Today we flew out of London after packing up and leaving our lovely little apartment in Holborn. We have had a great time here and the neighbourhood has been fantastic.
London has been fast and furious, there are so many people going about their business, all competing for a spot on the footpath, being first to cross at the lights and tunnelling onto the tubes . But everyone has been friendly, not in a good morning on the street, but polite and courteous when conversing. There are heaps of bike shops and even more book shops, which we noticed, given that we have hardly any back home.
We had our coffee and made it up the stairs one last time to collect our bags. Ken lugged them back down and then we rolled them to the Farringdon Train Station, about 15 minutes away. From there we caught the train to Gatwick Station, which didn't take too long.
This next bit is a bit of a rant about low cost carrier air travel. I know you get what you pay for, but it is still really annoying. Sorry in advance for boring you!
As we arrived it occurred to Ken that he hadn't got his passport out, so he did a bit of an unpack in the train station and found it. We had checked in online and had boarding passes on our phones, so dropped our suitcases in to be told there was a 2 hour delay, now leaving at 2.05pm. We were flying Easy Jet and you expect some sort of change so we settled in. I was checking out the shops,Ken had his headphones on, when I heard our plane being called at 12.25. Now the board said GATES CLOSED! Apparently it wasn't delayed anymore. We rushed to the gate, only to find a mass of similarly confused people. They slowly processed us through and we got on to the transfer buses to be taken to the plane. They crammed us in, as they do for those short trips, and drove us the 5 minutes to the plane and then told us that there wasn't any crew yet, so we had to wait . Eventually there were 4 bus loads of people crammed in, many of us standing, with no air conditioning for 40 minutes. There was a big group of an English cricket club traveling together who were quite entertaining and yelling out trying to improve our conditions. THEN...the poor bus driver had to tell us that this plane didn't work and we would have to go back to the terminal for an undetermined amount of time! We were told to go back into the departure lounge and listen for the calls and watch the board. We waited some more and then Ken heard the number but nothing came up on the board, and the gate was in the opposite direction, a 10 minute walk away. We checked in at the Easy Jet desk and the lady ushered us to get moving. In a line at our gate amongst a completely different plane, we finally got to the front and onto the Tarmac, where I got into trouble for taking a photo. Onto the plane at 2.50pm and then they couldn't account for the people onboard. They kept counting us and had the paperwork from the check in but it didn't add up, even though we had all been scanned on the way through. Eventually they had to take some bags off for people not on the plane and then the engines started. We had watched another plane land, unload, reload and take off while sitting there.Time to go? No, we sat for another 20 minutes waiting for clearance to leave. Finally we got up in the air and the captain apologised and told us we were getting a free soft drink and snack (so generous!) The flight to Amsterdam was very quick, so quick that we missed out on drink and snacks, being in the middle of the plane!
Off the plane and we were in Amsterdam . Yay! There was a bit of a delay getting downs stairs (broken escalator) and we were all worried that we would never get out of the airport system.
Finally through customs, suitcases came quickly and we walked to the train station, right at the airport. So convenient! We got a train to Amsterdam Centraal, a short trip and then we were out and consulting our map.
After the congestion and high rise of London I was struck by the openness and flatness of the city. Lots of bikes, not a lot of cars, canals and the odd waft of marijuana in the air.
We made our way to the canal and found our BOAT! I think our host had given up on me, so after a couple of calls she talked us through finding the key and getting in. It is very cool, and so much bigger than we had expected. We have portholes and everything is on a it of a slope. It is a barge boat converted to a house. We have one half and there appears to be a man living on the other half. We discovered this when we went to his ramp and he very politely directed us on.
Time to check out our new city, get some supplies and have some dinner . We wandered down the road a little. With the extra hour time difference it was now 9pm (we had left our London apartment at 10am) so we popped into the supermarket for breakfast supplies.
We had dinner at a cafe called Rembrandt's Corner. The food was ok. The cafe is next to Rembrandt's House, where he lived for some time. When we went to pay we discovered that they didn't take MasterCard, apparently this is common. Fortunately I had a backup visa, which they were happy to swipe.
We went back to the supermarket for alcoholic supplies and the supermarket didn't take MasterCard either! We will need to cash up as our travel cards are MC.
Home to chill after a stressful day. The boat is very comfortable, the clock tower on the canal chimes on the half hour and counts the hours.

Steps 10,909
Kms walked 7.8