Day 9 and 10

Day 9 opened by far the warmest of any day there....by noon it was around 75 degrees which is almost not heard of in Netherlands at this time of the year.  But for us it was great.

As I mentioned our last day was to check out of the hotel and drive over to the Delft factory.  Delft is a pottery company that has been in business since 1640.  We parked right in front and without a tour got a electronic earphone tour of the factory on our own.  We stared out seeing some incredible pieces....some were as large as walls.  One depicted an exact replica of the Night Watch...all in Delft blue...on tiles.  There were bowls, dishes, vases and more.  Then we went through the factory watching and of course taking pictures of the workers making the basic pottery.  All are made in molds with special clay.....and they are all white in color.  A special glaze is applied and then painted with a very special black paint which turns blue when heated in the kiln.  They used onther colors but blue was by far the most prominent.  The pieces were all painted with the black paint and only shading (watering down of the paint) made the shades.  We followed the pieces as the "matured" into the final product.  We even watched the people paint the actual peices.  Each piece depending on the size takes many hours to paint and if there is a mistake (and we got to see a few) they are tossed.  Of course we had to buy a couple Xmas decs in the gift shop. 

We then were off to go back to Haarlem to drop the car off but we wanted to backtrack again along the route where the flowers were.  So we had several more stops with gorgeous views of acres and acres of flowers along with windmills to include in the pictures.  WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THEM.

We arrived back and dropped the car off and the rep at AVIS was nice enough to give us a ride back to the train station.  There we got our ticket and was on the train back to Amsterdam to transfer to the Airport.  We decided to use an airport hotel so we did not have to take a long train ride very early the next day.  So we arrived at Amsterdam and changed trains.....this is where the fun started.  Now remmeber none of the cars have AC.....and this was Thursday before Easter weekend.....

We got on the train to the airport and it immedately filled up to capacity.  We decided to stay near the door because of our baggage...we had 5 bags to carry.  As I said, the train was filled when we left.....then about 3 minutes out of the station we stop again at another station and about 200 more tavellers get on with bags and more bags.  They push and shove their way into the car....we are REALLY FILLED NOW.  then about 5 minutes later down the track we stop at another station and yep......another 200 or so push an shove their way onto the train.  Everyone now is yelling and laughing and talking in severl languages.....but we were all in good moods and people were all very nice about the crowd.  So now the train is totally.....and I mean that.....full and we are finally off for the 20 minute ride to the airport....the car is as hot as a sauna.....we are as close to each other with MILLIONS of suitcases and bags.....oh it was a treat!!!!!  But we made it and we were off to our airport hotel.  It was a huge professionaly run hotel with 4 restaurants...2 bars and even a 24 hour snack bar available....for all types of travelers.  We got to our room and repacked so that most everything could fit.  We went and ate a pretty good pizza at the hamburger restaurant and back to go to bed.  We had to get up early for our flight.

Day 10

Last day in the area.....we got to the airport 3 hours prior, checked in (their system is so much better than ours) and we were at the gate.......with guess what....no security check.  Weird...but wait.....yep at our gate is a mini setup for security with a body scanner and all.  So about 1.5 hours before boarding all all line up to go through security which takes a ton of time and then to A SECOND waiting area to board.  The flight was great...no problems to Atlanta and Diana and I watched ...4 movies!!!!  2 on our ipod and 2 on the planes system.  cooool.

We were delayed about 30 minutes in Atlanta to Ft. Myers due to plane traffic.  We had to wait in line to take off.....but by 7:00 pm Friday night we were in Ft. Myers where friends picked us up and we all relaxed with a Mexican dinner nearby. 

So, we are now home again.....

Next big trip............India and Nepal in the fall!!!!

I will post some photos when I get them downloaded onto my computer.  So check the blog out in a few days!!!!