Should We Stay or Should We Go

  Photo by Rudi Bloemmen on Unsplash I knew Amsterdam was famous for its bicycles before we came here. Everyone talks about the cycling culture, the bike lanes and the fact that there are bicycles everywhere. But knowing something and actually experiencing it are two very different things. There are more than 800,000 bicycles in Amsterdam, and about 32 percent of the city's traffic is by bicycle. After spending a few days here, I can definitely see why Amsterdam has earned its reputation as one of the world's great cycling cities. The first thing you learn as a visitor is that you really need to watch out for the bicycles. Back home, when we're walking around the city, we're watching for cars. Here, I'm constantly looking in every direction for bicycles. They can be coming from behind you, beside you or straight toward you, and they're surprisingly quiet. One minute you're walking along admiring the canals and beautiful old buildings, and the next you he...

Our first full day in Amsterdam didn't exactly begin the way we had planned. We spent the morning working on Son #1's phone, which meant hanging around the hotel rather than getting out to explore the city. It was a little frustrating knowing Amsterdam was waiting for us outside, but the alternative would have been finding an Apple Store and spending part of our day there. And no, we couldn't just put the phone in the suitcase and deal with it when he got home. Knowing it was still hanging over us would have made it difficult for any of us to completely focus on the experience and enjoy our time in Amsterdam. We really needed to get it sorted and put it behind us. Finally, around noon, we were ready to head out. Our plan was to walk through the Nine Streets and then take a canal tour of the city. The Nine Streets The Nine Streets, or De Negen Straatjes , are a collection of nine little streets in Amsterdam's historic canal district. They run through the area betwe...

  We arrived in Amsterdam! The flight was good, but none of us slept. Not really, anyway. There were a few minutes here and there when I think we may have dozed off, but for the most part, we were wide awake for the entire flight. By the time we landed, we were exhausted. After collecting our luggage, we discovered that getting to the Uber pick-up point was going to be a bit of an adventure in itself. We walked what felt like a mile to the luggage carousel, collected our bags, and then walked another mile with all of our luggage to find our ride. By the time we arrived at our hotel, I was more than ready to sit down. We are staying at the Leonardo Eden, right in Amsterdam's canal district, and after checking in we decided that the best thing we could do was sleep for three hours. The plan was to get up, find something to eat, and hopefully reset ourselves enough to make it through the evening. Three hours later, I woke up feeling like the dog's breakfast. I could definitel...

What a day. I planned well. My luggage was packed the day before, still open, but with all the contents inside. I had weighed everything, and I was perfect. I was more than 10 pounds under on my big case and right on with my carry-on. The day was meant to be about finishing up a few things around the house, with plenty of time for tea breaks in between. Well, that was the plan, anyway. From the time I got up, it seemed like I was running from one task to the next. One of those tasks was printing our cruise documents for both cruises. It should have been an easy thing, when the printer cooperates. I couldn’t get the e-print to work, so I finally reinstalled it. The paper went through, but there was nothing on it. The ink cartridges were full, so I cleaned the cartridges and managed to print one set before the printer refused to do anything else. I assumed the cartridges must have dried up, so I changed them. Now the printer wouldn’t recognize the new cartridges. After 45 minutes o...

One of the biggest challenges of any trip is figuring out what to pack. For this trip, I knew I had my work cut out for me. We aren't just going somewhere for a couple of weeks. This trip starts in Amsterdam, continues on to a nine-day Adriatic cruise, then takes us to Malta and Barcelona before we board the Norwegian Viva for our transatlantic journey across the Atlantic and into the Caribbean. That's a lot of different kinds of travel to pack for. There will be sightseeing and walking around cities, warm afternoons and cooler evenings, casual days on the ship, dinners where we'll want to dress up a little, shore excursions, and plenty of days when I'll probably be perfectly happy in shorts and a T-shirt. And somehow, all of that has to fit into one suitcase! Back to the Sudoku For this trip, I'm going back to one of my favourite packing tricks: the Sudoku Capsule Wardrobe. If you're not familiar with it, the idea is to start with nine pieces of clothing...