Miss Ginger Bids Amsterdam a FABULOUS Farewell!

After a bit of travel consternation this morning, Miss G got her issues resolved and is ready to end her lovely vacation in Holland. As she went to check in for her homeward flights, she realized her stupid travel agent, Boy G, had booked WAAAAY too tight of a connection in Dublin for her to get home tomorrow. A 45 minute connection in an international airport is not gonna cut it. Trouble is, the flight to Dublin can't be changed. Aer Lingus is already oversold. And the European offices for Continental are closed on Sunday. Quelle dommage! Luckily, being the clever international traveller that she is, Miss G had brought along her internationally enabled cell phone for just such an emergency! She dialed back to the One Pass operators in the states and rebooked herself directly from Amsterdam, cutting Dublin out of the return altogether. Yes, she had to grab her ankles and pull out her credit card, but at least she won't have to stay in some Dublin Airport Marriott because she missed her transatlantic connection. C'est la vie!
Miss Ginger sadly says goodbye at the end of a FABULOUS few days in Amsterdam! She's actually been here once before, but got to see much more of the city this time and really developed a much better respect and appreciation for it! We started the day with breakfast near the edge of the famed "Red Light District", which really is not as seedy and gross as one might expect. Miss G also learned that the "XXX" that is Amsterdam's claim to fame is just sort of a strange coincidence- the early settlers used "XXX" to mark the harbor for boats and fisherman trying to find their way back, and it was adopted into the city's coat of arms long before the invention of film and the "porn" industry.

After breakfast we headed to the open flower market and oohed and ahhed over the tulips, orchids, and bonsais in all of the shops!

While we were browsing, we heard drums from the next block, and discovered an informal "parade" of latin dancers and drummers in the street. Low and behold, it turned out to be a block with several of the bars we had yet to visit, so we decided to stop in at "Soho" since Miss G was in need for a bloody!

After several. MeeMaw remined us we promised we would have lunch at "Burger Bar" so she could have a Kobe Beef hamburger. Damn, they were good!
After Burger Bar, we stopped back by the hotel for a package drop off, and then stopped by "Prik" for 5 euro cocktails. We sampled several from the menu, and met a cool guy from Boston who now lives in the Netherlands. He wanted all the scoop on American politics- he truly has become totally European! Why are they SO fascinated by our political system?!

After Prik. we wandered back to Soho (it was a long way!) and stopped into another club called "Arc" that was so ultraloungey it was too cool even for Miss G. It's been YEARS since someone charged Miss G to pee, and the music was that cheesy, monotonous, no-lyrics, ultraloungey dance shit that just drives Miss G apeshit, so we downed our overpriced beverages and headed 2 doors down, back to Soho. There was a better crowd there, but the real crowd was another couple of doors down at a place called "April". We couldn't figure out why the crowd was so huge outside of a bar 2 doors down from Soho, yet completey separate and distinct from the people outside of Soho. In New Orleans, our closest frame of reference, the crowd would have just sort of blended together, but not here!

After Soho we realized we have an early day of travel tomorrow, so we headed back to the hotel. Miss G discovered this fascinating store! Unfortunately, it was Sunday night, so the store was closed, but you can bet next time Miss G is in Amsterdam (and there will definitely be a next time) she will visit "Sissy-boy Homeland!"


Time to pack! See ya back in the States! Love to all!