Day 1: Planes, Trains & Bicycles

It's 3:35 in the afternoon in The Netherlands on our first day in town. We started off at the Nashville airport Wednesday morning around 10:30 am central time. I've pretty much been awake since then, nearly 24 hours straight, if you account for the jet lag. Our flight was late in Nashville, so the group had about 5 minutes to book it to our next gate in Washington, D.C. We were there for maybe 20 minutes altogether and had to walk straight onto the plane when we got to the gate. No time for a bathroom break!

On the plane to Amsterdam, I watched two movies: The Call and Olympus Has Fallen. Head to thereelbennyc.blogspot.com to read a few of my thoughts on those two films.

Upon arrival we had to wind our way across the city with our 40-50 pound luggage. Public transportation here is great, but it's hard to blend in when all of Amsterdam is watching you struggle with your baggage, and you're taking up all the sidewalk space. We're still working on the concept of NOT walking in the bicycle lane. Those folks do not stop.

After settling in to our rooms, we headed to another part of town that features several restaurants, bars and high-end shopping. I've seen probably 3 H&M stores, a Nike store, Adidas store, Puma store, Fossil, Diesel, Vans, etc. We had lunch at this place called Wok To Walk, which was a really good stir-fry place where you got to choose your noodles or rice, meats, veggies and sauces from an eclectic menu. After walking lunch off, we're now resting at the apartments before getting ready for a group dinner at Saturnino, which is an Italian place near where we were earlier today. Can't wait to try that out. We're doing something else together as a group after dinner but I'm not sure what exactly. Whatever it is, it's sure to be another adventure. Today has been packed with them so far.