Month: September 2026

September 6, 2026 Amsterdam NE

Well it is jet lag 2 Ron and Ton 0. Between 3 and 5 am we found ourselves having a nice conversation and doing some planning for the trip. At 5:30 I gave up and got up to watch the second half of the Timbers game on Apple TV thinking I would just power thru the rest of the day. At 6:30 I decided to lay down and read, and woke up at 11:30.

Walking down the aisle at the strangely named Mega Drinks and Food. It is a very large and well stocked Asian Grocery.

After our second brunch in two days we decided it was time to get out and do some more shopping. Our first stop was Mega Drinks and Food which is a giant Asian grocery store. It was influential in our decision to make Amsterdam our base as it allows Ton to stock up on true essentials for the trip. Then it was a quick up the street to Tong Fong which rivals Mega in size and has a deli that serves some of the best Barbeque Pork Ton has had west of Thailand.

Albert Heijn the biggest grocery chain in the Netherlands.

Having stocked up on Asian food it was time to finish our shopping for Dutch food so we were off to an Albert Heijn near the campground. The shopping trip took about 3 hours in total, but our Fridge is now stuffed with a wide variety of foods to last us until we get to France.

September 5 2026 Amsterdam NE

Jet lag won the duel today. After tossing and turning most of the night I woke up first at 11:30 am, Ton a little later. In fairness Ton claims I slept quite well all night and loudly, which was why she woke up later than me.

We spent the rest of the day doing a couple of little chores, and relaxing. There was an African heritage festival going on in the park next to the campground so we spent some of the afternoon enjoying music from the festival and emailing friends.

We are working on our short term plans which includes visiting some breweries in Belgium that have been on our tucket list.

September 4, 2026 Amsterdam NE

Our start to the fall trip may have been the smoothest day of travel ever. The drive to the airport was easy and quick. We walked right up to the check in and were done in minutes. There was no line at TSA and we were through in less than a minute. We relaxed in the excellent lounge at Portland until it was time to board our flight. The flight was full but took off on time and arrived 45 minutes early in Amsterdam. We had heard about 3 hour immigration checks due to the implementation of a new biometric system in Europe. When we got to immigration we were about 10th in line, and our biometrics were collected by a nice Netherlands immigration agent and we were on our way in about 10 minutes. Our bags were waiting for us when we got to the carousel, and the Uber arrived within 2 minutes of us asking for it.

As a result of this we arrived at our storage less than an hour after arrival to find François waiting for us. A quick check and everything was working as designed and we had no mouse residents to deal with. We made a run to a Lidl near the campground to stock up with a few days worth of food, and arrived at the campground at 10:30.

Ton spent the rest of the day unpacking our bags and removing our leftover food from mouse proof containers while I sat nodding off out of the way. Hopefully, the rest of the trip will be as smooth as this day was.