Tue, Jul 12 - Coming Home

We got up, packed, and sat and watched  the boats go by on our small canal until 9:30 when we checked out and ordered a taxi to take us to Schiphol.  After clearing security and immigration we found our gate and got some breakfast sandwiches at a small cafe.  We went through additional security screening at gate D1 and then were directed to our real gate E2.  

Our Canal

Finally boarding our Delta jet we settled into our economy comfort seats, turned on the movies and took off for a pleasant 8-hour flight to Minneapolis.  Having just been to the Van Gogh Museum, we both watched “Loving Vincent”, a really terrific animated film about Van Gogh’s life, using hand painted cells in glorious VG colors!

Barbizon Lobby

We landed in the Twin Cities airport, whisked through immigration and customs, rechecked our bags and found our gate.   We  boarded our LAX flight and then the fun began.  A wall of black clouds moved in and the airport was shut down.  We sat on the plane as the rain pelted down for two hours.  Finally boarding resumed, but by then there was such a backlog of flights wanting to leave and arrive, that it took another hour to take off.  

We arrive at LAX at 10:03; I called the SB Airbus and they were already at our terminal, so that option was out.  We had a reservation at Budget and Bob said he was OK to drive.  I was dubious, but we took off and at that hour, 11, the traffic wasn’t too bad.  We stopped at McDonald’s for hamburgers and cokes to keep us awake and made it OK to Santa Barbara by 1 AM, bed at 2!

You know You're back in LA when You see Randy's Donuts!

Up the next day at 7:30.  We picked up Maddie who frantically checked out every door, and us, all day long.  

A very interesting trip, but pretty rough and tiring - we may be getting too old for intense, third-world birding trips - we’ll see!!   Good to be home!

BTW, Bob saw 398 species of birds, with 116 of them  Life Birds!

XXX, Katy

Mon, Jul 11 - Vermeer

We got up at seven to clear skies!  At 8:30 we walked over to the train station and I asked the person at the  information booth where to go to catch the Delft train.  He pointed us to Track 2a  just as we had thought.   The bar code on our tickets let us through the turnstile and we found our track.  We bought a baguette with chicken, tomato, cheese, & cucumber to split and cappuccino and fresh OJ from a little booth and waited for our train.  At 9:04 AM right on the dot, our train arrived and we found two seats upstairs, facing forward and set off. 

The Hague

We passed through lovely farmland, past apartments with community gardens, canals with houseboats.  We stopped at Leiden, Den Haag (The Hague), and finally after just an hour, we pulled into Delft.

The train was pretty empty by then and we descended the stairs to the doors and nothing!!  The doors  didn't open!  There was a blue and a yellow button near the door and Bob punched the blue which did nothing.  We dashed to the other end of the car and again found closed doors!  The whistle blew and the train took off!  We sat down again, and fortunately a conductor come along and explained that in order to open the door from the in or outside, one has to push the Yellow button  (the Blue button closes the doors!).  The conductor told us the next station wasn’t far away and we could  just get off and return to Delft without paying for any more tickets!  We did just that and finally arrived in Delft.

Cheese Store

Delft City Gate 

Delft is a totally charming version of Amsterdam: much smaller, with 3-story buildings rather  than 5, less hustle and bustle, flowering lily pads in the canals (much less pollution).

We walked to the Grote Markt - the central pedestrian plaza, surrounded by Delft china shops, restaurants, and beautiful buildings.

  We found the. Vermeer Centrum Delft, a wonderful museum with copies of all of Vermeer’s work and a audio headset discussing each one, from a historical, technical, and artistic viewpoints.  There were really interesting exhibits about light, shadow, reflection, etc.  Really well done.

Our Gelateria

We returned to the plaza as we were feeling peckish and stopped in at Otlelli, a gelateria & espresso bar where we ordered a brie and salami panini and coffee and then had gelato to finish it off.    We walked over to the. Delft Botanic Garden and strolled  among their collection of exotic plants from all over the world.  It was getting late so we rushed back to the train station and just barely made the 2:54 and dozed back to Amsterdam.

