travelling

Yesterday afternoon we travelled from Miami to Washington. Our journey took a longer than expected because the plane had a two hour delay.

Luckily enough we were still on time to go for dinner in a very nice restaurant at Adams Morgan. It's a Brazilian restaurant where Sasha has been before. The food was excellent, I had never eaten Brazilian before and it was great. The drinks were also very nice: we had caipirinha, the national Brazilian drink. There was a TV at the bar where a new soccer championship was on, the South-America cup. I'm sure my friend Jerry who's in Ecuador now will see many of those games as well.

We are now at Sasha's work, at the World Bank. The last time I was at the Bank was in October, when I visited Washington for about a week. We will have lunch now, it's 12:30 o'clock here. It's been a great morning.

A short update from South Beach, FL, where the weather is awesome and the beach beautiful! I'm at a computer in the our hotel now, The Bentley. There's no official internet terminal here but they were so kind to let me use an employee computer.

We spend our days swimming, walking and (when the sun's not too strong), lying at the beach. The hotel has a swimming pool on top of the building, which is very convenient even though the beach is only a few hunderd meters away. The hotel we're staying is located at the "Ocean Drive", a promenade parallel to the sea. We managed not to get burned from the sun -- except my right lower leg that I forgot to put lotion on the first day. I've made quite some pictures but I can't put them online now.

I saw the result of the soccer game between Holland and Portugal at the airport in Philadelphia, as well as the highlights of that match. Disappointing, that's for sure. We are not certain who to support now in the final match that's on tonigh, between Portugal and Greece. We found a place where we can watch the match. There is however a much bigger event going on today: it's July 4th, the American Independence Day which is traditionally celebrated with fireworks and a huge party.

So much for now, back to the swimming pool.

Sasha and I are in Miami Beach, Florida!

The weather is great -- it's sunny all day and even the water in the ocean is nice and warm. We're having a wonderful time.

I'm really looking forward to see Sasha again. I will take the bus in an hour and I'll arrive in D.C. at the end of the day.

Tomorrow morning we'll take a (very) early flight to Miami.

Tomorrow will be the semi-finals of the European Championship Soccer 2004. I'm looking forward to go to the US very much, but I would also love to see the game. I'll make a stop-over at Philadelphia Airport, exactly when the match against Portugal is.

Just out of curiosity I wrote an e-mail to the customer service of Philadelphia Airport:

Dear Sir or Madam:

My question: is there a place at the airport where the soccer game is broadcasted? Perhaps in a bar, a restaurant? I would love to be able to see it!

And to my pleasant surprise there was a quick response.

Hello Mr. Bosman - Philadelphia International Airport ("PHL") currently has 16 bar/restaurants which should be able to accommodate your needs. If this game is not on upon your arrival, the on-site management should be able to help you. I recommend that you visit our website at "phl.org" and you will find a layout of the airport along with a link to a listing of the locations of all of the bars.

Thank you for using Philadelphia International Airport and please feel free to provide us with any comments on your forthcoming visit.

So, there's a chance I will be able to see the match. But well, in the worst case I won't: a great holiday together in Miami would compensate it more than enough. And of course: Sasha and I won't miss the final match between Czech Republic and The Netherlands.

Jaap, my father, is going to Bulgaria! He left yesterday evening for a study visit. The visit is about is the quality of initial vocational training and quality assurance mechanisms for training, which he has been working on here in the Netherlands.

The cool thing is that he decided to go by train, which is a real adventure: he's traveling through seven countries. This morning around 7.00 o'clock he arrived in München, where he took a direct train to Beograd. He'll arrive there around 23:00 o'clock, and then take another train to Sofia.

Jaap is keeping track of his stay in Bulgaria on his website.

We had a wonderful and very romantic weekend in Paris. It was super to see each other and to spend time together. Neither Sasha nor I had been in Paris before, which made our visit even more special.

