What a LONG, strange trip it has been ...

Hello from Amsterdam. Home to the Anne Frank House, Rembrandt and Vincent Van Gogh museums and the Red Light district.

I must say it was great to finally arrive at my room I have which is about 1.5 miles from the central train station. The reason? Although I nodded off a few times in the last 24 hours or so, Sunday was ONLY a travel day for me. I checked out of my hotel room in Berlin Sunday morning and I went to the train stop. It takes THREE trains to get me back to the train station (more on this in a later post rant!) and after getting off the first train, the second one is broken down on Sunday morning and I am an hour away from getting on the train for Cologne, Germany, the first stop on my no-hotel-room-booked day. After walking and finally arriving at the third train for the final part, I arrived in time to take it to the train station. As I ran up the steps to where my train was supposed to be, it was. Only it was heading off and there was no way to get aboard. So, cranky old me checked the schedule and saw another train left one hour later so I chilled out, ate a fresh donut and the LARGEST medium sized cappuccino I've ever seen and hopped on the 9:37 a.m. train. Cologne (Koln in German) was a four and a half hour ride. I then did what I normally do on the trains. I read and study the next place I'll be via the Lonely Planet guidebook that was recommended to me by Jay. Since I would only have SEVEN minutes when I arrived in Cologne before catching up to the first train I'd missed, I only glanced at the small offering about Cologne. I'm sure it is a place to see with more time, but seven minutes isn't going to give me enough time to see if they have Dr. Pepper for me to take on the next train. I arrived with actually three minutes to spare. Luckily, the connecting train was a couple minutes late (a rarity for a Germany train, or so I've read). Got aboard and headed for Luxembourg, a very small European country, which, unlike Czech Republic, does like Eurail passengers! It was a nice, 4 hour ride and I arrived around 5:45 p.m. Instead of having to rush to the next train, I actually had two hours to kill. Problem was, it was Sunday and not much of anything was open anywhere ... except McDonalds and a deli place inside the train station. Sorry folks, but McDonalds won after I checked out the deli stock, slim selection and the knowledge that it would be cheaper to eat cheap at McDonalds. Sorry. that's twice now on this trip I have had food from the Golden Arches. One thing I'll say about the McD's menu overseas, it sure is different. Big Mac is the only burger with the same name as in the U.S. Filet-o-Fish is the same, too, and Chicken McNuggets, but they also have Royal Burger (not the Royal with cheese Pulp Fiction fans), a McTexas burger and even a Mexico Burger. Anyway, after that food, I did find an internet place to set up a reservation for a few places I have left on this trip.

First, the good news (Barbra): I will be in London for at least 2 days.

Now for the bad news: Dublin isn't going to happen. I know March 17 is important, but I refuse to overpay for something I can likely even do in London (drink to St. Patrick, salute Guinness and see O'Connell Street since I never knew Kathy lived somewhere else other than Irvine while she grew up. LOL.) To supplement the bad news, I am thinking about stretching my trip in other ways. I had gone back and forth about 1 or 2 days in Dublin. Now, if I want, I can make London three days, Paris three days and then finish with the trip to Nice. I have also thought about slipping over to Barcelona for a day or even to visit Scotland after I see London.

OK, back to the road trip report from Sunday. I then boarded an 8:24 p.m. train from Luxembourg to Brussels. It arrived at 11:45 p.m. I was the ONLY person in the cart I was travelling because Eurail passengers go in the first-class cabin no matter what and I was the only person on the train (filled with college students coming back from a weekend out of town who obviously had the second-class tickets). But on this train, I did get to rest a bit and it was sorely needed because ... without a place to crash, in a cold place (not snowy, mind you, but bitterly cold) and an unfamiliar one at that, it wasn't ideal to hang out in the train station, awaiting a 6:45 a.m. train. You never know who is there.

Best part of my Sunday adventure (in Brussels): Meeting Frankie and John at the first pub I saw when I walked outside the train station. It killed the first 45 minutes of my night in Brussels. Frankie was a, ahem, regular. He was washing down Jim Beam and Coke pretty fast. Talking to John, the bartender, about everything. When it was my turn to order, I asked John for his suggestion. Frankie chimed in that I should try a beer (I had wanted something darkish) and it was a long name, but all I'll remember is that it had a picture of Adam and "Evil", as Frankie put it, on the bottle and it had 8.5 percent alcohol content. And it was good. Frankie then recommend I have a dark beer so John poured me a glass of Leffe beer, its darkest of the four kinds the bar had. It wasn't Guinness, but it sure was good. OK, two glasses of beer in me, listening to Frankie (who was holding his liquor quite well) tell me about his life and about Belgium's 360 different beers. I soon parted ways with them (Frankie might still be there). Frankie bought one of my beers (the Leffe) so I didn't spend much money in Brussels (and unfortunately for anyone hoping for it, no chocolate because no stores were open in Brussels the entire 11:45 p.m. to 6:45 a.m. time span I was there. But I will look for Leffe when I return to the States.

I proceeded to see what I could find in Brussels -- and prolong my time not spent in the train station and hopefully, stay out of harms way. Here's what I did find. Close to the train station was a huge medieval castle that was so cool, but sucked that only one of three photos I took of it came out worthwhile. I also saw the Hotel de Ville, another ancient structure that looked straight out of something in Gotham City. It was lit up quite well and was amazing because I only saw the top of it from one street over and then when I turned the corner ... bam! it was there staring back at me.. Oh yeah, did I mention it was 2:30 a.m.? I proceeded along and even got lost a bit before seeing a bus map that told me the train station was about five or six blocks the other way.

I mainly just stayed bundled up, kept my mouth shut and occasionally sat down at a bus stop bench (shielded from the slight cold winds) to rest my tired feet (buses and subways don't operate after midnight here). I finally thought that if I went back to the train station at 4:30 a.m. I would be fine. The station opened at 4 a.m. and if I was hungry enough, I could get a snack out of the vending machine. I sat down and began to read a little more on Amsterdam. I nodded off a few minutes here and there, but everything worked out just fine. It's something I felt at some point I'd need to do, but I think I'll get the room from now on. It winds up wiping you out for whatever else you are doing later that day.

Speaking of that, I am in Amsterdam. I did see the Van Gogh museum and wanted to see the Rembrandt house, but I did get tired and instead went to check in, get a shower and even a little sleep. I am off now to go find some dinner ... in a restaurant.

I leave for London in the morning and have a place lined up to stay. Sounds good to me!

RTB