Out of Africa - Amsterdam

It's a long flight from Joburg to Amsterdam, slightly moderating the cultural transition after two months in Africa. It was actually a similar temperature in each continent, so that helped, but a few things were missing in the north, especially the constant crowded hubbub of people walking along the streets and highways - Holland is so orderly and easy to navigate. We'll miss the excitement of Africa, but there's no denying it's nice to be in a place where you know how things work, and where you can be more relaxed as you walk or drive around.
But it needs to be said that we really had no serious incidents or scares, or more than a few moments of unease in all our time there, driving and camping about 8,000 km through 4 countries, dozens of cities and towns, hundreds of villages, meeting a lot of people of many races and circumstances. I'm sure we had luck on our side a few times, but overall it was much easier than I imagined. We drank tap water in many cities and ate food from restaurants and stores (but not street vendors except for fruit) without getting sick. The heat was intense, but dry and not unbearable, and even in the marshiest places there were few mosquitoes or other annoying insects, way less than many summer evenings in Canada. And again, people were good to us almost without exception once we spoke to them, and so interesting!
So Amsterdam took a bit of adjusting to, but it's a beautiful friendly city in the spring. We had the fabulous downtown loft apartment of our friend Connie Steenman as a base, overlooking the Amstel river and an idyllic slice of Amsterdam. She also made sure we had bikes, so we had a great day exploring the city with no particular agenda.
Highlights were the Rijksmuseum,  newly opened after a ten year renovation, the multimedia exploration of the Dutch East India Company at the Maritime Museum, the 400 year old van Loon house, walking a beach on the North Sea, and just cycling the beautiful streets, revelling in the dominance of bicycles over cars - everyone rides, and the bike lanes are as big as the car lanes. We also took a quick parental peek at the law school where our daughter Emma will study for an exchange semester next year - seemed lively, and I'm jealous...
Our two dinners were typically Dutch, one in a stylish old pub, the other a Lebanese hole-in-the-wall. Had a quick visit with Connie's daughter Bonnie and her lovely boyfriend Setsie (sorry about the spelling?), who are excited about the baby they'll have in a month.
By train to the airport from downtown cost 4 Euros and took only 20 minutes - wish we had that in Toronto. Then off to Greece via Stockholm - go figure!