We arrive in Amsterdam at 8:00 am. Thank god I had a lot of wine so I could sleep a few hours on the flight. Unfortunately I do remember spilling wine on the green shirt before nightie night; must change shirt. Take the surface train to our hotel, which is outside the ring. This is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your nocturnal habits. It's all right for us because we're going to need some sleep and places inside downtown are really noisy. We get to the hotel and check in time is not until 4:00 pm! It's hot. It's never hot in Amsterdam but it seems we have landed in the middle of a heat wave.

The girls want to go explore. We whip out the Lets Go! and Cool Places in Amsterdam or something to that affect guide and hop the S-bahn. We get off in some square probably in the south eastern part of the city which is real nice. Clean and kind of artsy. We proceed to drink quite a few beers (come on it's hot) at some cafe. We first discover Duvel, a 8% Belgian beer that is mighty tasty. Also cruise the Flower Market.

Decide it's time to head back and check in. Small world. Friends of our friend Joe back home are in the same hotel and happen to be checking in at the same time. One guy apparently remembers where we were going to be staying after a brief discussion one night and what do you know. It's obvious these guys don't burn much and seemed a bit whacked out of their skulls from smoking. We all hop the underground and go to the infamous Grasshopper and then into the Red Light District for some sight seeing. Hordes of people are out. Apparently the size of Amsterdam doubles in the summer. After drinking in all sorts of different establishments we're pretty tired and if you're not into hookers or sex shows the red light has little appeal with it's junkies and trash. We end up eating pizza of all things. I would have much rather of had a schwarma, which is marinated lamb in a pita with hot pepper sauce and yogurt. Those things are damn good.

Day two and we're planning on getting out of A-dam. We were not planning on staying here for very long. We need to get to Rome somehow. Three hour wait at the train station to make reservations for an overnighter. Ouch. We make the most of our time and go get a couple of drinks off the main drag for an hour or so and go check where our number is in the line. We are nowhere close. Our companions from the other night are getting restless. We part ways and head back to town and walk around some more. By now we are ready to leave Amsterdam.

After three hours we finally can make a reservation. We decide on Munich. No deal. We bust out the map. How about Vienna? A train leaves in 15 minutes you better hurry. Were outy.

on to Vienna »