Hello Amsterdam

August seemed like a safe month, but upon arrival in Amsterdam it was more like November. Cold, windy, wet and a bit nasty. Now, as you know there is a strictly enforced "No Whining" policy, so we're not whining, just providing weather report. Immediately upon arrival at our hotel were told it would take 15-20 minutes to get our room ready. This was at 7:45 AM. As it turned out we finally got in our room at 11:00. It would appear all that legal weed has destroyed the ability to calculate time, accomplish real work and finish a project. Hmmmmmmm? Even at 11:00 it took some serious intervention by outside partners to get us into a room. Then we proceeded to screw up and fell asleep for 3 hours! This is a No - No! Sleep is allowed on the first day, but only  30 - 45 minutes at the most. Now we are assured to be up until 10:00 or so and then up again at 3:00 AM. . . It's okay! We'll adapt! We're old, resilient, and adaptable. The good news is that by time we woke up the sun was kinda/sorta out and we jumped  on a a canal cruise boat to see the city. NICE! We were here 15 years for our 30th anniversary and all seems to be about as we left it. Amsterdam is a huge magnet for the youth of the world (I wonder why.) and they're still here. Both the ones that were here 15 years ago and the new 20 year olds. What a mix! Beyond that the real Dutch folks are still riding their bikes everywhere and looking for all the world like they're the happiest people on Earth! (I wonder why?) Now I have to see if I can download a picture. Hang on a minute. Thanks for waiting. Seems like that isn't going to work tonight. No pictures for you. Duane's famous patience just can't deal with this level of complication.
I can describe the photo I was going to post. . . It was a lovely picture of about 1,000,000 bikes all padlocked and waiting for someone to come and ride away.(Not us). It was a nice picture. The other one was of the Amsterdam Central Train Station bathed in late afternoon sunlight. It was stunning. Look it up on the www thingee. You know how to do that. That's it for today. The drugs are about to kick in and Paula wants the lights off. Bye for now! Tomorrow we go see Vincent's masterpieces. Duane is so excited he may not sleep at all. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.