ARRIVAL in the Netherlands

Our Thursday flight out of Houston was a success this time around! After we landed in Amsterdam around 8:10 a.m. we got our passports stamped and proceeded through "customs" (this consisted of a man pointing at the exit sign) and walked outside to smell the clear northern air and feel the cool 55 degree weather. We then jumped on a comfortable charter bus that was waiting for us and headed to Maastricht!

After we unpacked and settled into our rooms , we headed to the market to get various groceries...HELLO CARBOHYDRATES. I think that probably 1/3 of the market was devoted strictly to bread and cheese items which I am more than okay with. After this we all had dinner together and then went to explore downtown. We went to a pub called Shamrock and met the Maastricht and England Rugby teams. We felt like we were in a European movie. Bonnie and I were jealous of their chants and asked to join in...we were kind of disappointed to find out that all their "chants" consisted of were putting their fists in the air and singing a combination of words that sounded like "aye o’ aye o’ aye o’ ye." Not all was lost; they did buy us a pitcher of Grolsch (the beer of the Netherland's.)

This morning was busy. We met for brunch at 11, went to activate our Euro rail passes, met our CES coordinator, got our books and schedules and walked through town. I have to say--Maastricht is almost exactly how I had imagined it. It's quaint, most people ride bikes, those who do drive, drive Volkswagens, there are bakeries and markets everywhere. What I was surprised about is how many people there were. For some reason I pictured Maastricht as being quieter, having an almost retirement community feel (think Fredericksburg.) I'm not quite sure where I came up with this, but I’m happy I was wrong. All to say, downtown is filled with people eating lunch, drinking, sitting, biking, while the side streets have a moderate pace to them. It is a wonderful blend.

Of course, my reaction to Europe was typical of any newbie. The minute I touched European soil everything seemed better and nicer here. I wanted to go touch everything and try everything (DAD...relax I don't literally mean try everything!) The food, well the food is better. The architecture is better too. The grass is about the same I suppose...maybe a touch greener. See--typical.

Our first journey outside of Maastricht will start tomorrow when we take a bike ride around and outside of Maastricht and probably to Belgium. We are supposedly a 10 minute bike ride from "the border"...I'll confirm if this is true on my next post. Then on Tuesday we will fly out of Brussels to reach IRELAND! This is of course if the volcano cooperates and doesn't put this trip on hold as well.