On the Road To Ngorongoro

Yesterday was a travel day. An 8.5 hour flight ,followed by a couple hours to get through customs. I'm convinced they add extra steps to the customs process so they can employ more residents.

We had dinner in our hotel at 11 pm once we arrived. I forgot how mush fun it is to be greeted in Africa. Everybody gets a wet wash cloth to wash the dust off your hands (I use on my face too), and a small glass of juice. I have fallen in love with passion fruit juice. Hibiscus juice is okay, just not as flavorful and more tart. I have yet to try the law-paw juice, but I will the next time is available.

The next morning we headed for our lodge at top of Ngorongoro Crater. The crater is the largest caldera in the world - 160. Sq miles. A caldera is an extinct volcano that has been eroded down over time.  They have calculated that the volcano here was once the size of Mt. Kilimanjaro. This course, was millions of years ago.

Along the way, we passed through Arusha, the 3rd largest city. All I can say is we are blessed.

We saw several people tiling the soil by hand,using whatever they had to pound at the soil. Although this is the wet season, they are in a draught. So there isn't much grass and the dirt is very hard. We also saw lots of people caring for their animals (meaning goats, chickens, cows,and maybe a few sheep or donkeys).the goats and chickens are scavengers, so they looked a little skinny, but not to bad. The cows looked malnourished. The majority of cows were just skin and bones showing their ribs and other bones. Reminded me odd concentration camp survivors m it was sad. I am not sure cows belong here. Disney we in the US used to collect money to send a cow to Africa? I think it was a 1970s thing. Now I believe we should have sent goats instead.

We learned that Tanzania is multi-lingual too (America is really behind here). Each person will speak one of the 130 tribe languages, Swahili, and English. Public school primary is taught in swahili. Private school & public secondary is taught in English.

Just before the village we saw a slew of Maasai along the road. They were protesting. Since the Maasai only eat domesticated animals, they have been able to use the water and salt in the Ngorongoro Crater aReserve (since the government knew they would not hunt). The access to the water had just been taken away and they were protesting to get back those rights.

We arrived at our lodge for the next two nights in the late afternoon and they fed us lunch at 4 pm. We had free time until dinner at 7 pm (I can already tell meals will be plentiful but odd hours). Some went to a maasai village,  but I got a massage in hopes that my leg would get better before the Uganda hike to the gorillas.

I did something to my right leg in Amsterdam. Not sure what but it hurts to walk. I can tell my calves ate extremely right, which I'm sure played into the problem.

By the time my massage was over, it was time to eat again. Before going up to the dining room, we got to listen to a group of young people (18-25??) In the bar playinf music, singing songs, and doing gymnastics.

Amsterdam In A Day (After A Visit To My Roots)

 I took a short train ride to Amersfoort. I have a relative on the Busic side who came from this town. Wolphert  Gerretsen Kouwenhaven was born in Amersfoort. He emigrated to the US in 1625  with the Dutch Trading Company. His grandfather was mayor of the city 1553-1575. Once in America, he managed several farms and was the first white man to build a house on long island. Garritsen Beach in Brooklyn was named for him.

All this to tell explain why I wanted to detour to Amersfoort when I got  so  close. 

This morning I took the train in and walked around the city. One of the streets I walked was Muurhuizen. It is the old city wall that was destroyed in the 1400. People then build houses on it, which still exist today. Its very cool to think that one of my relatives may have lived in one of the houses I walk by, may have gone to one of the churches that I walk by, and likely walk through the city gate (1425) that I walk through, and along the same street as me.'.eh

After my route of Amersfoort,  I headed to Amsterdam and the last stop before Tanzania.

I started on walk, and when Anne Franks House was over an hour wait and rain started, I caught a canal boat cruse. I leaned some investing facts about Amsterdam:

Saw smallest house in Amsterdam, likely Europe, it is only 6.5 x 16.5 feet wide.

There are 800,000 people and 1,000,000 bikes in Amsterdam

A bike will be stolen 4 times in its life. In order to find your bike, just go to the market and buy it. 

There are more bikes than cars because there is 7 year waiting period for a city parking permit, which costs $1200/year. That's in addition to the price of parking.
 5625 cars/year end up in the canal. It used to be higher. Insurance companies got tired of paying claims and had the city add lateral poles in front of canal parking spaces, but somehow cars still end up wet. 

Many houses have winches built into their gables. That is so they can lift furniture and heavy objects into upper stories (the stairs are to narrow to navigate). To further help, many windows can easily come out of their frame (also useful on hour, summer days).

Pictures of the canal: 

 

Waterloo In A Day (Or Less)

The rain caught up with me today as I made my way back to Belgium to see the Waterloo Battlefield. Unfortunately I missed my stop (usually bus drivers are really good at nudging you out the door if he knows where you're going). So what should have been a 5 minute walk turned into 25 minutes. Which would not have been an issue if it hasn't been raining and very windy.  The good news is my backpack did is job and kept everything dry. The bad news is my shoes and socks were soaked and I was cold. I found the air dryer in the restroom took the worst of the water out of my socks, and with my wool socks, that's all I needed. (They also worked on my shoes.)  In addition, the wetness gave me blisters

Due to time, i limited myself to 3 items:

 The memorial 1815 - explained how napoleon came to powers, the events in the years leading up to waterloo, what countries were involved, and their uniforms. It was cool how what looked like paintings were actually HD screens with an antique gold border. The best part of the whole trip,was the 4D video of the battle. When the canons shot, the floor rumbled and smoke seemed 

right in front of you;  when the calvary  came over the hill, I swear a horse's muzzle was right in my face.

The Lion's Mound - 131 feet tall.  There are 226 steps to the top where you get a Birdseye view of the battlefield and farms that were involved in the battle.  A lion statute on top symbolizes the monarchs' victory. It was a long way up, but I made it.

The panorama of the battle - a 30 foot painting of one is the episodes in the battle.  Painted in 1912 and one is the few panoramas left. 

 
Definitely worth the effort to see it. Wish I had had a little more time.

I made my way back to Netherlands, and arrived in Utrecht rather late, but was impressed with what little saw.