Saturday Morning:
I’ve come to the conclusion that Amsterdam is New Orleans, or New Orleans is Amsterdam. Both cities embrace excess, both are dirty, and both have side streets which are littered and smell of piss in the morning. When I am in good health I can handle either for about three days. On this trip I have unfortunately not been in good health, so my tolerance for the lifestyle conducted is much lower. I have either been fighting the Cruise Crud, allergies, or some other ailment which my body is finding difficult to defend. I sneezed a lot Friday, and woke Saturday morning with a runny nose and unsettled stomach.
I’ve also discovered Amsterdam to be a late-starting city on the weekends, finding it hard to locate a breakfast restaurant open before 9am. As I type this I am having coffee and apple pie in the shop in which I did the same thing a few weeks ago. This is also an attempt to kill the two hours I have before I board my train to Rheine, Germany. I will have left this destination by the time you read this heading back to Amsterdam where I will overnight before flying out tomorrow “afternoon”.
Destination: Rheine, Germany
Reason: none
Imposed Motto: “The Quiet City That Never Sleeps”
Saturday Post-Morning:
My train rolled into the small city of Rheine a little before 1:00pm. Luckily for me I caught the tail end of their Saturday market and bought some cheese and rolls for lunch. Score!
To add to my luck on Saturday afternoon there was some parade whose theme I didn’t understand. Something about shooting clubs coming together as explained to me by a young man whose English was marginally better than my German.
Because I didn’t follow my own rule to make sure every room you book has a goddamn air conditioner! I nearly purchased a 23cm desk fan for €15 to use in my hotel room. Were it slightly smaller I would have purchased it because it would then have fit into my backpack for the walk back to the hotel.
When I chose to come here I had no idea that little Rheine, Germany was also having a street party on Saturday night. Music stages were erected and bands played different styles of music. Of course I gravitated to the stage nearest Scum Bar (you know I had to drink there) which was rock music. I felt like a complete fish out of water as everyone else belted out lyrics in German and I could not; oddly I knew all of the music played behind the lead singer, but wondered if completely different lyrics were sung to the familiar tune.
Sadly my gimpy hip reared its ugly head and limited my mobility on Saturday. From the sounds I heard through my open window until 2am this quiet little city knows how to party.
Sunday:
Rheine in the 2020s reminds me of Queens in the 1970s.
Yesterday I discovered that the local soccer, um Fußball, team was playing a home match in the afternoon. A little research told me that FC Eintracht Rheine is currently in the fourth division of German Soccer and that the stadium in which they play is within walking distance (1.9km) from the town center. Guess what I did next! Spoiler: I went to the game. It was as much fun as could be expected for a fan with no rooting interest, even though I caused a bit of an incident as I tried to look around the seating area and was stopped by “security” and asked for my ticket. In broken German and English explained that I bought the ticket at the window this morning, two other “security” agents were consulted about my ticket and all was okay. Out of concern that I’d have to explain myself again I wound up sitting in a different area. The beer I bought was €3, the Coke €3.50.
After the game I walked back to town, went out to eat dinner, and bought two beers at a liquor store for my wild night in of packing and doing research. I fell asleep after finishing the first bottle, it may have been 9:00pm.
Wordle: four, my starter was CHASE
Connections: perfect, Blue > Green > Purple > Yellow
Sorry for the long post. I had a lot of time to fill, and, then it turned out to be a busy weekend.
I think I just agreed to watch someone’s possessions while she went to the restroom? And just explained to someone else that her table is not free? All because I had time to kill because my train has a twenty minute delay and stopped for coffee.
Oh the places I go…
As ITP-Reader Barb said, Duolingo has failed me. Hahaha
Successfully added a seat reservation to my train ride to Amsterdam, conducted in English… Boo me!
Thought about buying a magazine in German to practice, but already have many German language items to read (struggle with) first.
My train now has an hour delay. This is why I booked travel back to Amsterdam the day before I have to fly out.
And someone is sitting in my reserved seat. She is an older woman coupled with the man next to her, so I seem to have no recourse. Time will tell…
sounds like more adventure
Didn’t need to get rough, I found another seat for the entire trip.
