I got up early on April 14, 2007, my flight was supposed to be at 6:55 in the morning. Erich got up early too since he brought me to the airport. Well, the ground stewardess was slow, the flight was delayed, and the plane was only able to take off just after 7:30am. The expected time of arrival at the Amsterdam Schiphol airport, Netherlands was 8:40am and wow, the plane (KLM) landed on time.
I went to the baggage claim area, waited for my baggage, and once I got it, I hurried up to the train station. Thanks goodness it’s inside the airport. I didn’t buy a train ticket ahead of time so I queued. Three minutes later, I was inside the Intercity train which left at 9:15am and arrrived in Dordrecht, Netherlands at 10:16am. I was able to ride on the train that I really wanted to take and arrived on time in Dordrecht as I planned it. Travel time from Amsterdam Schiphol airport train station, via Leiden Central, The Hauge HS, and Rotterdam Central, to Dordrecht was approximately 1 hour.
I waited for a few minutes at the Dordrecht Central station and there you are, Atinna and Thess arrived. Atinna and Thess with her hub H, and oh Charlie the pug too, fetched me at the train station. We left the train station, went to a shopping mall, bought some food, dropped by at Thess’s place first, ate something, changed my clothes, and off we went to Germany, to Beng’s place.
I’m not sure anymore what time did we leave Dordrecht and what time did we arrive in Nettetal but I think, not too sure as well, travel time by car from Dordrecht (Netherlands) to Nettetal (Germany) was about 2 hours. Thanks to Thess and H, and Charlie too, for bringing us to Beng’s place. We had a party, Beng cooked some food for dinner and we really had fun chatting while eating. Thess and H stayed for dinner and went home to Dordrecht afterwards. After dinner, we had some more fun chatting, drinking, giggling, and tell you, still eating. If only we were not going to take a boat ride on the Rhine river the next day, we probably did not sleep anymore. It was already past 2am or probably 3am when we went to bed. Read Beng’s blog entry, Unforgettable Moments 2, for more stories.
The next day, I got up a little bit late. You guess it right, I had a headache, 
too much wine drinking. I don’t drink alcohol but I drink red wine and white wine once in a while.
As usual, I don’t know what time did we leave Nettetal. I can’t even remember how many hours did we travel from Nettetal to St. Goar. G, Beng’s hub, was kind enough to drive long hours just for us to have a boat ride called “Romantische Loreleyfahrten” on board the boat “Rhenus” on the Rhine river from St. Goar to Rudesheim in Germany. The Rhine river is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe primarily within Germany at over 1000 kilometers in length.
“Rhenus” on the Rhine river
Above is the “Burg Katz” or Katz Castle in St. Goarshausen, Germany
St. Goarshausen is just across St. Goar, Germany
Read the rest of this entry »