Clean Delft Canals

After resting at our hotel, we set off at 6 PM for dinner at Gusto, the restaurant next to Tulip, our B&B of five years ago, and had a good dinner of Burrata salad that was excellent and then seafoods risotto for me and truffle ravioli for RRZ, pus a bottle of Sicilian white wine. 

Back in Amsterdam!

We walked back to our hotel, arriving at St. Nicolas Basilica next door just before an organ concert was to begin.  We paid our fee, slipped in to the. beautiful space of soaring arches, stained glass windows, and sat for an hour listening to gorgeous 19th century organ pieces played by Susanna Veerman.  Lovely finish to our visit to Amsterdam.

As we entered the hotel lobby we were warmly greeted by the charming Dutch  sommelier of Vermeer restaurant who remembered us from Monday night.

Tue, July 10 - Van Gogh

At seven the alarm went off and we slowly got up and dressed.  We have  tickets to the Van Gogh Museum at 9:45, and crossed the busy street toward to central train station to get a all-day transportation pass.  We caught a number 5 tram which took us out towards the museum area, away from the dense tourist activity near our hotel and through pleasant apartments and  shopping areas.

We got off the tram near several museums and found the entrance to the Van Gogh.  We had a bit of time and so went in search of breakfast.  We passed the Stedelijk Museum of  Contemporary Art and Design and entered their spartan but well-designed and colorful cafe for cappuccinos, croissants, yogurt and honey. 

Design Museum Cafe

Van Gogh Museum

Thus fortified, we entered the Van Gogh and found that I hadn’t printed out both tickets, just mine - something that has worried us for a couple of months - but wonderful Isabelle, our ticket taker, grabbed an i-pad, looked up our info, and admitted us, adding a note that we had already paid for audio headphones!

We strapped on the units and went through a tunnel to the first floor of the museum.  It was really crowded- it being the height of the tourist season - and being able to turn off the crowd noise with the headphones was great, but still one couldn’t stay very long in front of any one piece which was frustrating at times.  At one point a little tractor-like machine entered a room and the guards shooed us all to the next  to change a light bulb, it turned out, which made for standing room only - more like a packed subway than a museum!.

We explored the 2nd and 3rd floors which examined VanGogh’s relationships with other contemporary artists and his family, and returned to our hotel at 11:30 to rest.  Room Service brought us an enormous, very delicious, hamburger (best we’ve ever had outside the US).

We thought we’d better go to the Central Railway Station across the plaza and investigate how to use our tickets that we bought several months ago to go to Delft tomorrow.  

"I Am sterdam"

Great Crested Grebe

The station was chaotic with people going every which way.  We found some schedules posted and think our train leaves from track 2a; we’ll get here early on Wednesday and try to get on the correct one.   We left the station and thought we’d try to find the cute B&B we stayed at five years ago, the Tulip B&B.  We finally reached the correct canal and Nieuwmarkt Square and there was the Tulip with one of the owners sitting in the open front window!  We told him that we had stayed there five years ago and he said he remembered us and we discussed their former wonderful cat who had fallen asleep in Bob’s suitcase!  The very good tiny Italian restaurant is still next door, although we were not hungry enough to go in for a meal.

We went back to the Barbizon and at 7:30 went to the pleasant bar, ordered a Negroni and a Cuba Libre and split a plate of asparagus risotto and watched the. World Cup Belgium-France match.

Mon, Jul 9 - Arriving in Amsterdam

Our jet landed at 6:45 AM in Amsterdam.  We got off, through immigration, and picked up our bags in very little time, and walked out to the taxi queue.  Partly cloudy and high 60’s -very nice weather after the heat and humidity of Uganda!  Our taxi took us downtown to the NH Amsterdam Barbizon, a very nice hotel right by the central train station.  We were hoping that we wouldn’t have to wait too long for a room as check-in wasn’t until 3 PM, but they had a room ready- Number 1, which requires a circuitous route to find, but it’s right on a canal and very picturesque!

