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Hey Lyn, what's the name of that restaurant in Amersterdam?

November 17 & November 18, Thursday & Friday:
We took the night train to Amsterdam and after our arrival started walking along the street asking each several hotels about their prices, trying to find one that was in our budget. We were talking on the sidewalk when all of the sudden, the hotel clerk from the last hotel came out and lowered his price by 30 guilders; that was good enough for me. It was a very nice, if somewhat small room and breakfast was included. We stayed there 2 nights. The first day was nice but with evening showers, the next day had light rains. I wanted so much to skate around Amsterdam, but Lyn was too tired to skate when we arrived and it was wet from the first evening on. We did go on a wonderful boat tour. The pilots masterfully manuever these long boats around corners and through narrow passageways with only a few inches to spare. In fact, when going through some especially tight corners they will play the sound affects of screeching tires and a car crash. We walked by a restaurant with a rather unusual name: Fook Hing. I kept asking Lyn whether we should go back to that _____ restaurant.

A lawn roof on a houseboat. How do you mow it?

We saw houseboats along the canals; even one with a lawn for a roof. There were leaning houses; in a row of houses, there would be one which had settled and was leaning against the one next to it. We saw Anne Franks house; her whole family was forced to hide-out for years from the horrible Nazi occupation. Eventually someone reported the family and they were taken off to concentration camps. I think the only one to survive was the father, but Anne's diary and the house remain as reminders of how intollerant and hateful people can be. We event visited the red light district where there are the girls in the windows. As you walk along the street, you see window after window, each with scantily clad female in it, a virtual supermarket of sex.

An example of perseverence on our trip was when we went down to the train station to plan out our next few days travel. We were thinking about going to either The Hague or Brugge, staying there overnight, and then going to Paris the next morning. Lyn would be nearby with the luggage and I would wait in the short line, speak with the representative about train schedules and then discuss things with Lyn. One representative was very helpful and looked in a book rather than just the computer display for the Brussels/Brugge run which we were thinking of taking. When I went back to confirm schedules and make reservations, the representative that I spoke said that she did not have any information on the Brussels/Brugge run and when I mentioned the other representative, she said I was accusing her of lying. Rather than waste more time with her, I waited for the original representative to finish with one person and then I jumped in and talked to him.

This could not have happened during tourist season. The lines would have been very long and I could not have kept going back to get more information. However, we were able to make decisions each day on where we wanted to go, we didn't need solid plans as you must have during tourist season. Prior to that day we were planning on going to The Hague, but because of our flexibility we went to a more interesting destination in Brugge, the "Venice of the North". Also, just days before the trip, we had no intention of going to Garmish, which ended up being one of the best parts of our trip.

November 19, Saturday:
It was a rainy and cold day in Brugge, but we still couldn't help being impressed with this medievil city. As in Amersterdam, we took a boat cruise and as in Amsterdam it rained. This time, however, the boat wasn't covered, but we were provided umbrellas. The problem with a group of umbrellas together, is that if your umbrella is below the rest your okay. But, as I learned, if your umbrella is on top, your umbrella sends water to the next one, which sends even more water back to you.

A beautiful location for a slalom course. It was steep, but straight - very fast! I am doing a "one foot".

In Brugge (as well as Budapest and Krakow) we checked our luggage at the train station so that we could do sight-seeing that day. I much prefer checking luggage at a locker without intervention from an attendant. You just open the door, drop your bags in, insert some coins, take the key and go. Unfortunately, this was not possible at any of these cities. When we got back to retrieve our bags at the Brugge station, we were a few fennings short, but the nice attendant said that was okay. It was also nice not having to exchange currency yet another time.

November 20, Sunday (& evening of 19):
We arrived in Paris without hotel reservations at about 11:00 p.m.. Do we sound crazy? There was absolutely no problem. We took the subway to the island where Notre Dame Cathedral is. There is a hospital right next to it and in that hospital there is a little known about hotel. We asked one Parisian where to go and he took us straight to the emergency area. Some hospital workers directed us to the main lobby, which was unattended at that time. We waited a few minutes and then were escorted up to the hotel and were shown to our room. We did not have to show passports, credit cards or flash any cash and everybody was curteous and helpful even with our language barrier.

