Adventures of NaDave: Dave Germany: 68-70 (Leiden) 1/3

To close out the month of July, I planned a trip to Amsterdam where a former roommate of mine back in Mississippi (Steven Whitacre) was now working. In February Steven moved to Leiden, which is halfway between Amsterdam & Rotterdam. He had a free place for me to sleep, and also I would benefit from Steven being my tour guide, which meant I wouldn't need to walk around with a map in front of my face the whole time. So I booked a trip!

I booked a 5pm Friday flight out of Nuremberg airport, so I left straight from work. I packed everything for the weekendin my backpack and rode my bike ~20 min to the Erlangen train station. I locked up my bike, and hoped it would be there when I returned on Sunday evening. I took a train then into Nuremberg Central Station, and then from there took a subway out to the airport. Overall, it took about 90 minutes to get from adidas to the airport.

I first landed in Munich before continuing on Amsterdam. When walking from gate to gate, I found a stand of free newspapers, and they had the NY Times & US Today. Something to read in English!

I landed in Amsterdam about 8pm and walked straight to the train platform. After almost getting on the wrong train (phew!), I hopped on the right one with 2 minutes to spare. When I arrived at the Leiden Train Station, Steven was there to greet me with a hug, and then we walked back to his apartment.

Leiden was beautiful! These Dutch cities built along canals are like a blend of New Orleans and a New England coastal port. There were bikes everywhere. And every couple of minutes, you walked over a a little bridge. It was so scenic, and you could take a picture every 5 minutes.

We walked down a side street, and into Steven's tiny apartment. There was just enough room for the essentials of life, but not much else. We headed out for some dinner and drinks along of the canals. We exchanged stories and laughs about moving to Europe, and each enjoyed the company of an American friend.

We headed back around midnight and prepared to head into Amsterdam on Saturday!

Tanya... you'll love this... you can charge your cell phone for free!