Amsterdam Adventures
23/09/2006 02:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIzzie's got the Portkey all to ourselves. No one in the house but us and the ickle nieciekins. Ashamed to say it but far from being afraid of the evil nasty auntie - she's rather taken a shine to us - especially the Izzie jewellry - yesss - The Serpent Ring and the Preciousss.
Not half the squealer we expected her to be. After bedtime at 7pm - not a peek out of the little critter
Well. Yesterday was our first day visiting the delights of downtown Amsterdam. It's only 20 minutes by tram which is just perfect. Not too near and not too far. Hoping to visit the Maritime museum tomorrow since most culture vulture attractions are closed on Mondays.
And today booked a flight online - not just for the first time ever but in Dutch! But when it got to the credit card bits - got a bit too complicated - no great desire to sign our souls away somewhere in the small print. Figures that Ryanair surely must have something in English. Everytime we googled to get to the home page - it was always in Dutch - even when clicking on the English language google entries. Turns out that all we had to do was click on the row of itsie bitsie teenie weenie flags to get what we wanted.
So, the Izzie will be pottering off to Maastricht on Friday by train and staying there until Wednesday when we make our way to Eindhoven and fly to London (Sucky Stansted) before returning to Eindhoven on Tuesday 10th October. From there, will be going to Emden to meet the Izzie Fairy Godmother
What was so fascinating - booking flights from UK sites in UK currency - most had price tags from 45 to 145 or so. KLM ranged from 150 to an outrageous 400 euros and Ryanair had the odd 109 euros but most were the sinfully cheap 99 cents. Two euros for the flights and 62 for the taxes and charges but it's still damned cheap. Apparently - that's all to do with avoiding Schipol Amsterdam airport and especially London Heathrow at all costs. Suits the Izzie because we hates Heathrow and here it is just so easy to get about with trains and things. Such a green serpent friendly society.
Still struggling with this computer. Is most handy indeed since they got wireless and it's an awful faster than what we are used to in Oz. No pissy little 5kbps here or even 50 like at the ma's place. Here it's a more respectable 100 plus so we downloaded Firefox in no time. So now we got our tabs. It was hell slinking about Cyberia without them. But there's no mouse so we are struggling to get the critter to do what we wants - especially when it comes to moving scroll bars.
Been like a kid in a candy store drooling over all the yummie cheeses, bread and chocolates. Already found out where to get our fix of Leonidas pralines at a price infinitely more attractive than back in Oz. The local dark chocolate here is excellent - not as darkly roasted and burnt in flavour as the Lindt 70% variety that we are used to.
We do miss our little radio. World War Three could have started for all we know. Still not been to the usual lurking grounds in Cyberia to catch up on the latest gloom and doom. Have been glancing through the local papers. With a lot of English, some German and a bit of imagination and improvisation, it's quite easy to get the gist of much stuff. Was even able to follow a story about the riots in Hungary and the sneaking little Lying Rat of a prime minister they got over there. (Australia must be exporting them)
Off to check the Cyberian snippets and sniff out the choccies.
Not half the squealer we expected her to be. After bedtime at 7pm - not a peek out of the little critter
Well. Yesterday was our first day visiting the delights of downtown Amsterdam. It's only 20 minutes by tram which is just perfect. Not too near and not too far. Hoping to visit the Maritime museum tomorrow since most culture vulture attractions are closed on Mondays.
And today booked a flight online - not just for the first time ever but in Dutch! But when it got to the credit card bits - got a bit too complicated - no great desire to sign our souls away somewhere in the small print. Figures that Ryanair surely must have something in English. Everytime we googled to get to the home page - it was always in Dutch - even when clicking on the English language google entries. Turns out that all we had to do was click on the row of itsie bitsie teenie weenie flags to get what we wanted.
So, the Izzie will be pottering off to Maastricht on Friday by train and staying there until Wednesday when we make our way to Eindhoven and fly to London (Sucky Stansted) before returning to Eindhoven on Tuesday 10th October. From there, will be going to Emden to meet the Izzie Fairy Godmother
What was so fascinating - booking flights from UK sites in UK currency - most had price tags from 45 to 145 or so. KLM ranged from 150 to an outrageous 400 euros and Ryanair had the odd 109 euros but most were the sinfully cheap 99 cents. Two euros for the flights and 62 for the taxes and charges but it's still damned cheap. Apparently - that's all to do with avoiding Schipol Amsterdam airport and especially London Heathrow at all costs. Suits the Izzie because we hates Heathrow and here it is just so easy to get about with trains and things. Such a green serpent friendly society.
Still struggling with this computer. Is most handy indeed since they got wireless and it's an awful faster than what we are used to in Oz. No pissy little 5kbps here or even 50 like at the ma's place. Here it's a more respectable 100 plus so we downloaded Firefox in no time. So now we got our tabs. It was hell slinking about Cyberia without them. But there's no mouse so we are struggling to get the critter to do what we wants - especially when it comes to moving scroll bars.
Been like a kid in a candy store drooling over all the yummie cheeses, bread and chocolates. Already found out where to get our fix of Leonidas pralines at a price infinitely more attractive than back in Oz. The local dark chocolate here is excellent - not as darkly roasted and burnt in flavour as the Lindt 70% variety that we are used to.
We do miss our little radio. World War Three could have started for all we know. Still not been to the usual lurking grounds in Cyberia to catch up on the latest gloom and doom. Have been glancing through the local papers. With a lot of English, some German and a bit of imagination and improvisation, it's quite easy to get the gist of much stuff. Was even able to follow a story about the riots in Hungary and the sneaking little Lying Rat of a prime minister they got over there. (Australia must be exporting them)
Off to check the Cyberian snippets and sniff out the choccies.
