More on Amsterdam

The last day we walked. That's an understatement! We walked so far that we ended up off the map! We were a good kilometer or so off the map. It took me about a half hour to find a landmark (a windmill that I'd been looking for in the first place) that would get us back on track.

We first walked to KNSN, an island off to the east of Centraal Station. KNSN was recommended as a trendy new Amsterdam. Not to be New York which was once New Amsterdam or Istanbul which was once...

It was definitely trendy and new and modern. There were great bike paths through red brick apartment buildings and pretty gardens all around.

It was upon leaving KNSN that we found we were lost. In hindsight, I think we ended up taking the third bridge instead of the second.

After rebearing ourselves we headed to the zoo. It was on the way back to the center of town. It soon became obvious that this was not a typical tourist destination. My first clue was there was only Dutch text on the signs. I learned a few words for different animals. Gestreept means zebra. Leeuw is the word for the king of the jungle.

I also learned the word for woman the hard way. Damas means women as the little girl explained. Afterwards, she and her friends ran away giggling! Although, in my defence, a big "D" on an open door isn't really a great way to signify the sex of a toilet.

Once we left the zoo, which was actully a zoo, aquarium, plantarium, insectarium, and planetarium, we needed to head to the airport. We needed to grab a taxi. We passed on the shiny black BMW 745. The silver Mercedes-Benz S-class was just too much. We opted for the nice early 90's E-class.

That's right. The taxi cabs in Amsterdam were mostly high end luxury cars. At least that is what they are in the States. These are cars that I cannot afford that are driving around as taxicabs!

Anyway, we got on the uneventful flight to Paris. I've decided that we can't really say that we went to Paris when, technically, we never left the airport. Our hotel, despite being a half hour shuttle ride, was still technically on airport grounds. Charles de Gaulle airport is massive.

The next morning we had to get in a bus from the gate to get to our plane. The plane wasn't at the gate; rather it was on the tarmac some ways away. Quite literally twenty minutes, and probably three kilometers later we arrived at the plane!

One side note, having no knowledge of French, I successfully impressed our shuttle driver when I asked if he spoke English (in French.) He said that I said "Parlez-vous anglais?" in a very French way.