Europe, the 1st installment

Friday 22: Have plane tix, railpass, rail reservations...all packed...at the airport, checked in & blasted thru security. PHEW. Oops, I forgot to add Coli's underwear & socks. DAMN.
Hanging in the President's Club w/my Sam Adams. No internet. Damn again. Mom's flight was just called to board. Kinda wish we could join her but our luggage is checked for our flight already.
Time to try to log on, lol.
Sat 23: oh what a day. VERY long night on the plane. Food was ok. 'slept' like crap. Stiff, achy pretzel. BUT it was a good flight & we arrived on time as did our luggage. Bumped into our 1st asshole while trying to leave the baggage area, he cut in behind Paul separating him from the girls & i. He didn't take kindly to us getting back in front of him. Tuff shit. Couldn't find mom; finally had her paged & there she was in 5 minutes! Apparently, her flight had been delayed & she only got there about 20 minutes before us. We went right past her in baggage claim. Oh well. Found a van taxi right away & arrived to find our room not ready. Gave stuff to concierge, called Helga & went for lunch. Ate in the hotel cuz it was POURING. Had a chicken vegie soup that was out of this world & the special of the day – ham, potatoes, white asparagus, chopped boiled egg & hollandaise. MmmmmMMMM. The brownie on the plane was better. Oh well. Room ready; took luggage up. Meo arrived; slept most of the way back to his house nearly an hour w/traffic. How unpolite.
Helga's kids are great; they all hit it off well, neither understanding a word of each others' language but no mattter. Went to a street fair kind of thing.
YUM. There were 'native american indian' performers. Wow, so out of place. Tried a few liquors, sorry lady – not actually buying any today! Went back & kids continued to play. SO CUTE.
Garlic bread, bread w/brie & summer sausage appys. I ate brie. And drank white wine. No complaints. Somebody please notice this.
Dinner was lovely – french onion soup(yes, I ate it), gnocchi w/ricotta, fresh basil, lemon zest, lightly sauteed zucchini – it was awesome. And chicken cutlets w/cheese & a pineapple ring all coated in breading. I thought it odd but it did taste good and Meike & Jelmer loved it. Everybody enjoyed it so what the hey. A salad which I never got to. Flemish fries which in another world I have visited are french fries. The big kind – maybe they differentiate between big & shoestring here? Served with mayo or ketchup. Dessert was wild strawberries in jello w/VANILLA LIME ZEST WHIPPED CREAM. Oh holy cannoli that is the whipped cream to end all whipped creams & it went with the strawberries SO nicely. Off to zaar with THIS one!
Several glasses of white wine then on to rose w/out complaint I might add, Meo took us home. Their kids seemed sad to see us go but we'll see them in the am. We (I) want to try the pancake house across the street & then depending on the weather we'll do whatever. No big plans, it is vacation. SO THERE.
Fucking internet is pissing me off. I was connected wirelessly but couldn't get a browser. (?!?) so I added the wire. I've been connected for about an hour but can't get a browser. I am connected to free wifi but keep getting directed to an iBAHN page where they want my money. Hell NO. i get free high speed with the hotel so go away. I'll complain in the morning. It would be too loud now & people are sleeping. And snoring. But i found the fan!!! it's so irritating. I was connected earlier but couldn't attend to any emails. Dratly. And i figured out why wasn't connecting properly before – Paul had had me change some settings which i finally found & fixed. damn ibahn. I'm going to bed. Need sleep – good sleep in a good bed. It's 5:30 MY time & 11:30 local time. I am on local time already. The others think i'm nuts for wanting to get up around 7:30. who wants to waste time sleeping in europe???
Monday 25. Yesterday was great. Alarm went off at 7 & we got up at 8, lol. TODAY, the alarm went off whenever it was & i woke up at 7:50, showered, etc & tried waking people at 8:30. Nobody is moving. And mom insisted we needed to get going early to be at the museum early. Must have been the wine.
Anyway, back to yesterday...Helga's family was moving just as slow so they said to go ahead & get bfast, we'll pick you up at 11. Went to a Sports Bar, watched some soccer & made pigs of ourselves. I had a bacon-cheese-tomato pancake & some pears. Mom had a bacon-mushroom-cheese pancake & Paul I think had the same as mom. Nicole had a lemon pancake which was just that – a pancake w/a quartered lemon. She rolled it up & squeezed the lemon on top & gobbled it up. Miss Rebecca got French bread & garlic butter & those little puffy things. She ate most of the bread but I think she was expecting it to be toasted garlic bread. Oopsie. I think she ate a few pofferthingies. 4,50 euros for a cup of tea. Gimme a break.
Helga & Meo took us on a lovely long drive to Zuiderzeemuseum which was an open air museum about the maritime history of the Netherlands. They were smoking eel & herring which Meo, Meike & Jelmer ate, Nicole & Mom tried. No thank you. They played the same old fashioned games we see at Williamsburg & Philipsburg Manor which was interesting. We made 'clog-ships' which was a really cool project & kept us out of the rain. Nicole found a Dutch girl costume at the gift shop & Mom got it for her for Halloween. Lunch was excellent. Rebecca had an apple-raisin pancake, I had ginger(candied), Nicole had plain, Mom had uitsmijter, an open faced sandwich with eggs, ham, cheese & tomatoes like Helga. Meo.... Paul had croquettes which were kinda like minced ham(?) balled & fried. Like the potato croquettes they serve in NY but made w/meat. He was happy.
We stayed until it closed then Meo took the kids home & Helga brought us back. We took her up for the free drinks & hors d'ouvres. I had biterballen & something like fried ravioli but the dough was different & the cheese was gouda, I think. Yumm. And a big pile of vegetation. Thank God. Tummy churned at that & I was crapping within minutes. Helga left around ?? We puttered & debated dinner for awhile, checked some stuff out downstairs – no, in fact iBAHN was supposed to take over my computer & make me pay 20 euros for 24 hours. Sorry everyone, I'll be in touch LATER. Apparently, that guy wasn't supposed to allow me free access. Ah well. After breakfast we had seen lots of South American steakhouses which got the gears rolling. We found an ad for a free cocktail at one so we went looking for it. It was over near the plaza Leidseplein, which is across the street. But it was a few blocks in but no prob & no getting lost. It was awesome. Perfect ribeye, grilled corn on the cob, some salad, a South American Syrah, a couple shots of Amaretto, an ice cream sundae, a couple t-shirts, a fab waiter, what more could you ask?? I peed 3 times so I guess I'm not dehydrated anymore. A nice pile of protein & veggies. Feeling much better today. Paul had ribeye & profiteroles. No veggies? What was he thinking??? Mom had a filet & salad. Nicole had shrimp (they gave her more than the menu said thank God) then helped Rebecca with her huge 'children's meal' and ordered a grilled corn on the cob & had 2 mango ice cream desserts. Rebecca's 'children's menu' item was a breast of chicken, a dish of applesauce, salad, and a baked potato. Straight for the potato after strict instructions that the carbs came last. Brat. She did ok & had ice cream w/bing cherries after. She gave away all her cherries, tho. Poo for her & yay for the rest of us. Got home just before MIDNIGHT & went to bed.