My heart is pounding as I fly across the Atlantic Ocean, knowing that in two days I will start climbing the highest mountain in the Africa. Mount Kilimanjaro towers above the plains of Tanzania at 19,340 feet (5,895 meters). Previously, the highest mountain I've ever climbed was a relatively modest 14,164' (4317 m) tall.
The cushy Delta One cabin crew has treated me well on this flight from Portland to Amsterdam. I've mostly slept and read books on my Kindle Paperwhite.
An appetizer before the crab cakes
Breakfast, and second breakfast
As soon as I land in Holland, I'll upload this blog and be on the lookout for my two Delta coworkers, Chris and Rod. I proposed this Mount Kilimanjaro climb to Chris a year ago, and Rod took the idea and ran with it.
Assuming we all make it to Tanzania, we're about to have the adventure of a lifetime!
Bonus pic: It was snowing at the house before I left for PDX Airport. Look at these two little treasures who rushed out to play in it!
The title of last month's on-location post (drafted on the plane ride over the ocean and uploaded in the Amsterdam airport), The Netherlands: Bicycling to Haarlem, was a bit off the mark. Turns out that "Bicycling FROM Haarlem" would've been more accurate. Chalk that up to optimism and an unrealistically ambitious itinerary.
The bicycle rental didn't actually happen until Haarlem, where I began my ride. This was because back in Amsterdam, a couple of delays had forced me to tweak my plans to maximize my daylight. And nothing would deter me from bicycling to my destination: Nationaal Park de Zuid-Kennemerland.
To make up for lost time, I hopped a train from Amsterdam to Haarlem instead. This quick European daytrip would be over before I knew it.
Jetlagged train ride from Amsterdam to Haarlem (I changed my mind after telling a friend I wouldn't share this photo-- You know who you are!)
Haarlem train station, inside and out
It didn't take long to spot a bicycle rental shop near the Haarlem train station. Friendly owner Mustafo only spoke about 20 words of English, but he helpfully walked me through the quirks of his of his prized storefront model.
Mustafo draws up the paperwork
Navigating my bicycle across town to check in at the hostel was pretty easy once I got my bearings. Learning to keep that fixed gear bike stable while balancing a luggage bag on my back... well, that wasn't exactly among my most graceful moments.
A new set of wheels
Two-wheeled rush hour traffic in Haarlem
The Gravestenbrug over the River Spaarne
The Corrie ten Boom Museum
Vine video of the Gravestenbrug: Snipe the "unmute" button above to hear the sound of those church bells ringing out over the River Spaarne
The clean and stylish Local Botique Hostel was still, for a few more hours, a ghost town when I rode up and parked my bicycle. There was already a full house booked for that night, but I had checked in too early in the day to round up new friends (my typical routine when I arrive at an overseas hostel) for the day's adventure.
The Local Botique Hostel- Love the friendly staff!
After dropping off my bag in my dorm room, I climbed back onto my bicycle for the ride out of town. Some residential navigation was necessary to locate the highway. Curse those confusing roundabouts!
Once on the highway, the route to Nationaal Park de Zuid-Kennemerland was an easy ride. And as Anto had told me the day before, the park itself was wonderful. The wild animals were out playing, though I missed the "Scottish cattle with the big horns" that she said I should've been watching out for.
A photo posted by Garth Hamilton (@garth_hamilton) on
Alarmingly, time quickly got away from me. I'd been frequently hopping off my bicycle to hike trails that were too rough for my tires. All of that extra hiking time added up, and I found myself at the far end of Kennemerland park with less than an hour before the bike rental shop closed.
I raced down the highway, back to Haarlem, and returned my rental bicycle just as Mustafo was closing up shop at the dinner hour. We bid each other "vaarwel" as I walked outside to continue my sightseeing on foot.
Later that evening, I met some friends who were in town at Tapas Bar El Pincho to wind down for the day. The staff was kind enough to let us enjoy their cushy, open-air patio seating until long after the sun went down.
**********
The following morning's sunrise was beautiful as I checked out of the Local Boutique Hostel. I took time to enjoy the quiet walk back to the Haarlem train station. For once, there would be no rushing to catch my mid-morning plane back to the States.
A photo posted by Garth Hamilton (@garth_hamilton) on
Back at the Amsterdam airport, a single Business Elite seat remained open for the flight home to Portland. I was flying standby. Despite a couple of extraordinary circumstances that should've sent me to the back of the plane (but hopefully not stranded in Europe), I was awarded that seat up front.
Variations of "You're extremely lucky" were echoed by several of the flight attendants and one of the gate agents as I was assigned my seat.
Alternately, the head purser serving my side of the cabin walked past my seat and whispered, "It's a miracle,"
I prefer to think that it was the latter.
Beginning next weekend on Garth's Blog...
Recent hikes in the U.S. and abroad...
Visiting family and climbing in Bend this weekend...
