A JOURNEY TO THE UNITED KINGDOM
Entry Three

Our friends finally make it from all the crazy rerouting the airlines did and we meet up for dinner. Piet decides to show us some traditional food and we go out for pancakes. Though it is probably time for breakfast back home these pancakes are for supper. They are delicious. They have a super thin pastry crust that they fry in a skillet, I think. You add your favorite toppings- like ham and cheese. Or, you can make a sweet one that is topped with fruit. Peit even gets Troy to take a bite. Does he realize how momentous that is? I think it must have been the sleep deprivation. I have lost track of how many days we have been up. While walking back to the hotel, I make my first purchase- an umbrella. It is suppose to rain through most of our trip so we will look like wet rats if we ever do manage any band photos. I never could get the straight iron to work even with the converters - I guess it just uses too much juice for that old hotel’s outlets. We are off to search out Troy’s yogurt. I left my translator at the hotel so it is hilarious watching him try to decipher the nutrition labels in Dutch. I finally start to get weary and say who cares about the fat content on the yogurt. And he says, “How in the heck do I know what I’m buying, for all I know this could be sour cream!” I make eye contact with the cashier, give him a knowing smile and tell him we’ll be back. We walk around and look at all the cool shops. Everything is so crazy expensive. We are in hopes of finding a vintage shop. I’m used to doing the math in my head when something is on sale. But with the exchange rate you have to go the other way. Things aren’t sale prices they are premium prices. We are finally going to give in to sleep. I hear that the free breakfast is worth waking up for.

The breakfast is incredible. They have everything and more. They even have stuff to make sandwiches for breakfast. They have Prosciutto, I think, and some kind of tasty cheese, which Troy steers clear of. They have a host of milks to choose from. One was sweet. One is kept warm on a little burner- that is great in my coffee. The coffee in Europe comes in tiny little cups. Basically you just need several before you are done. The sugar comes in small paper tubes. They also serve rice along side of the scrabbled eggs, which tastes kind of different. I can’t imagine making all of this. At home when your room comes with breakfast it’s a box of cereal and glazed donuts. But really how do I know, the band always sleeps through the breakfast time since we always get to bed at 3am. Next, Troy is about to set off on his first overseas run. I quiz him on the name of the hotel and what it is near - sneak in a quick prayer for the guardian angels to suit up --and he is off for an hour or so. Normally he covers 6 or 7 miles but his little GPS watch doesn’t have a clue where he is so his goal is just to go out and make it back. He does make it back; he comes in breathing heavy with his eyes all glassy and shakes his head. He says he has never experienced anything like that on a run. He says he felt like he was in a video game. He was dodging cars, pedestrians, was nearly run over by bikes. He was constantly looking where his feet were since the streets are not flat- those cobblestones again. He says I never once caught a glimpse of another runner. For the first time on a run, he gets lost. He spends about 25 minutes running hard just to get back to something he recognizes. I am so proud of him. These streets are nuts to figure out with maps. Oh and another thing. If you want to know what street you are on it probably isn’t on a sign, it’s probably on the side of a building carved out in stone. This is kind of a challenge to read when you are flying or running by. Speaking of getting lost- we were suppose to meet up with the rest of the group for lunch. Troy and I set off with our tourist map in hand allowing ourselves a half hour to make the ten-minute walk. We walk and walk for an hour and a half. Not trusting the map anymore we give into asking directions. Even the bus drivers send us way out of the way. Troy keeps looking down at my cute new high heel boots I bought on sale at Macy’s the day we left -asking if I’m all right. My ankles are killing me, but of course, I’m going to say I’m fine. I’m just having a fit picturing everyone waiting for us to eat. Next time, we are springing for one of the European cell phones. We finally make it to the café and it is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been in. They had artists do mosaic scenes with pieces of tile all over the walls. It had wonderful food. Which was great since we walked all that way. I forgot about poor Troy who had just run for all those miles just a couple hours ago. It’s amazing what some good food can do to bring you back. I had some funky iced tea that had a citrus taste- good but totally different. I couldn’t drink the whole thing. But somehow had room for a coffee. I am already out of pounds to spend. These coins go fast. I can’t imagine how many dividers the cashier’s drawer has to have in order to keep up with all of the different ones. We’re off to finally take a ride on the canal boats. Now we can really see how beautiful everything is. Troy is happily snapping pictures. Last night he took the battery out of the camera and this morning he puts it back in and it shows the battery life is full. I love miracles. He has another bright idea- he takes the camera off of preview mode so we won’t waste any battery looking back at the pictures until we get home. The guide on the boat is telling us all kinds of interesting things- like why they have metal bars in front of the cars along the canal edges. He says they had to do that because the cars kept rolling forward off into the canal!! Oh there’s a poor bike dangling from its chain nearly reaching the water. I wonder if a car bumped it over too. Later on we meet up with the rest of the group for another new eating adventure. Piet thinks we should all experience Indonesian food. He says it is popular in Holland because of the occupation that went on for many years. We let him do the ordering since we don’t have a clue what is what. Basically he orders a bunch of dishes that are served up family style. When you order water, they call it still water. I guess that is opposed to sparkling water or tap. Whatever it is called, it is good - I even thought of making off with the bottle. The meal comes with rice and a variety of meats on kabobs. Everything is very moist and rich. The only spicy thing is some slices of egg in a hot sauce. There are these fun little crunchy chip things. We make such a mess of the table passing everything around. Troy tries a variety of things but I know he will be attacking his private stash at the room to make sure he gets in enough normal things. We have a great time at the restaurant but tease Piet about the price. It was about $25 bucks a person. They gave us a menu without prices. Too bad we are going to miss the free breakfast in the morning. The band has to leave early (3am) to drive to catch the ferry that will take us across to the UK. We can’t miss the ferry or the band will miss its first gig in Romford, which is outside of London. We should be going to bed early but I don’t want to give up Amsterdam. Besides we need to go for another yogurt run. I told the guy we’d be back. He smiles- he remembers us. It’s after 10:00 at night and it is as busy as it was this afternoon. Troy points down the road and says he thinks that is where the red light district is that everyone associates with Amsterdam. He said he ran through it during the day when he was lost and it was completely dead. Maybe I should drop a few breadcrumbs around to lure some people out.