10172019 – Thursday

We left Chicago Sunday night October 13^th at 22:00 and arrived in Copenhagen at 13:20 Monday October 14^th.    We had a “little” incident about half-way through the flight.  I was sleeping when Sue got up to go to the bathroom.  A minute or two later a flight attendant touched my arm and said “sir, your wife has fainted and is laying in the aisle.”  I got up to go to her and sure enough Sue was laying in the aisle.  She was conscious and talking to a couple of attendants kneeling down by her.  She had a compress on her forehead and an oxygen mask on her face.  She told me that she was feeling better.  While walking to the bathroom she began feeling extremely hot and dizzy, and the next thing she knew she was on the floor.  After a few minutes when the attendants were sure she was feeling better I helped her stand up, and they had Sue sit down in an empty seat next to where she was laying.  They put her in this seat because there was a lady doctor sitting next to her in this aisle.  Sue still had the oxygen while she sat there.  They kept her in that seat, so I went back to our seats and waited anxiously.  Eventually she came back to our seats.  She explained what happened. While she was walking she was putting her hands on the seats as she walked and she kept feeling hotter and dizzy as she walked.  She recalls slumping down backwards with her hands on the seats.  She thinks she was unconscious for a very short time, but does remember hearing someone say “ma’am” and became aware that she was on the floor.  Sue felt better for the rest of the flight.

Our plane to Amsterdam was scheduled to depart at 15:35, but we had an hour delay in Copenhagen to change a tire on the plane after we boarded.  We arrived in Amsterdam around 17:30.  We made our way into town and checked into our hotel.  Jim had made a reservation at a hotel close to their apartment.  We walked to Jim & Nanny’s apartment in about 5 min.  After Jim gave us information about the apartment we went out to dinner.  After dinner we stopped back at the apartment and Jim gave us the keys, they were leaving early tomorrow morning.  

The next day, Tuesday we arrived at the apartment around noon, and spent some time settling in.  Actually as always, Sue did all the settling in stuff.  We didn’t get out of the apartment until late afternoon, we went to a local HEMA store to pick up the essentials, as shown in a photo.  We actually did get a few things at the nearby Albert Heijn grocery store, but they didn’t make it into the photo.  That was about all we did today.

Wednesday, late morning we awoke while still getting acclimated to the 7 hour time change.  After a late breakfast, and watching BBC TV: “The Doctors” and “Holby City” look them up.  We set out to the Modern Art Museum to get the Museumkaart that allows unlimited visits to all (almost all) the museums in the Nederlands.  We stopped at an Albert Heijn to pick up more actual groceries.  We also stopped in at an indoor swimming pool to see what was required for Sue to continue her daily swimming routine.  However, after walking about 9 miles a day so far, she may not need to swim every day.  I on the other hand have decided to sacrifice my daily half-hour on the elliptical to the pursuit of a good time.  I have to tell you our experience when we went out for gelato in the evening, we are on vacation.  It rained lightly while we were out, but we were dressed for it.  We ate our gelato in the shop, and we were the only people there when we left.  The owner asked us if we were from the US as we were walking out, when we said yes he asked where in the US.  When we told him Chicago, he threw his hands up and said “don’t shoot.”  Sue told him we were probably the only people in Chicago that don’t have a gun.  

Thursday was another late start.  We walked to the Albert Cuyp street market for more groceries.  The weather was dry and cool, good for walking, because the market is about 1.5 miles from the apartment.  Sue got some chicken and other stuff, and I took a couple of photos.  We sat down to rest a bit, and Sue had a couple of chicken wings to fortify herself for the walk home.  After resting and watching more TV we went out for a beer at one of our favorite little bars, Café Belgique. 

On the way to the bar we stopped at the “wooden shoe” on Dam Square to get another picture.  We have taken a lot of photos at the shoe.  Tonight there was a large group of Asian guys standing around the shoe, but nobody was taking any photos.  So we asked one of the guys to take our photo and we hopped into the shoe.  I have added all of our previous photos to this album.

Café Belgique is a hole in the wall just off Dam Square on a narrow little street.  The bar has about 50+ Belgian beers.  There are a few seats inside, two benches outside, and there is seating upstairs.  Many people stand in the street with their beer so they can smoke.  It was crowded tonight because we got there when folks were getting off work.  We did manage to get seats on a bench.  After we had our beer we walked home down Kaverstraat past the apartment where we lived in 2012-2013.  This is more than enough for now.

Amsterdam Oct 14-Oct 17