Jet lag caught up to me last night and I was awake at midnight. We had to get up at 3:15 to get ready to go to the airport, so it was not good that I didn’t really start getting sleepy again until about 2:45! We left our B&B at 4:15 in a minivan traveling 85 mph to Heathrow. I am not kidding about the 85. And not kilometers per hour, either. It was in miles! I know how fast because I could see the speedometer. Everyone on our plane going to Amsterdam was all business and very serious. They were in a huge hurry, too. I thought Amsterdam was laid back, but I guess these were British business people just heading over for meetings.
We got there in about half an hour. Then, we took a bus to Haarlem and arrived at around 11:30 AM. Haarlem is all bicycles. Actually, a lot of Amsterdam is bicycles. As we drove to
Haarlem on the bus, we could see that there were tons of bikes parked at evey bus station. I kept falling asleep on the bus because I hadn’t slept last night. We were able to check into our room about 1:30 and then I took a nap for about an hour and a half. Then, I washed clothes in 
the sink. Speaking of our hotel, it is done in an Egyptian motif, as you can see in the picture. Very funny. Not sure why they chose that.
Haarlem is an old city with cobblestone streets and a huge church in the middle of it. We will probably go to an organ concert there tomorrow night. Mozart and Handel have played that organ.
We met up with our tour group at 4:30, or as we say here in Europe, 1630. There are 16 of us all together, plus the tour guide. There are two women that are lawyers. One is an experienced one, and the other has only practiced for a year. One woman is an executive coach. There is a couple that lives in Rhode Island and Pine Island, Florida. There are a couple people from Seattle, a couple from Eureka, California, another Florida couple, a girl from Monterey, two ladies from Plano, TX, a girl from Canada, a girl from Dallas, and a guy from NYC. They seem like a nice group.
We went on a guided walking tour of Haarlem (led by a local guy named Hans) with the group and then went to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant.
We are now back to the hotel and getting ready for tomorrow’s activities in Amsterdam.
4 comments:
Hey Kel ... One of those times I went to Germany I had to go to the contract office in Haarlem. I thought it was quite neat! I didn't get a chance to sight-see much though ... just walked to and from work for two days.
Wow, that's neat. I didn't know you had been here. I liked Haarlem.
There is a girl in the picture that from the back looks like little Paula. Is she with your group? I saw her in another of your pictures. I don't think her hair is quite as short. Just an observation. Your group is quite diverse from the US as far as geography goes.
That girl is our tour guide, Jennifer. I think that's who you mean. The blonde with rather short hair?
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