Friday, April 9th 2004

My train journey was quick and comfortable, with coffee and a magazine. I arrived around 11:00 o'clock at Gare Du Nord, the northern trainstation of Paris. From there I took the metro to the hotel.

In the afternoon we went for a walk, after we had our first French lunch together. The first place we went to was the Eiffel tower, or Tour Eiffel in French. It was larger than I had imagined and quite impressive. We took the stairs to the 2nd floor, where there was an elevator to the top. We had a great view over the city from there.

The hotel we stayed in, Hôtel Lutetia, is right in the center of Paris -- very nice.

Saturday, April 10th 2004

Saturday we took a day-pass for the open buses that go around the city, called l'Open Tour. This was a great way to see the major tourist attractions of the city, such as the Arc de Triomph, the Notre Dame etc. We went on and off the various buses a couple of times, to have lunch and coffee, and just walk around. It was really fun to explore the city like this; we saw a lot in a relatively short time.

I took quite some pictures; here you'll see a few, of the Arc de Triomph and Tour Eiffel photographed from our bus, and Sasha in front of the Notre Dame.

We ended our bus-tour around Madeleine, a church. From there we walked back over the Concorde, a beautiful square, where we had a view over the Champs Élysées at night. We walked next to the Seine to the Louvre, then to the Latin Quarter. We saw the Eiffeltower lighted, which was very pretty. There was a big spotlight on top, like a light house.

In the evening we went for dinner in a very cosy Jazz Café, "Chez Papa". There was life piano- and contrabas music, French red wine and of course: great company. A wonderful evening.

Sunday, April 11th 2004

Sunday we had breakfast on a terras in a street near us. We were together, the sun was shining and we had coffee, French bread and French cheeses.

In the afternoon we went to an area in the northern part of Paris: Montmartre. First we saw the Sacre Coeur. As the weather was getting really nice we enjoyed the sun there for a long time. The area there was very beautiful, with many small streets. There were a lot of artists there too.

From the little streets of Montmartre we went to the region around Moulin Rouge. This is the red light district of Paris, it's rather shabby but it was fun to see.

At night we had dinner in a very good restaurant. All the food was great but our pre-dish was the most interesting. It was a huge plate with many different types of seafood: clams, oysters, shrimps, escargots... very delicious.

Monday, April 12th 2004

Monday morning we spent in the area around the hotel. We had coffee together and enjoyed the sun.

Then we went to the airport, Charles de Gaulle where Sasha's plane left around 16:00 o'clock.

I went by local train to Gare Du Nord. I had a train ticket for 19:00 o'clock, so I had plenty of time. Then when I arrived I saw that there was another Thalys was leaving to Amsterdam in just a few minutes!

I ran for the train and I just made it -- I was happy that I had flexible ticket. This way I was home two hours earlier than I had expected; around 22:00 o'clock.

A wonderful weekend, in a wonderful city.

I came back from Paris about an hour ago... a super weekend!

In a few minutes I'm leaving to Amsterdam Central Station, where I'll take the Thalys train to Paris!

The Thalys leaves at 7:00 o'clock, but I want to be there a bit earlier. First of all, I don't want to miss the train, and second I have to get a newspaper, coffee and breakfast (for in the train).

The Thalys is a high-speed train (TGV), that will reach a maximum speed of 300 kilometers per hour in France. In the Netherlands the speed is "limited" to that of a regular intercity train, because the highspeed tracks are not ready yet. It's a really fast connection; I'll be in Paris at 11:00 o'clock.

Sasha arrived around this time, her plane was scheduled to arrive at 6:00 o'clock in Paris. My train arrives at Garde Du Nord, the North-station of Paris. From there it's about 15 minutes to the hotel.

Sasha has been in Cameroon for about two weeks now, and their work there is done. So, she's flying back tonight from Yaounde to Paris.

Tomorrow morning I'm taking the train and I'll meet her there in Paris... I am so happy about it!

We will spend a really long weekend together; Sasha's flying back to Washington this Monday.