations, and Chiara said that the Netherlands is very interested in "green energy".
We arrived at our hotel, "NH Schipol" near the airport in Amsterdam after 9pm. It was a nice hotel, and had a bar. We went ot the bar, where the Germany vs. Spain soccer game was on. We each had a Wieckse White beer. It was a cold beer, and was pretty good.
The room was nice, and our "double bed" was two twin beds pushed together.
This picture is actually on the morning of July 8, 2010... stay tuned for more!
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