Tag Archives: travel

The Netherlands: The End

Day 10.7 Thursday, April 22, 2010 So far so good, and I’m actually feeling pretty positive about going out tomorrow.  The skies are still problematic but some flights are leaving and the situation gets better every hour, so, fingers crossed. Today, we decided to hit our last museum (or what I hope is our lastContinue reading “The Netherlands: The End”

The Netherlands: Days 10.5 & 10.6 (the Great Volcano Standstill, 2010)

Day 10.5 Tuesday, April 20, 2010 Success? Relief? I hope so. We spent all last night checking trains and buses, but nothing we could find was getting us anywhere any faster. Our B&B hostess found a train to Istanbul that would take only two days, but some legs of the journey were unavailable for onlineContinue reading “The Netherlands: Days 10.5 & 10.6 (the Great Volcano Standstill, 2010)”

The Netherlands: Days 10.3 & 10.4 (the Great Volcano Standstill, 2010)

Day 10.3 Sunday, April 18, 2010 Ever since this fiasco began, we’d been considering alternate forms of travel, just in case.  As Tuesday approaches and the situation in the skies shows little sign of improving, Jennifer decided it might be smart to start planning alternate travel now, just in case our Tuesday flight gets canceledContinue reading “The Netherlands: Days 10.3 & 10.4 (the Great Volcano Standstill, 2010)”

Photo blog 2

“Views of next door: Rooftop, door, and yard.”  Abu Dhabi, April and May 2010. Individual photos (left to right, from top): “I love UAE!”  (Outdoor chair and graffito celebrating UAE’s National Day: 38 years as a nation) “Dog days”  (stuffed animal on a rooftop) “Cat on a hot tin roof” (street kitten hiding inside aContinue reading “Photo blog 2”

The Netherlands: Days 10.1 & 10.2 (the Great Volcano Standstill, 2010)

Day 10.1 Friday, April 16, 2010 Stranded still.  The volcano continues to spew, the European authorities in charge of their respective airspaces continue to freak out, many of our fellow passengers are growing irrationally angry, and it’s looking more and more like we’re in this for a longer haul than anyone would like. We wokeContinue reading “The Netherlands: Days 10.1 & 10.2 (the Great Volcano Standstill, 2010)”

The Netherlands: Days 9 & 10

Day 9 Wednesday, April 14, 2010 We had planned today to go to Haarlem, but when we bought our train tickets to Hoorn yesterday, a saleswoman launched into a pitch to sell us bus-tour tickets, and we decided to take the brochure and peruse it just to make her happy.  And sure enough, while waitingContinue reading “The Netherlands: Days 9 & 10”

The Netherlands: Days 7 & 8

Day 7 Monday, April 12, 2010 I am quite too relaxed to write.  I’ll try to jot down a few notes, but I expect to sleep soon. We did the Artis Zoo today, a beautiful complex packed not only with an excellent zoo but also with a planetarium, an aquarium, a zoological museum, an AfricanContinue reading “The Netherlands: Days 7 & 8”

A Writer’s Notebook: Script Frenzy

So, as you might know, my planned 10-day interruption in participating in Script Frenzy turned into two and a half weeks, because we were stuck in Amsterdam for a week trying to figure out how to get home.  Then I was resting up, then working on other projects, like my travel journal….  Needless to say,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Script Frenzy”

The Netherlands: Day 6

Day 6 Sunday, April 11, 2010 Today started out continuing the forgetfulness of yesterday, though it improved quickly.  We decided to head to the Anne Frank House first thing this morning, thinking the crowds might be thinner early on a Sunday.  We were right, but even after a thorough run-through of our new pre-departure checklist,Continue reading “The Netherlands: Day 6”