No fiddling around allowed when you have to be on a plane at 6:50 am that leaves from an airport that's 50 miles from the city. No, no, no--you gotta to move it! Move it! It all starts with a 02:30 alarm, a 03:25 taxi, and a 04:00 bus ride to the airport. Slick!

Thankfully, all went perfectly as planned. We are on that plane now, and if our luck continues we will land in Dublin in about 25 minutes.

The last two days have been filled with day trip excursions. We went to Amsterdam on Tuesday and spent Wednesday in Brugge, Belgium. After the 3-hour train trip to Amsterdam, there was not a tremendous amount of time available, but Amsterdam is rather small and we managed to do everything on our list. As usual, we met some fun and interesting travelers on the train ride. One couple in particular were young doctors from Amsterdam who were heading to Peru for the next three weeks.

Besides the great company and conversation, the scenery from the train was fabulous. We went through cute, old small towns and saw canals and even a couple of Dutch windmills. The countryside is beautiful. The green here is nothing imaginable. I just know some of my father's family has roots here. The people have a familiar appearance, and they raise cows and work the land Iike I imagine my Grandmother Latting would have appreciated. I saw fields of greens, cabbages, brussel sprouts, leeks and corn, acres and acres of corn. We saw sheep, horses and cows, some very new to me. We saw horses with furry "boots" and cows with hides speckled black on white. Seeing all the farm animals set against a background of rich, spring-color green fields was like a picture. The whole way, the sky battled with itself whether to allow the sun to shine or to cloud-up and rain. Quite a treat for the eyes.

When we arrived at Amsterdam, we popped outside the station directly in front of the Amstel River. Since we like to try local food, we always research cuisine and favorites dishes people of the area like to eat. Soooo, the first thing we did after arriving was find a nice looking cafe. We ordered a plate of satay since it is said that the Dutch love Indonesian food, and we ordered some Dutch beef croquettes. The satay was as good as any we had in Bali, but we are still figuring out exactly what those croquettes were. They were like deep fried crispy logs of some creamy white stuff that looked a little like mashed potatoes, but was not. No potatoes in the dish at all. The restaurant server said croquettes are prepared by first making a ragu??? And the beef? It was invisible beef, I guess. It was not too bad, but definitely not something I would seek out again. There could not have been one bit of nutritional value in the croquettes, that is unless something good could be found in the wonderful creamy mustard they served along side. Thank goodness the croquettes were served with a great, fresh salad and a mound of good ole French fries.

After lunch we did quick tour of the red light district which is only a block or two off the main street, and yes, it's just like the books say, young girls, some beautiful, and some not so beautiful, stand in windows and doorways openly looking for a "date." We saw the sex shops and the coffee houses, you know the kind where a joint or hashish can be ordered like a cocktail. Too bad, we didn't have time to "shop." The whole experience felt a little surreal considering it was only three in the afternoon. With the red light district accomplished, we stopped at a fabulous, fancy cheese and chocolate shop. Dutch cheese!! Dutch chocolate! Boy, I wish I had had an extra piece of luggage! I could have loaded up on that stuff, instead we settled for some terrific samples and great memories of the fabulous smooth, creamy cheese and chocolate too. Finally, we headed to the docks for a one-hour boat ride through the canals to see the high points of the city and the fantastic architecture. Afterwards, we couldn't believe it but it was 5:30 in the afternoon already and time to head back to the station to catch a 6 o'clock train back to Brussels and home at ten.

On Wednesday, September 21, we took another train to the city of Brugge. I hardly know how to explain Brugge, except to say it dates back to before the 1600's and has never been touched by war or disaster. Everything is as it was. In its early days it must have been a gem, because it is certainly is a beauty today. It could be a destination for a pleasant week's stay in and of itself. It was easy to see that the people there have a great appreciation for their town. It's pristine clean, quaint but at the same time, a bit aristocratic. For some reason the town made me think of Asheville, sans the hills but with canals. We walked completely through the small town to the main square, visited the old church, found a beautiful building that was built as a military hospital during the war which cared for both German and Allied Forces soldiers. The hospital now cares for Ahlzheimer's patients. Lunch was one of the best meals of our entire trip so far. Very special! Not wanting to get that stuffed feeling at lunch time, we shared Dutch onion soup with toasted cheese and a salad with fresh greens, raspberry balsamic dressing and goat cheese wrapped in bacon. Both were delicious and perfectly prepared. Then, we were served a real gourmet dish of rabbit served with a luscious prune and wine sauce. It was beyond good! Already I've Googled recipes and I think I've found one or two that I can merge together to try to produce something similar. After the spectacular lunch, I really wanted to go home and nap, but since our bed was an hour train trip away, we walked across town to the dikes and took pictures of Belgian windmills.