As I stand out on the balcony I see – zero – taxi's. Our flight is around 11:30ish and the airport is about 40 minutes from the pier so I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to flag, call or find a cab big enough for the four of us plus our luggage. If all goes right, we should be arriving at our new hotel, a houseboat on one of the canals in downtown Amsterdam. Keep your fingers crossed.

We managed to get a large mini-van capable of about 16 people + luggage so we made it to the airport for 35Euros pp – all good – we caught the flight and made it here to the houseboat in record time – one hour flight and about a half hour on the train & cab to our accommodations here on the canal. We’ve got Wi-Fi, two-bedrooms sorta and a sunken living room (not under water though but below the waterline). Berre if you see this posting – unless you’ve got some suggestions for dinner on Sunday – we could me you at the train station in Deventer (front door) at 5:00 p.m. – send me an email if you’ve got some thoughts here. Can’t wait to see my old traveling buddy.

Once we arrived at Schiphol we found our way to the trains to Amsterdam Central (4.80 Euro for 1st Class) and grabbed the train which was a pretty quick process. After the 20 minute train ride we grabbed a taxi van for the last mile drive to the houseboat. I'm not quite sure of the dimensions of this is about 50'x15' or about 750 sq.ft. more than enough to call home for the three days while we explore Amsterdam and Deventer.

Deb's not doing very good. She's been confined to her bed since we arrived - having both lunch and dinner in bed. It's pretty well concentrated in her chest with a bad cough. Not sure what we'll do - maybe the pharmacy or possibly the doctor in the morning. We're scheduled to be at the Anne Frank Huis for our 10:40 pre-booked appointment time.

Given that we needed some dinner T&J and I headed out to one of the local bars/restaurants and had some dinner - I had a burger/fries and beer while T&J stuck to the soup. Only some lukewarm takeout for Deborah tonight. Overall this place is pretty cool, the dutch are all out on their little patios at the end of their boats with candles, beer and friends - but despite our best sad looking faces we have not received any invitations as of yet to attend their little soire.

I'll update tomorrow with pictures of our travels - thanks for your continued interest in our European adventures.