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Thursday, October 19: I called the local KLM office right after 8:00 a.m. when they opened. The operator said we were almost certain to get on the Friday flight because they were only overbooked by one seat, and they usually had 5% "no shows." When I called again at 10:00 to check on our position, a different operator said there were many people ahead of us on the wait list. She recommended that we use our confirmed reservations for today. We decided to do that, reluctantly giving up our plans to go into Athens to see the "new" Plaka and do some shopping.

After a big lunch, Charlie drove us to the airport about 1:00 for the 3:10 flight. The flight boarded 40 minutes late, but we still got to Amsterdam at 6:00 p.m., only ten minutes late. We changed some money, checked the bags we wouldn't need, arranged for a hotel at a phone panel in the airport, and caught the train to the Central Station. The Hotel Continental was on the main street (Dam Rak) only a block from the station. Our room was tiny, but it was quiet and had a TV.

We went out to explore and found Dam Rak was the street where the action was. It was swarming with young people. A block up from the hotel was the Royal Palace. On the tiny square in front of the Palace was a noisy carnival with a huge Ferris wheel, other rides, and lots of games. (In 1971 when we had last seen the square, it was covered with the bed rolls and pup tents of marijuana-smoking hippies.) It was teeming with young people, a surprising proportion of them African. We also walked through a huge building behind the Palace that was filled with upscale modern shops, very similar to the exclusive multistory shopping arcades (e.g., Georgetown Park) in the States. We got back to the hotel about 9:30 and watched American TV (NBC) for an hour before going to bed. About half the channels were in English.

Friday, October 20: We woke to a cold, cloudy day. At 8:30 we had the breakfast special (egg McMuffin, croissant, orange juice and coffee) at McSnack, a branch of McDonald's. We left our luggage at the hotel, got some more guilders, and walked down Prinsen Geracht (Canal) past Ann Frank's house, looking in vain for the little hotel we stayed in with the boys in 1971. We were surprised to find that many of the narrow old houses had been torn down and replaced by new ones. In many cases, there was one wider building where two narrow ones had stood.

It had been drizzling off and on as we walked. It started raining hard as we waited to visit Ann Frank's house. We found the tour very interesting, even the second time. (We had been there in 1971, too.) 

Canal near Central Station

Ann Frank's house

Statue of Ann Frank

We had pizza and beer on our way back to Dam Rak. There we caught a streetcar to the vicinity of the Rijks Museum. We spent two and a half hours in the museum. They have the world's greatest collection of Dutch paintings, including "Night Watch" and dozens of others by Rembrandt.

Rembrandt's "Night Watch"

Rijks Museum

Jane & calliope on Dam Rak

We caught the streetcar back to Dam Rak and had an ice cream at McDonald's. We changed the rest of our guilders back to dollars, picked up our luggage at the hotel, and got to Central Station just in time for a train to Schiphol Airport. We got there at 5:10, retrieved our other luggage, and checked in for the 7:10 KLM flight.

The flight was very nice, but the movie (Batman Forever) was pure agony. We arrived at Dulles Airport at 10:35 p.m., but had a long wait for our suitcases. We caught the shuttle to the Hampton Inn and checked in about midnight. We were exhausted and went right to bed. In the morning we would make the two-hour drive to our home in Massanutten.

General Observations. It had been a wonderful trip, in spite of weather that was much cooler and windier than normal. Being able to use the Rodenberg's home as a base of operations made all the difference in the world. Instead of one exhausting 27-day trip, it seemed we had a series of shorter, more relaxing excursions. Although we'd been to both Greece and Turkey before, this time we went mostly to places we had not seen. As with most of Europe, the popular tourist attractions are more crowded than they used to be. 

Turkey was a pleasant surprise. Not only was it less crowded than Greece, but the Turkish people generally were more friendly and helpful than we'd found in most other countries. Even when they wanted to sell you something, they were very subtle about it, never aggressive. Most of the small, older hotels are quite spartan, but they were adequate and very inexpensive. The food was very good. Finally, there are so many things to see. There may be more Greek ruins in Turkey that there are in Greece. 

The Turkish tourist industry seems to be at about the same place in its development as Italy was when we were there in the early 1960s or Greece in 1973. They are building new hotels and other tourist facilities at a tremendous rate, though, and are catching up fast. It probably won't be too many years before the prices catch up, too. We also thought it was odd that they did not give receipts at the hotels or even for port taxes or visas. A lot of cash is collected without any written record being made.

Although Mikonos was charming and Santorini unique, Crete has much more to offer for those interested in staying more than two or three days. In four days on Crete, we only saw the north side of the island, and even that we did very very hastily. We easily could have spent a full week there - or even a whole month. It's especially great in the mid-Fall because it's much warmer than the Greek mainland or the smaller islands.

We would love to go back to both Greece and Turkey again.

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