The newspaper article that I had cut out more than a year ago described the hotel as having no parallel in cleanliness (not surprising being within a hospital) and that half the rooms had views of Notre Dame. Our room was an attic room, so to speak. Part of the ceiling was slanted. In that slanted portion was a sunroof, very similar to a cars. By pressing a button, the window would actually open up. I guess the article was right. If I stood on the tips of my toes I could see Notre Dame. We could both do better by standing on a chair. However, I wonder if the author had really stayed in a room or just relied on hearsay. Regardless, I was still impressed. That night, we exited the hotel and went for a walk around Notre Dame.

The next morning was gorgeous! We strapped on our skates and skated from Notre Dame to the Eifell Tower. Along the Seine it was a wonderful skate and something which I would love to do again and again. There is a skater's slalom course just across the Seine from the tower. A young skater even volunteered to take our picture as we skated. We skated the slalom course for a couple of hours before unsuccessfully trying to locate Lyn's former room-mate, Agnes, who was now living in Paris. Then we skated up to the Arc De Triomph. We got on the wrong road, but eventually got there, stopping briefly at a store to pick up some bread and fruit. While digging through my pockets at the store I happened to put our plastic room key on the store counter. As we were preparing to leave, the shopkeeper came out to hand me the key I had left.

What's Paris without the Arc de Triomph. It's a great view and a lot of fun to watch some crazy traffic.

Adjacent to the arch, we found a bench, took off our skates, and lunched on bread and fruit. We were entertained by the sounds of screeching tires and the blare of horns. We walked down the Champs Elyses which has been described as the most beautiful boulevard in the world. Maybe it used to be, but the statement is no longer valid. The massive car traffic and the massive throngs of people walking along the extremely expansive sidewalks make it not much different then walking through any other major European city.

We went to the Latin Quarter to dine. After looking around for quite awhile, we sat down in a french restaurant. Several minutes later a waiter strolled by and told us how tired he was. After another few minutes we overheard the same waiter apologizing at another table for the long wait for their food. We were hungry and decided that we did not want to succumb to the same fate. So, we made a fast exit and entered the neighboring chinese restaurant. Not only did we have a great meal at a reasonable price, but we were given water immediately when we asked for it, and even a whole pitcher. There were no puzzled looks either. You see, Europeans only look on water as a mixer and never as something that should be drunk straight. If they do accept your request, they will usually charge you for some bottled water which CO2 was added. Drinking real water is below them. This was true even in the pristine alpine setting of Garmisch.

After eating, we went to a store to buy some more fruit when I spotted another filipina and started a conversation. She was telling us about how rude and inconsiderate the French are. Just then a man walks up to us. Having realized her foot was in her mouth, she covered up by saying "oh, except for my husband".

We spent the evening on our third boat tour of the trip. Our guide says that there are 34 Parisian bridges across the Seine and I must have passed by under all of them. The Eifell Tower was lit up and I took a picture of it with my little point-and-shoot camera that came out surprisingly great.

November 21, Monday:
We started out our second day in Paris with touring Notre Dame. The previous evening Lyn called Agne's sister and obtained another address for her. We tracked down the address which turned out to be an apartment building. We had two problems. The first was that we did not have the apartment number and the second was that it was a security building. Well, we waited for someone to exit and then entered before the security door closed. Then we started knocking on doors. Our first door happened to be the concierge, who seemed to want to kick us out of the building, but lacked the English skills to really communicate that to us. The answerer of another door pointed out where Agnes lived and when that door opened the search was over.

We spoke with Agnes for awhile but she could not leave her job. She did have quite a tale of changing employers and somehow being able to maintain her Philippine passport.

We went to the top of Lyn's favorite, the Eifell Tower. This was a structure that was built for the world's fair and scheduled to be torn down soon afterward. Initially, the tower was not a very big hit with the Parisians; they thought it ruined the skyline. It was saved only because it had some use for radio communications. Lyn thought she found a filipino couple on the top of the tower, but they turned out to be Indonesian.

Then, we rode the subway (Lyn's battle with nauseau continues) up to the Sacre Coure. On the walk up there we met some more ... filipinos and talked to them for awhile.

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