Trevor was the photographer on our journey. I thought it would be interesting to look back on our adventures through his eyes, seeing what caught his attention as he experienced places and things for the first time. He took lots of pictures, so I had plenty of choices in choosing what to share here.
LONDON
We started our trip by flying to London on an overnight flight. We arranged an afternoon-long layover before our connecting flight to Amsterdam to give Trevor a tiny taste of London. We took the tube into the Tower of London area where we spent some time walking around and seeing the sights.
After a nice walk we took the tube to Leicester Square and found a Chineese restaurant for lunch. Lots of decorations were still in place as the Lunar New Year celebrations had concluded just a few days earlier:
AMSTERDAM
We spent a day in Amsterdam resting up from the flight and London. Our hotel, a Holiday Inn, was located a ways south of the center city, near the RAI convention center. It turned out to be a perfect location because it was at the end of a tram line (meaning we could wait inside the warm tram cars instead of on a cold platform) and an easy walk to the metro and railway stations. The neighborhood was generally residential, although the hotel was surrounded by other hotels, office buildings and convention center stuff. We enjoyed staying away from the hustle and bustle of central Amsterdam, yet it was great having access to it with an easy tram ride. Go-anywhere tram passes made it all effortless.
Since we took the train (railway) from the airport directly to the RAI station, Trevor's first look at the city was through the back door, rather than seeing it for the first time emerging from Centraal Station, the introduction most people make. He had a tram ride through the suburbs before we were thrust into the throngs of people and the bustle that is so typical of the city.
Joe arranged things so that one of our first stops was at his favorite Vlameese Frites (Flemish french fries) stand, to introduce Trevor to one of his favorite Dutch treats. The stand is a takeout-only window that serves made from scratch fries in paper cones topped with your choice ofseveral different sauces. The traditional (and by far the most popular) sauce is a Belgian mayonnaise, but there are lots of others to choose from, including ketchup, curryketchup, peanut, cheese, beef and I'm not sure what else. I've even seen some people get their sauce topped with tiny diced raw onions. The stand has been around for several decades, we've been visiting it for many years, and they always serve up the world's best fries.
Since we were taking things easy for our first nights in Amsterdam, we mostly just wandered around and spent some time getting the feel for things. At one point we wandered into a candy store and Trevor began chatting with the young men working there, asking them for recommendations on what to try. A very fun evening.
TRIP TO NURNBERG
After 2 nights in Amsterdam, we boarded an early morning train for the trip to Nurnberg. We had booked the trip well ahead of time, getting us rock-bottom fares and letting us opt for the trip with the most train-changes so we could show Trevor how its done. We wound up on 5 different trains on the trip out, which were more than we actually needed as Trevor caught on to things right away and was able to find the right platforms, trains, cars and seats for us by the second change. The unexpected bonus was that all those changes managed to route us on tracks running along the Rhine river for most of the trip through Germany, rather than the usual Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Nurnberg route. So we spent a sunny afternoon relaxing on the train, enjoyingthe incredibly beautiful scenery along the Rhine. It was a fantastic ride.
On the platform, Amsterdam Centraal Station
above: views of a rainy morning in the Netherlands. Our train took us through Utrecht and Arnhem before crossing into Germany.
above: views from the trip along the Rhine
