January 4, 2010 - Our last day in Elburg.....Off to Amsterdam

Today is our last day in Elburg before heading to the hotel by the airport in Amsterdam.  I am sad but I am also missing my doggie and am really not feeling well, so I miss my own bed.  By this time, I also have a hacking cough, which will be loads of fun on a 10 hour plane ride.  Thank you Wal-Mart for my bag of 100 cough drops.  It will come in handy!

I got up super late because of the drugs I took the night before.  Wendy and Erik had to work and the girls had school, so we were the only one’s home.  Ed was already downstairs on his laptop and Marsha and Bill were on their way over to do laundry.  The only thing I wanted to do today was to walk up to the market and get a flavor of tea that I had recently tried and really liked.  Ed is afraid that we don’t have enough cheese, so he wanted to buy more.  Marsha and Bill took the car into old Elburg to do some shopping while we walked up to the market.  We did our shopping and headed back to start our packing process.  I hate this part of the trip.  We have way more crap then we came with and not only because of things we bought but because of all the cheese and coffee that some of the relatives are sending back to family in Mesa.  Since we live in Chandler, it appears that we were designated to take all the stuff back to them. 

Packing was a pain because I can’t breathe very well right now and after a few minutes, I end up needing to take a break because I am tired.  This cold I have contracted sucks.  Anyhoo, we ended up needing to take the suitcase that Marsha was going to get rid of because of a broken zipper and messed up handle and using it to transport some of the food in.  We may even need to buy another bag in addition to that tomorrow in Amsterdam.  Since we are here an extra day, we are headed back into Amsterdam to pick up a few souvenirs.  Carrie informed us of where to shop in the Red Light District as they have the better souvenirs.  No, not those kinds of souvenirs’!!  Sickos! 

We finished packing and headed back to Theresa’s for dinner.  We visited a bit and Marsha and Bill finished their packing.  We waited for Shirley to arrive as we needed a second car to help with luggage.  There was no way we were fitting all of our luggage AND Bill and Marsha’s luggage in our little car.  We had to wait until the evening as everyone had to go back to work.  Erik and Shirley were driving with us into the city with half of our luggage.  We said our goodbyes (which takes about half an hour) and headed to Tante Olly’s to say goodbye to her as well.  We also gassed up and then headed towards Amsterdam.  It was pretty foggy and ended up raining part of the drive.  It took about an hour and a half to get to our hotel.  We unloaded all our crap and went up to check out our room at the Tulip Inn.  Holy crap!  This room is crazy!  It’s huge, which is good because we have a lot of luggage and crap between the four of us.

We made tea and had stroopwaffles in our room while we settled in:

I have taken my NyQuil and will not be joining Ed when he takes Marsha and Bill to the airport.  I am trying to get as much sleep as possible in order to try and knock out this cold.  I really don’t want to travel on the plane for 10 hours straight and not be able to breathe.  At one point this evening, I hacked up a lung and immediately worried that we didn’t have enough room in the luggage to transport it home.  Here’s to not keeping three other people up in our room with my coughing!!

Only one more day in Holland……I can’t believe our trip is almost over!  It went by way too fast!  Good night!