Panama City to Amsterdam - August 9 – 10

As I suspected there was no time or reliable internet to keep up the blog, so I will go through the thousands of photos and do it one day at a time. I will do a recap at the end, but I can tell you words just can’t explain how AWESOME this trip was! Here is the first installment:

Panama City to Amsterdam - August 9 – 10

my total luggage for the trip - Greg had the same size duffle and had a bit bigger backpack

 

Sharon drove us to the bus stop at 10:30 in the morning and after a few hugs we waited less than 5 minutes for a large bus to the city. After arriving at the main bus station at Albrook Mall, we went inside the mall for some lunch at Leños y Carbon. Then it was back to the bus station to grab the bus to the airport. It’s a bit of a walk to get to the airport from the bus stop, but without carrying bags, it wouldn’t be bad. We got checked in and found our gate and waited for them to call for boarding.

Our flight on KLM left at 7:05 PM (it actually left quite early since everyone was on board). We arrived in Amsterdam at 12:30 PM. (it also arrived about a half hour early) It’s a 10 hour & 25 minute flight. KLM provides very good service on their flights. The flight attendants are pleasant and they hustle out drinks and nuts as soon as they are at altitude. Then, they came around with dinner and more drinks. Then, about an hour or so before landing they bring out their snack. (pizza, salad and dessert) In between those things they bring around bottles of water. I was up in the night to use the bathroom and she was right there to hand me water. We paid a bit more to upgrade to “comfort seats” that provide a bit more space which was nice since it was a sleeping flight. They also provided breakfast before landing.

The Airport Sheraton Hotel is located in the airport so was quite convenient for flying out early the next morning. We checked in and the room was ready so we grabbed a shower and got train tickets to Centraal Station. http://www.sheratonamsterdamairporthotel.com/ It actually was a pretty nice room.

We had visited the Netherlands a few years ago, so we didn’t add on any more days here. We wandered along the canal and along some of the side streets as well as taking in the Red Light District before taking the train back to the airport. We had beautiful warm weather and it was a fine day just to wander.

We started off by stopping for gelato and ended up getting this creation instead:

 Del Gelato (Greg by the door)

me, eying the large ice cream cone.....



Here are some of the sites as we just wandered:

 Centraal Train Station

 cute little car

 hop on - hop off boat



We grabbed some Dutch fries (we have had similar ones in Belgium before), they are double fried and crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside and topped (if you want) with your choice of topping and sprinkled with onions. We grabbed a step on the street and gobbled them up.

 the line was long.....



We wandered some more and stopped for Dutch Pancakes. (think crepes and they come in sweet and savory) We got there and the small place was packed and was due to close in a half hour, but one couple left earlier than they anticipated and as we were turning to go they grabbed us and seated us.

 Pancakes! (that's the name of the restaurant)

 bacon, red onion and Dutch Cheese Pancake

 Ham and Goat Cheese Pancake



We then wandered our way to the Red Light District which didn’t have much going on (and photos aren’t allowed anyway of the girls), but a few kinky shops were great photo ops. (more photos on my Picasa Web Albums)



We got to the train station and there were no trains going to the airport. That was curious and then an announcement came that a fire alarm had gone off at the airport and no trains were permitted until it was deemed safe to go to the airport. We waited about a couple of hours and finally the train started running again. We grabbed gelato at the airport and then got some much needed sleep.