Updated pic from Haarlem this morning; I ended up bicycling FROM Haarlem instead
Seoul, South Korea was once again the goal for this overseas day trip (our kids had been out of town for a couple days). Had the Seoul flights been too full to fly standby on like last month--and they were-- the alternate plan was to visit a few friends in Singapore for the day.
But prior to yesterday morning, I hadn't even CONSIDERED coming back here to the Netherlands again until sometime next month. Yet here I am.
Plan C it is, and I'm solo on this one. My Dutch friends are currently scattered around visiting the coast, the U.K., and Germany. And a couple of my Twitter friends in Arnhem have work/travel schedules that keep them hopping.
Business Elite cabin view of the Netherlands this morning
If it's convenient to rent a bicycle here in Amsterdam, I'll soon be on my way to Haarlem to drop off my backpack at a hostel. From there, I'll ride to Nationaal Park de Zuid-Kennemerland in search of a bike lock and some hiking trails.
A photo posted by Garth Hamilton (@garth_hamilton) on
4/20- Thought I'd drop a pic from my new Instagram page that I created last week, too.
Thanks to Martijn and Antonette from the we12travel outdoor adventure blog (link also on the sidebar of Garth's Blog) for the suggestion for today's upcoming adventure! I'll add links and maybe another photo or two to this post when I'm not limited to mobile phone blogging. [4/18- Links and pics added]
I plan to continue today's story from the Netherlands before featuring other recent travel/outdoor adventure outings on Garth's Blog. But either way...
Gearing up for tomorrow's double-header climbs of Mount St Helens and Mount Hood have prevented me from finishing the travel blog I was intending to post today. So... I've quickly thrown together a list of my most popular travel posts from the past 12 months. Links to these previous posts look like this. I didn't even summarize them like I did for my much more eventful Top 10: Most popular travel posts of the year compilation that I posted last month during one of the Asia trips. Just a link and a photo from each post-- nothing fancy.
Since I barely covered any 2014-2015 trips on Garth's Blog, some of these are merely brief intros to stories that I hope to finish later. Many of them were just quick day-visits to our overseas friends anyway.
And some previously unshared travel stories are yet to come!
Honorable mention (because this year I've been selected to run in the upcoming 2015 Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon, and this time we'll be representing the entire Delta west coast!):
Around the time that I was in Amsterdam hooking up with my French and Swedish friends for the day (link), Kathy and the kids had a weekend trip of their own. My work schedule during the weekend made flying standby to Bend too risky for this round. But I'm hoping to take Lena with me on another quick trip to Europe in a few weeks!
Kathy wrote the post below, originally scheduled to be uploaded last week as the companion piece to my "A visit from Afghanistan" entry. Lena and Levi, Brent and Cheryl, Tom and Lora, and the most amazing wife and mother in the world had quite a time down in the Central Oregon countryside.
Guest blogger Kathy tells all below:
Going to
Bend has become a favorite weekend getaway for the Easons.
Besides the beautiful high desert and many outdoor activities to do, my
sister Cheryl and her husband Brent live in Tumalo, which is situated between Redmond
and Bend. We always go with my parents, so it makes for a great time with family.
Brent and
Cheryl have a couple of acres on a butte with Redmond to the north and Bend to
the south. There is plenty of room for
Lena to run and play with her dog cousins, Porter and Yote. They also have chickens now, so Lena enjoys gathering eggs and feeding them each morning and evening with Aunt Cheri. This was Levi’s first time to Bend and he
loved it too (although it’s a little difficult for him to express that).
On Saturday
we had a picnic lunch along the river at Tumalo State Park and then stopped at
Schillings Nursery, where they had a little western town and Lena-sized horse
buggies. Upon returning to the house, we
spotted four deer in front yard. Lena
wanted to pet one and Brent thought about meat for the winter. Of course, neither got what they wanted.
On the Sunday
morning before we left, Lena helped Uncle Brent prepare their garden
spots. She even “planted” a dead
Christmas tree branch to which she said, “Mommy, I plant pretty tree for
you.” It was a fun and relaxing weekend
and I can’t wait to go back in a few months.
The Twitter-authorized version of this family photo
After I flew home from the Netherlands last weekend from another friend-visiting day trip in Amsterdam (link), Kathy and baby Levi flew home from the Easons' trip to Bend, Oregon. Tom and Lora drove Lena home to us the next day!
Rather than one super long Eason family post, we're gonna split this up into two entries. Kathy will be coughing up the second blog post about visiting Brent and Cheryl in Bend later this week.
A few get-together photos with the Eason family in Salem are below, in honor of Tony's home visit from Kabul, Afghanistan last month:
3 1/2 month old Levi meets Uncle Tony for the first time
A late Easter egg hunt for Lena
"No, THIS way, Daddy!"
Eason family dinner
Levi enters the Grandpa Tom look-a-like photo contest
With the Original
And now for a final quiz:
Question:
What happens when someone takes a family photo and nobody is looking?
