two days' worth

alright, so i finish my gelato, the last little bit of deliciousness from italy, and get a 1.5 liter bottle of water. i walk out and start heading to the boat stop to go to the train station. who do i meet? my lovely companions, sitting at the very next restaurant, in plain view of my fountain escapade...

i walk up and pull up a chair. they're cool, but something's amiss. kelli's quiet, while erika endulges me in the small talk i was making. uh oh. that can only mean one thing: trouble.

"so, i notice that you paid a third of the balance, not of the bill. i told you last night that i paid a 20% deposit." shit. of course she had, and, of course, i had forgotten. i'm not a malicious man by nature, but, by her tone, i was this morning! her and my agreement, before the trip, was that i would cover the traveling expenses and she would cover the hotel/hostel expenses and that we would make it all right at the end. erika was to pay me her portion of the travel expenses at the end as well, and then all would be well. right?

unfortunately, after erika pulled some money out of the bank initially, it wouldn't allow her to pull any cash out of the bank after that. (editorial comment: after this experience and my previous experience with bank of america, never bank there; pull your money out and find a nice little credit union or reputable entity that is not wells fargo and enjoy your banking experience, but never go to b of a.) the girls made an arrangement that superseded the arrangements that i had with them, which was fine,

but unknown until after their agreement had been made. and now they wanted to settle everything up. the problem that i had with that is that i'm putting the travel portion of this trip on my credit card and having an extra 200 euro will not help me pay off my credit card. (after much frustration and three international calls lastng at least 15 minutes each, erika was finally able to sort everything out and can get cash from the atm all is well, rest assured.)

the 15 euro that i didn't cover got under kelli's skin, and this was the conversation we were having, i figured out that i had goofed, which raised this point of contention, we talked it out, and now we have it sorted out...i hope.

after they had their cappuccino, we split up the huge hunk of milk chocolate from the night before that kelli didn't want melting in her pack for some odd reason. we threw some away, 'cause it was too much. then we walk to the boat stop to return to the train station.

when we get there, we decide to head to the airport sooner than later. this cuts into our ability to see much more of venice, but at least we get to the airport on time. earlier than expected, even.

at treviso airport, which is in the little town of treviso, italy (beautiful little town, really), we get through security and into the cattle call area of the gate. we load up. a little over an hour and 300 advertisements later (thank you, ryanair), we arrive in charleroi, brussels.

the girls made a friend who needs to get to the charleroi train station too, so he helps us through baggage collection to the bus stop. andrew is fresh out of college, lives in brussels, and has worked for the european union for the last two months. he's picking up french, but his accent is terrible (i got to hear him at the train station). he was quite friendly.

luckily, the train we needed was running late, so we got to ride it :20 after it was supposed to depart. we make an extra transfer that we didn't need to, and had to listen to the cussing that the nederlander made in the row ahead of us when he found out that the netherlands was losing in the euro cup (thanks to the little cutie that clued us in about the announcements made in dutch over the intercom). but, we get to schiphol, the airport of amsterdam. about an hour later, the hotel bus shows up, and we go to spend the night in ibis.

now, i have fond memories of hotel ibis, of the accor chain. the rooms are modern and nice, nothing great in size, but sufficient. this ibis is much the same, only older. the girls all pile into one room, leaving me to myself. i fall asleep around 2:15 am...we have to meet downstairs at 8:00 for the shuttle back to the airport to meet the group.

and we do. they come around, many of them wearing the purple t-shirts that kelli's mom tried to get for me too (but thankfully failed), and we load up. our tour guide's name is norbert, and he's an older gentleman, very kind. english is not his first language, but he speaks it very well. our driver, hergaart (i'm making that up as i go along, but it's how his name sounds, with a very strong h sound to kick it off) is also good-natured, although his handle on the english language is minimal at best.

after a couple of jokes about the red light district and the pot shops, we go to the van gogh museum (we've been saying his name for a very, very long time...) and have an independent lunch. after, we go back to the airport to pick up some others, then head to downtown amsterdam.

amsterdam is a beautiful town, with 88 canals running through it. the homes that line the streets and canals are like brownstones, multi-leveled, no side yard, and absolutely beautiful. the facades are all different, but they're very nice. we have a few minutes to walk through one of the tulip markets downtown
, then head out to sossenheim, where we're staying for three nights.

with the newly jet-lagged, we have some free time before supper. there's not a damn thing to do here, though, so we're all confined to our hotel rooms, basically. i get internet tv set up, some of the clankers practice...

supper was nice. starting with a delicious vegetable soup, the main course was a wienerschnitzel with mushroom sauce (a little dry, but otherwise good - well, for everyone but the mushroom-opposed), a side plate of skillet-fried potatoes, green beans (sliced diagonally into thin strips with an odd spice on top, maybe nutmeg or allspice), and french fries. we finished supper with a piece of apple struedel and homemade whipped cream. delicious.

after the meal, well, i blogged. then crashed...yesterday was a whole new day...


(and, if you would like to follow along on their adventures, kelli's mom started a blog after finding out about this one: http://campanillasdelsol.blogspot.com/. have at it, kids!)