Our Room, #1, from across the Canal

We took a walk all round the neighborhood - right in the middle of the main tourist area so very crowded.  As we hadn’t eaten since 5 AM we found an Argentinian restaurant  where I ordered a small salad  and Bob got penne pasta with spicy tomato sauce which we  split.  The waitress asked us if we wanted some bread and she brought us a pizza-size focaccia really thin with just olive oil, salt and herbs on it.  It was delicious and we ate almost the whole thing! 

Great Brunch

Back at our room, the boat traffic increased greatly with all sorts of tourist (some floating cocktail lounges!) and private boats cruising past in our narrow canal.  Bob got a life bird right from our room:  the Little Gull - a handsome small gull with a coal black head!  

Suddenly both our stomachs went on the fritz once again.  We were out of Imodium so I set off to find some with a map from the front desk.  I crossed the main canal, dodging bicycles and trucks, and found the area where the pharmacy was supposed to be.  I asked in another shop and walked, very confused.  The amusement of marijuana ice cream shops and window displays of dildos fades when one is in desperate need of meds!!

  I finally saw a neat and tidy shop that turned out to be the one - no pharmacist, and only over-the-counter medications which is what I wanted and I bought some melt-in-your-mouth Imodium.  I returned and we both took some - you peel off the foil, touch your tongue to the tablet and it instantly dissolves and disappears!  Bizarre but effective.  We relaxed and watched some TV -  it’s been great fun traveling during the World Cup as everyone from tiny mud huts in Uganda to Europe is glued to the results - but that was not on as so many teams have been eliminated, so we settled for tennis from Wimbledon.

Cocktail Cruise passing our Room

We had a reservation at Vermeer, the Michelin one-star restaurant right here in our hotel for 6:30, and managed to feel well enough to go.  We were the first ones there.  We first received a amuse bouche of a sliver of rhubarb dipped in pepper and spices along with a spoonful of rhubarb sorbet.  

Rhubarb Amuse Bouche

Then we got the menu which was a list of various ingredients that would be included in the food that evening: Guernsey ( the rich butter), mackerel, sweetbreads, pigeon, etc.,in case we were allergic to anything.   We picked the 5-course dinner with matching wines, which turned out to be way too much food as there were three amuse bouche,  making eight courses, plus lots of interesting wines.  We finished up at 9:30 and collapsed into bed!

Pigeon

Dessert

Sun, July 8 - Driving back to Entebbe

Overlooking the Nile from the Breakfast Bar

Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu

Breakfast was at seven, so it was light enough to take in Nile views while we munched rolls and omelets.  We packed up and left at 8 AM and drove back up the escarpment and into thick forest.  Paul stopped the vehicle several times to try and find a few birds that we had missed.  The dirt road was excellent and he cruised along at about 40 MPH through very thin traffic.  

Goodbye to the Park

Baboon City

We emerged from the forest into civilization, a mix of agriculture and  small villages. We passed some fields of corn with a row of tiny wooden/stick shacks between the crops and the road, where some families were cooking a meal over a fire.  The level of poverty is quite extreme everywhere we’ve been in Uganda.  So many people living in dirt-floored, windowless mud or stick huts!   Although it is also one of the friendliest countries I have ever seen with everyone waving greetings to us!

Fruit Stand

Pots and Pans Store

We ate our box lunches  - at an outdoor restaurant, strangely enough, as we could have ordered lunch there rather than eat yet another box lunch!

As we approached the Kampala urban conglomeration the traffic increased with Sunday drivers returning home from the countryside.  We hit some real traffic jams as pedestrians from open air markets crisscrossed the highway in front of us and cars drove chaotically.  

Hauling Charcoal

Sunday Market

We finally reached a brand new toll road that bypasses part of Kampala, so new the toll wasn’t being collected yet, and sped along reaching Entebbe around 5:30.  Paul and Eriab had each driven over 200 miles over rough roads and in some heavy traffic  with no break since after lunch!  They seemed their usual cheerful selves, but I would have felt better, and safer, if they had stopped once in a while.

