Welcome To Amsterdam (August 6)

Given the vast number of tents in rather close proximity to one another, I somewhat suspected a less than quiet evening last night. That didn’t turn out to be the case. For the most part. At one point I did wake up to some rather loud voices having a somewhat extended conversation. It was kind of hard to determine exactly where the voices were coming from but it seemed somewhat evident that whispering in Dutch is a challenge.

In looking out of my tent this morning, I noticed two things. One, the skies were very much overcast with dark clouds. Dark clouds that looked very much like they would be bringing rain sooner rather than later. And two, the feet of one person and about a third of another person were hanging out the door of the tent next to mine. As best I could tell (from later observations) there were four people in a tent designed for three (more likely two). I won’t go into further details as this is a family-friendly blog, I’ll just say, “Welcome to Amsterdam”.

With the rain looming, I started packing up earlier than my original intent. Given that I will be in Africa for the next two weeks, I didn’t want to pack up and then store a wet tent. Fortunately the rain held off just long enough for me to pack up. Not by much though. As I pedalled towards Reception to check out, the rain started. And it wasn’t exactly a light rain.

I took shelter beside Reception and decided to try to wait out the rain. At this point it was only 8:00 AM so I had plenty of time to have breakfast which consisted of finishing off the bread and peanut butter that I had remaining.

Today’s plan was pretty straightforward. I needed to drop off my bike to be stored while I travel to Africa and I needed to get to the airport to meet Gage. The first part of the plan needed to be accomplished by 11:30 AM and the second part of the plan needed me to be at the airport by 2:00 PM. Spoiler alert: Both parts were successful.

The ride from the Vliegenbos Campground to Olle’s place (i.e. my Warm Showers host) was only about 20 minutes. Olle was very patient as I repacked my bags so that I could travel as lightly as possible to Africa. If possible, I wanted to avoid having to check any baggage. Spoiler alert #2: It was possible.

With my bags repacked, I said goodbye to Olle (and my bike and gear) and began the walk back to Centraal Station (yes, there’s supposed to be an extra “a” in Centraal).

I only made a few brief stops for photos along the way and by 12:20 PM I had arrived at the train station. And 20 minutes after that I was on the train bound for the airport. I knew the ride was only about 20 minutes which would mean I would get to the airport well ahead of schedule but I preferred that scenario to being late.

As luck would have it, not only did I arrive early at the airport but so too did Gage’s flight. Fun Fact: Despite Gage living in Philadelphia, I’ve now ended up seeing her on each of my three (long) cycle tours.

And, if all goes well, tomorrow we’ll be flying to Nairobi at 12:45 PM.