Day #2 continued: The Rest of Amsterdam

So I spent what seemed like years preparing for this particular trip to Tenwek.  I procurred more supplies than usual, packed more bags than usual, and managed to maintain my usual OCD tendancies throughout the entire process (my wife has a huge smile on her face right now and I can almost hear her comments as I sit here in Eastern Kenya)... I had meticulously packed my carry on bag to have my sneakers for our 5 to 6 hour walking tour of Amsterdam, allowing me to wear flip flops on the plane for added comfort.  I had a extra layers to wear while in Amsterdam since the weather was in the upper 40's, while it would be in the 80's after arriving in Nairobi.  Everything was orchestrated for a peaceful day of sightseeing, until the Atlanta TSA forced me to check my carry-on bag through to Nairobi because I had a backpack AND a camera bag (everyone knows that a 40 pound backpack stuffed to the hilt and a 25 pound camera bag with everything but the kitchen sink is considered 'one' carry-on item).

Since I had no room to spare in either of my other personal items I grabbed my umbrella (my wife would be proud of me) and said good-bye to everything else in my 'supposed-to-be' carry-on bag until I arrived in Nairobi.  As it turns out, grabbing my jacket would have been a better idea because the temperature seemed to drop to below freezing before we made it back to Schiphol for our flight on to Nairobi.  Thankfully, Rebekah had a spare jacket she allowed me to borrow, with the added advantage of being 'highlighter blue' in color.  You see, it's hard to not take a step in Amsterdam and not be directly in the way of oncoming Smart Cars or bicyclists doing 30-40 kph.  Add to that the fact that I'm terrible at multi-tasking, I'm very easily distracted AND I'm much more interested in taking photos than really anything else on the planet.  So imagine me with my camera up to my face trying to get all 5,000 of my 'must-have' shots during my 5 hour tour of Amsterdam while not getting run over by something or lost from the group of people I'm with who are my life-line to returning to the airport (last year it involved finding a bank to withdraw funds to pay for the bus fare to get to the train to reach the airport to find our luggage that was stored in 'one of those luggage lockers' somewhere in the airport) in time to make my flight to Nairobi because I have no idea where I am because I basically hate to  pay attention if I'm not at work and I really don't have to... (stay with me, OK?)

So what I'm saying is, a lot of time and energy (and confusion) went into getting the photos posted below so just sit back and enjoy.  My favorite one is the first one below.  The bicyclist below would have hit me head on had he not politely 'rang his ringer' at me as he approached.  As I turned to look at him I saw the little boy on the back of his bike and got the shot below in what I think was about 2 seconds...

Who knew there was a 'surf party' at the King's Palace?

Dr. Mary Christmas shopping

These are all of the bikes of all of the people who tried to run me over today...

Hans und Franz outside the Van Gogh museum...

... and why do you suppose they are so happy?

Dinner at this quaint little Italian restaurant on the way back to Centraal Train Station

 

 Trying to find our way back to Schiphol airport...

Almost there...

... aren't people with camera's irritating?

;)