Lucas (nephew) is joining me for the first part of the trip to Africa - great for me, and hopefully good experience for him. So we had a 7 hour layover in Amsterdam. Upon the advice of former travelers to Amsterdam, decided to try to catch the train from the airport into the city. This turned out to work wonderfully. We found some luggage lockers in the airport to stow our bags. Then bought some tickets and hopped onto the train for a quick 15 minute ride to the old part of the city. It just so happened today that Netherlands is playing Denmark in the world cup. So the city was very festive with many people dressed in their team color (orange for Netherlands). Lucas and I had lunch at a sidewalk cafe and walked miles around the center of the city. The canals were fun to see. When we got thirsty, we stopped in a pub that seemed to be frequented by locals. Everyone was watching the bit soccer match. There were 2 guys there who looked suspiciously like soccer hooligans. Their heads were shaved, just like I have heard about other soccer hooligans. We tried to fit in as best we could, though we did not look like soccer hooligans at all. Fortunately the soccer hooligans were happy because their team won the game! Seeing Amsterdam was great, even just for a few hours.
Back at the airport, we split up again and I left for London while Lucas waited for his next flight. I was on Kenya Airways in London waiting to leave for Nairobi when the captain said that we could not push back from the gate for an hour because the air traffic controllers were on a "work slow down". Can they do that? (apparently they can) After we finally got going, I had my first African meal, though it was airplane food. Lamb with rice and spicy potatoes/peas. It was actually good!
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