Phase 1: Arrival (or, 'Wait....what?!)

hase 1:  Arrival
I always forget how much I hate space travel.  On a 9 1/2 hour flight, I go back and forth:  is it better just to get there and get on with it, or do I take the layover and give my $## a break?  Obviously this becomes a theoretical exercise once you're miles above Greenland.  Plus, hooray!  A middle seat, which pretty much guarantees 'no sleep.'  I did watch 3 movies, though....couldn't tell you which ones, but I did watch them.

Suffice it to say, I showed up in Amsterdam a bit of a wreck:  poorly watered, awfully tired, pretty hungry and having a little difficulty standing up.  And the pack's good and burly.  Yasss.  Oh, also, the exchange rate at the Portland Airport was ludicrous to the point where I suspect that I misunderstood something.  So, I'm there with no cash.  None of these is a crisis, but some take longer than others to remedy.

My first planned stop was the bike rental place in The Hague (Den Haag [which means The Hedge {referring to someone's old hunting lodge where the 7 provinces discussed unification in the 1500s}]).  That would be 2pm at the latest, after which I'd get to my first night in Utrecht.

In the planning, I thought I might take some time in Amsterdam that first day, you know, take a canal tour, see some Rembrandts.  Then go The Hague.  Except, The Hague and Amsterdam are in opposite directions from the airport.  Throw in all the rest of this mony/food/sleep stuff and, hey, remember to add time for getting lost.  Plus, man, this pack....

Right.  The Hague it is.

Got there with no trouble, found the bike place, paid for my 2-week rental, and kind of tottered my way back to the central train station.  The bike, as it happens, weighs about as much as my pack.  For the unwary and sleep-deprived (hi), this is a nice experiment in dynamic centers of gravity.  No hi-jinks ensue, fortunately.

Back at Den Haag Centraal Station, I learned that:

-nobody likes VISA, or even credit cards, here. But definitely not VISA.  Mastercard is OK.  AmEx to some extent.  But only VISA debit cards in the train ticket machines.  Credit cards are only usable with live customer service people.  Did I wind up in Japan somehow?
-taking your bike on the train costs almost as much a second ticket.  So much for renting in The Hague and then taking the bike with me everywhere.....
-oh, you can rent bikes from almost every train station in the Netherlands, for $4 a day.  Saved!  I'll park my bike here in The Hague while I figure things out in Utrecht....so tired.  Now on 30 hours with no sleep...
-most Dutch banks are on different ATM networks from mine. No cash for me here.
-public toilets here at the train station are coin-op.

Hmm.  Time to get out of The Hague...