They returned us to the lovely Papyrus Guest House where we started our whole adventure so long ago!  We all got day rooms and re-organized our luggage, showered and gathered to say goodbye to Brian who was flying to Nairobi, where he lives, at 9 PM,  We settled on the terrace for one final dinner: veg curry and beef steak with our last Nile beers!

Our Day Room

The Last List!

At 8:15 Paul and  Eriab took us to the Entebbe airport where we immediately had to carry our luggage up three flights of stairs!!   A sweaty start to our trip, and then through security.

We checked our bags with KLM, and then wandered through a hall of shops until we got to our gate.  We chatted with Alan and Sandra who are on the same flight as us to Amsterdam,  but continuing on to London.   An announcement told us to go down a flight of stairs to the gate where we had to go through a security check all over again, complete with pat down!

We finally boarded at 10:30 into our Economy Comfort seats with nice legroom.  KLM served us a small chicken turnover with a glass of wine and we both fell asleep for about five hours until we were over Greece and watched the lights below.

Sat, July 7 - Exploring Murchison Falls

We met for breakfast at 5:30 and set off shortly thereafter in the vans for a short ride to the Victoria Nile ferry.  We wanted to arrive so early as Paul knew that there would be a long line of tourist vans and others crossing to travel north. 

Nile
Sunrise

There were already quite a few vehicles lined up when we arrived and we had to wait as vans and trucks rolled onto the small, rather primitive ferry and chugged across, bearing upstream in the strong current to avoid being swept past the landing.  On the third trip we made it aboard and soon were across and into the  park.  

The Sausage Tree

 

The Tiny Oribi

We drove over open savannah and immediately began seeing various antelope including the tiny Oribi with a black scent gland on its neck.  Groups of giraffe stood about in the grassland and elephant families moved through thickets with only their broad grey backs showing through the leaves.  

Northern Carmine Bee-eaters

Ugandan Kob - the National Animal

Warthog Family

Red-throated Bee-eater

We finally approached a shrubby area and found  a large sleek lioness at rest!  She looked very healthy, as she should with all the game around.  Back in the shadows we could see her mate, but not much of his mane.  We continued on, driving down to the shore of the Albert Nile where we parked and watched hippos wallowing in the marsh as we ate our box lunches.

\Hippos Wallowing

At 2 PM we arrived back at the crossing where we boarded a small, but luxurious boat for a river tour.  The seating was very plush with lounging benches that fitted our group of seven very comfortably.  The captain took us by various birds and showed us several crocs. A family of elephants snorted at our approach and encircled the two small ones, the older females draping the babies with their trunks.

Big Croc!

We approached Murchison Falls which roared down from the hills.  We couldn’t get too close as the current is very strong, but it looked quite dramatic.  The captain offered us Nile beers, appropriately, and hors d’oeuvres and popcorn and we happily motored back to the landing at 5 PM.  It seemed like a full day to me, but, the plan was to continue birding for a while more.  Paul asked if anyone wanted to go back to the hotel and both Bob and I said “Yes!!”

Cecelia and Katy enjoy a Nile Beer!

Murchison Falls

Eriab took us back and we relaxed and showered, received a basket of our clean laundry and organized our gear for tomorrow.   At seven we walked over to the restaurant and had drinks and checked email.  I could see that the staff wanted to finish serving dinner and couldn’t  imagine what the others of our group were doing!  Finally at 8:15 they staggered in (having been out for a total of 14 hours!) and reported that they had seen a Pennant-winged Nightjar (a bird that we had previously seen at Lake Mburo) and had been attacked by tsetse flies! The flies are attracted to moving objects and when the open-topped van stopped to look at something, the flies attacked!   Most agreed that we had very wise to come back and relax!  Bob and I left for our room at 9 as the others were beginning the List.