Passport to Outdoors

May 29, 2012 Tuesday We landed in Amsterdam at 12.45 p.m. We got a minor scare at the baggage claim when our bags didn't show up! We were filing a claim when they showed up! It was wonderful meeting our family in Amsterdam. We had taken the train from  Schiphol airport  to  Amsterdam Central  where we met them. Netherlands reminds me very much of Germany.  The trains, trams and the road network are very good. We took the tram from Amsterdam Central (Tram Number 9) to the  Ibis Hotel  at  Stopera . After putting our bags in the room we headed out for a stroll in Amsterdam. It was a cloudy and pleasant afternoon. We wandered the streets around the canals. There were a lot of bicyclists and we had to really watch out while walking. There were special bike designated lanes. There were young and old people on different kinds of bikes. Many bikes didn't have traditional brakes and they needed the cyclist to move the pedal anti-clockwise to cause the cyc...

  May 28, 2012 Monday Landing into Iceland was very different compared to many places I have been as the landscape was  very barren (as it is in the Arctic tundra region) surrounded by snow covered volcanic mountains. We landed in Reykjavik at 10.30 a.m. local time and after clearing immigration we headed to the information desk where we were told that our flight to Amsterdam was only next morning. We had an option of going through Copenhagen but that flight was full. We were a little disappointed but at the same time excited as we were going to spend some time in Iceland. There were many passengers in the same boat and had missed their connecting flight. I exchanged some money into the local currency Krona and was surprised to receive so much currency for a small dollar amount. The Icelandic Krona had devalued by half after the 2008 crisis and now stands at  around 125 Krona to a dollar. Our bus to the hotel was waiting outside. We were glad that Iceland Air was paying f...