Pittsboro, NC

 Just getting settled back in at home.  A bit of jet lag still, hope that subsides in the next day or so.  I don't like being wide awake at 3AM!  

Lindy had told us we had a tree down over the driveway...

 

so Duane had to get that all taken care of.....all cut up and hauled away.

 

 

Pittsboro, NC

So ends a very nice and busy sojourn in Europe! 

 Just a very long travel day....took the train to the Amsterdam  Airport just 15-20 minutes and 5 euros each. We were going to check our bags since it wouldn't be important if they were lost on the trip home.  But we arrived 3 hours early and the small American  Airlines desk wasn't open. Since the bags were carryon size, we decided just to schlep them like usual.  Easy transit thru security, we found the One World lounge and relaxed for an hour and a half, eating a nice breakfast  at our leisure, watching all the KLM planes come and go.  Boarding time was called so we proceeded to the gate.

The gate was one of those that is at the very end of the terminal......and when we got there it was clear that there was no plane or gate even though boarding was announced.....we were herded on to multiple airport trams and driven about 10 minutes, over an interstate to a remote ramp where we saw our lonely American Airlines plane.  

And then we schleped our bags up the stairs. Sort of felt like we were in the Caribbean....

But we were soon on our way for the 8 hour flight. We appreciated the seats with the extra 6" of legroom.  

I watched a couple of movies - 500 Miles - a sweet story about an Irish boy and his 500 mile trek to see his grandfather.   Beautiful scenery.  And the Joy Luck Club which is a book I had read years ago.  Nice way to pass the captive time.

Going through customs  and immigration at Philadelphia was a breeze.  We were some of the first to go through  because  we didn't  have to wait at the baggage claim to collect  our luggage  so that worked out in our favor.

Entering back through security  was again a breeze with Global Entry.  So, a good trip home via Uber.  Very tired and will try to stay up late to avoid too much jet lag. 

Amsterdam, Netherlands

 Last day of touring for the trip.....and this one has lots of photos....

I had read about a nearby town, Haarlem, that is just a short train ride away.  It has some interesting sites and is supposed to be similar to Amsterdam.

Off to the train station...easy to navigate. 

Easily found our platform  and 5 minutes later we were on our way, 

Leaving town with several tracks 

Soon out in the country a bit.

Still lots of water.

Station in Haarlem  was lovely with lots of old wood and iron work.

Using Google maps we navigated thru some nice parks. 

I was surprised to see lots of chestnuts on the ground. 

Canals near the city streets. Not as compact as Amsterdam. 

My first target was the St. Baro cathedral....here we ran into a bit of an issue.  We were getting conflicting  information from Google. Some searches said the church was open, other searches said the church opened at 1pm.  The church in front of us definitely  opened at 1pm....it was 12:15 so we had to find something to do for 45 minutes...

The front of the church - we will climb these towers later when we actually do our tour.

So we went to a nearby fish kiosk and got a snack.

Set up right by a canal.  I couldn't resist sampling a new Fanta flavor  - hard to read but it says "Exotic flavor".  It actually was yummy, some sort or pomegranate  guava berry citrus mix.

We walked back to the church after the snack....first we were directed to walk up the extremely steep stairs to the towers. Note there is no handrail...I was careful  not to stumble, especially on the way down.

We had to cross from one tower to the other, walking on a boardwalk that is the attic above the cathedral  ceiling...a little wobbly and spooky for a public path!

But interesting to see. 

The bells in one of the towers.

At the top, there was an outside viewing tower.  Lovely view of the city.

After a break at the top, time to climb down the tower to see the inside of the cathedral. 

We took an audio tour and it was very interesting. 

Another view of some of the tower stairs.

Lovely cathedral. 

We wandered about 20 minutes to the old town square  where we stopped at a restaurant  to share a small fish and chips...yeah, we will start eating better once we get settled at home! 

Walking away from the square, it's just amazing  how many bikes there are!

This intricately decorated building  is actually  a McDonald's if you look for the M in the window 

We saw the spires for this church as we walked...did a quick  Google search and it too is called St Baro cathedral....that explains our earlier difficulties  with our Google search. Long story, but this one is from medieval times and is now often referred to as the Grote Kerk or "big church". This one used to be Cathotic, but was changed to Protestant  when being Catholic was a crime....and then over 100 years ago, the Catholics built the first one we visited earlier...confusing?  (I actually  think this one was the one I was aiming to visit when I did my planning much earlier)  anywhoooo, it was a lovely church!

The pipe organ was beautiful! 

Up until 1831, the church interior floor was the buring place for high status people. These slabs are their tombstones! 

Luckily, someone else was playing the organ while we were there!

Last thing on the list was to see a windmill right on town!  Walked thru a residential area. 

Walked right past a gas station.  Very compact right on a street.  I guess it is not as well utilized  as the gas hungry vehicles in the States. 

We found the windmill, but we were about done with our touring.....a few miles under our feet once again today.

Walking back to the train station, wow, double decker bike storage!

Easily caught the next tstronghold. Minutes later back to Amsterdam  central station, don't ya love public transit?

We'll have to pack and get ready for departure tomorrow morning.  Another great trip!