travelling

The pictures of Barcelona won't be ready for a while, so more on that later, but we had a very romantic stay here. After a great last dinner Thursday night, Friday morning Sasha and I went to the airport together. We had a last sandwich with chorizo sausage and after Sasha checked in for her flight to Bulgaria I left to the second terminal to go back to Amsterdam. I flew with Vueling, a Spanish low cost airline and they were quick and efficient.

Since Spain and the Netherlands are in the Schengen treaty there was no passport check after leaving the plane. I had only hand luggage so I quickly walked through the terminal and customs and made it exactly in time for the train to Amsterdam Sloterdijk. From there I had just a few minutes and made my connection to the train to Hoorn precisely on time.

Jaap picked me up in Hoorn and we got cake and marsh-mellows for the party and drove home. I went for a short run to shake off my travel tiredness a bit, and we had dinner the five of us; cauliflower with potatoes with a nice salad.

Flying with Vueling, which has a code share with Iberia, another Spanish airline.

The gate in Barcelona.

Dinner in Middenmeer together.

We had a wonderful time in Barcelona together. What a great city!

Sasha's plane just left, to Zurich and then Sofia, and I'm departing in an hour. I'm pretty tired after a short night (we got our table in a great tapas restaurant just before midnight) but we had a very romantic stay.

For those of you who haven't been there yet: we can highly recommend Barcelona.

From Schiphol I'll take the train to Sloterdijk/Hoorn and in Middenmeer I'll meet Ettie and my parents to prepare for tomorrow's party in the Dijkgatsbos.

After a 7,5 hour flight I arrived at London Heathrow early in the morning. The plane landed at 7.00 am, and I managed to get a couple of hours sleep on the plane. The plane wasn't full and the stewardess pointed me to a row with three empty seats in the back ('oh you're so tall'). It's not exactly comfortable but some sleep is a lot better than none at all.

I had breakfast on the airport and took the train to Paddington station. There I took the circle line to Liverpool street, which is where our UK office is. I spent the morning with them and we had lunch together. It's small office with great atmosphere. Talked about the product I work on and some other initiatives we're doing.

At 4.00 pm I was in the air again, on my way to Amsterdam. I sat next to a British couple with a young baby on their lap. It liked me and was interested in the sound of my newspaper and water bottle. I learned that, in British, a rhino says: "mud, mud, mud". It was nice to have some distraction because even with the grande coffee in the morning (Starbucks is everywhere) followed by a dopio at Heathrow, I was getting very tired.

In the arrival hall I was met by my parents, Steven, Jerry and Marjolein and it was great to see them. We had dinner together, and chatted. Jerry told about their adventures on vacation. I still had banana in my laptop bag which was heavily bruised. I hope Steven found his car back.

We drove to Middenmeer. We immediately saw a lady I recognized by name and other people who I recognized just by face. Middenmeer is a very friendly place where people say 'hi' on the street, and I think I know someone in about every street of the village. We chatted for a while at home and I went to a deep, long sleep.

At Schiphol.

Last weekend we had a great time in Charleston, South Carolina.

We left on Friday morning. It was about 5 hours to get the South Carolina and the journey itself is always enjoyable. With a cup of coffee, open highway and wonderful company driving is a lot of fun.

We arrived around 4.00 pm in Charleston and we found our bed & breakfast quickly. We stayed in "King George IV Inn" that we had booked the night before. A nice bed & breakfast, with a great location. Charleston is a little bit like Savannah, in that everything is withing walking distance. We didn't use the car the whole weekend.

Charleston is a great city, with a lot of night life. The first night we had dinner with a live Dixieland band playing "Up the lazy river" and other hits. It was busy on the street until late at night.

Saturday during the day we visited Fort Sumter, the location of the first shots of the Civil War. The Civil War (1861–1865) is the most bloody war in U.S. history, far exceeding World War II. It was impressive to visit the fort and the museum and read the stories.

On Sunday we went for lunch in High Cotton, a very good restaurant with modern Southern style food. The corn bread and salads were amazing.

We left Charleston around 3.00 pm on Sunday, and decided to get off the highway for a while and instead tour through the country side for an hours. We stopped on the road to pick up some boiled peanuts and fresh fruits. Upon hearing that we're from Durham, North Carolina the salesman commented: "Well, just be careful how you order your barbecue sandwich up there. I love coleslaw, I love barbecue sandwich but I'm from South Carolina and they don't go together on the same piece of bread." During the drive back the car smelled nicely of the cantaloupe.

Our bed & breakfast.

In the room.

The historic part of Charleston is full with small alleys and walkways; it's really similar in style to European cities.

Fort Sumter.

The flag on Fort Sumter, including an old Confederate Flag, old flags of the United States (with less stars than today) and the South Carolina flag. The flag of the United States is the largest of them.

Lots of big cannons and mortars in the fort.

On the evening of the Fourth and the next day we saw dolphins in the harbor. I had never seen dolphins in the wild before.

A Southern belle.

'Rainbow row'.

On Sunday we visited the Battery where there are a lot of big mansions. A few are now museums but most are still in use as residences.

We'll be leaving shortly for Washington DC for a short stay; traveling back tomorrow.

It's going to be a fun road trip. Tomorrow morning we plan to visit the National Gallery of Art.

We had a wonderful short vacation in St Maarten last week.

Here are some pictures. Good food, great beaches and a very friendly atmosphere.

On Sunday we saw the Carnival Parade in Marigot, the capitol of the French side of the island.

It was a lot of fun to watch the parade, and we saw it passing by twice. The pictures tell only part of the story -- the music was just as important. Throughout the parade, trucks were carrying huge sound installation and the soca music was very loud and made for a great party atmosphere.

Here's a video of the 2007 parade with sound.

A true wall of sound. The volume of the soca music was incredible.

We had a good view from our spot on a street corner.

The parade was blocking traffic throughout the (tiny) city.

The end of the official parade; people dancing on the music and following the parade.

An hour later we saw the parade again, it was dark already.

One of the carts.

Saturday we're leaving for a few days to St. Maarten, an island in the northeast Caribbean. Half of the island is Dutch, half of the island is French.

So, we're in for a tropical island with Dutch food! It will be much like our trip to Curacao three years ago.

We're ready for a very special vacation in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Tomorrow at 5.00 am we'll leave for Charlotte International Airport, where we'll take a direct flight to Cancun.

We just completed packing.

We're on the final flight of our trip. We have a lot of hand luggage, but everything worked out well, and so did things when arriving at JFK.

This flight will be about 70 minutes, so not too bad.