The potato has landed

After all the time and anticipation, my European trip has finally begun!  The flight over was uneventful, delayed by an hour or so by the Detroit weather, but otherwise very smooth.  The baby on board only a few seats away from me was no problem because his parents were so attentive and considerate of all the rest of us.  I got lucky also in that there was no one in the seat next to me, so I could spread out a little bit, but unfortunately there was still not enough room to get any sleep.  It was a long flight and a long night!
Upon arrival in Amsterdam, I cleared customs and caught my bus to Haarlem, then a 10 minute walk took me to my hotel.  I was able to check in even though it was only noon, then headed back out for a stroll to get oriented and work some of the kinks out of my muscles.  What a beautiful old city, with buildings dating back to the 1500s, and the people are friendly and helpful.  On top of that almost everyone speaks English, making up for my ignorance of Dutch!
I caught a nap and then met the rest of the group at 4:00pm for a get acquainted meeting, followed by a family-style dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. The food was delicious and the company was great.  this looks like a great group of people to travel with and I have the feeling that by the end of 3 weeks, I will have made some friends.  I also got lucky in the respect that I don't have a roommate.  The other guy listed singly on the roster is in fact travelling with a woman, so I will have a room to myself.  Okay, signing off now...very tired and need to get a good night's rest so I'm ready to kick some butt tomorrow.