Why do I find it so unnerving to receive a random text from some unknown phone number which just repeats my phone number, then texts “Hello”? According to Google, the phone number is from northeastern Iowa.
block & report
this doesn’t bother me anymore -I get at least 1 of those texts a day
It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong! Sounds like a fun and interesting experience. You’re making new memories.
My roommate on the barge/bike trip was okay. :). Hopefully I wasn’t a PITA. I agree with Paulie, Amsterdam was not my favorite. Haarlem was much nicer. A smaller quieter version of Amsterdam. I loved all the small communities along the way and loved the fact that everyone rides bikes, including the very young and the very old. Good to be home. Doesn’t appear that it rained much while I was gone. I was thinking of cutting the yard yesterday but went hashing instead.
Wordle in 4 starting with POUND. Connections: b, x, x, x, g, y, p. Strands was a piece of cake.
It was a pleasure rooming with you. Hope the same can be said about me. 🙂
Hashing? You rock star! lol
I’m looking forward to sleeping in my bed for two nights before heading out again. But that’s a tale for later in the week.
Prior to boarding my train I spoke with a woman from Rheine who currently lives in Philadelphia. She knew the name of the parade, and I should have asked her to spell it for me. D’Oh!
OTC cold meds are working – I feel better today, but not perfect
Saturday we chilled in the morning (woke up way too early) went & got Sal from the airport, went to an impromptu Irish Wake for a Parrothead friend that suddenly died. He has LOTS of health issues, but we weren’t expecting this, but at the same time, not super shocking.
Sunday decided to get out of the house & go to the hash, but decided not to do trail – I didn’t have that much energy. It was fun seeing people. We skipped the 2nd half of the trail – the circle & pool at Oops’s house.
Another overachiever!
Adventures in Rheine! I looked it up, looks like a cute little city!
The thing I like most about Amsterdam is that it’s very accepting of all kinds, it’s like a no-judgement zone.
My dad showed up early on Friday, which was fine. We took him to Rathbun’s Friday night. Saturday we just had a chill day — he had been driving and then visiting my uncle for over a week and needed some down time. I made shepherd’s pie for dinner which between dad, Finn, and Kevin got almost totally eaten up. Sunday we took the dog for a nice long walk, the weather was SO beautiful! In the evening we went to Wisteria for dinner. My dad is extremely allergic to gluten so I was researching gluten-free restaurants and discovered that Wisteria has an entire gluten-free menu. That made it a lot easier. This morning he took off to Ellijay and will spend 2-3 weeks at the cabin.
I am glad to now have a couple of days with no visitor and no kid. Whew!
will you go up to Ellijay to hang with him on the weekends?
I can’t this weekend, but we might go up the following weekend.
The funny thing about Rheine (that I forgot to mention) is that it lies on the Ems and not the Rhine! Sneaky Germans…
Train to Amsterdam
Train to Airport
Bus to two blocks from hotel
A minute after I entered the hotel the skies opened with tons of rain
Maybe I’m living right?
Sitting in hotel bar having a beer before going to room since it’s in a different building so I have to go outside again.
Wordle in 4.
Good morning from Miami. Saturday went very well. We were done and at lunch by 1:30.
Sunday, up early to Everglades NP and the rental bike ride. Alligators! Herons and egrets! Humping grasshoppers! Hot! I’m sore in funny places as I didn’t have real riding shorts and the bike wasn’t like anything I owned.
Saturday, I checked to see if Skyline had built another store and they had, in Sunrise (west of Ft. Lauderdale). As I had good BBQ for lunch with the guys, decided to wait to go until Sunday. Told the google to direct me and it said they were CLOSED on SUNDAY!!! WTF, O? I found tacos instead. Definitely not Skyline.
-FP
Connections – 1st perfect in a while
Blue, Purple, Yellow then Green.
Wordle – took me 5.
Final Gut Buster just happened. Spent €37 for an all inclusive dinner at the hotel. So. Much. Great. Food. And since the only beer included is Heineken (cue Peter’s disdain), I am drinking too much red wine.
Penultimate day, spending Euro like Monopoly money.
Severe change of diet starts in the morning.
Apple Event starts at 7pm local. I will watch.
NY Jets game starts at 2:15am local. I will be asleep.