We woke up in Amsterdam at 6:30 a.m. to a dull, gray and drizzly morning. This was our first day in a port where it was raining. First a shower, then up for breakfast at 7:30 for the last time. As our designated time to disembark was 8:15, we were in the Celebrity Theatre on time to wait for our color code to be called.

  

After waiting over an hour, our color was finally called. The Celebrity crew responsible for organizing our departure explained several times that the delay was due to Dutch customs officials being over-zealous in checking passports. As we found out, that was a crock! Don't know what the delay was but when we left the theatre to go ashore, the lineups went quickly with a quick passport stamp from a smiling customs official and we were through.

As our luggage was being delivered to the airport from the ship by Celebrity, all we had to do now that we were off the ship was board the bus that had been prearranged. Another problem. When Lee and I tried to board the bus we were asked for our transfer documentation, of which we had never received from Celebrity. However, we did manage to convince the ticket taker we were legitimate as they had already taken our luggage. We were allowed to board, along with Bruce who evidently had the proper documentation.

The bus ride was a pleasant forty minutes and when we arrived, there was our luggage already there and on the sidewalk. From there, it was through the usual airport check-in crap, got rid of the luggage then a quick sandwich before boarding our flight. Hung out with Bruce in the terminal as he was waiting for Denise to arrive from an Amsterdam canal tour she had booked for the morning. Their flight was scheduled to leave within five minutes of ours so when Denise arrived at 1 p.m. we had an hour or so for a last beer and smoke before we had to get to our respective gates.

Our Northwest Airbus took off on time from Amsterdam, and the nine-hour flight to Minneapolis was uneventful and went quickly with a little help in the sleep department. During our four-hour layover in MSP, we had a burger at Chili's and stopped in at the duty-free store to make a couple of purchases. At 9 p.m., it was back onto Northwest and on to Edmonton for our final 2 ½ hour leg of the trip. On time into Edmonton, off the plane, the usual wait for our luggage, then quickly through customs.

While riding the Park N' Ride shuttle to claim our car, a lady riding along with us who was using a cane commented on my unusual Klaipeda cane I was carrying. Her gallant husband picked up on her interest in the cane and offered me twice of what I paid for it. However, when I told him I paid $134,000 U.S. for it, he quickly withdrew his offer. Cheapskate! I probably overshot, as I had only paid 70 Euro for it. Oh well.

After loading our luggage into the car, it was a quick trip home. Everything was good when we arrived, so we did a bit of unpacking and went to bed at 2:00 a.m.