I’m touching up this blog post from the Netherlands. So rest assured, I did finally make it here.

First, though, there were travel troubles:

Things got off to a rocky start. I had some issues with my roundtrip journey purchased through the Dutch airline, KLM, made worse by the fact that Omaha’s honky-tonk non-international airport doesn’t have any KLM representatives to help in person. And the KLM call center is utterly overwhelmed. Apparently the Amsterdam airport is under stress at the moment, with passengers waiting 4+ hours in security lines for their flight. All due to the fact that Europe is experiencing a glut of summer tourists — many pandemic restrictions are lifted, there’s not another scary virus variant (yet), and people are taking to the skies. (In fact, the Netherlands no longer requires a negative COVID test in order to enter.)

So I spent yesterday cleaning my room and killing time at the library. I got to skim though Sexed Up, a new book about social dynamics by the author Julia Serano. Serano is a trailblazing feminist thinker, in my opinion. Her book blew my mind. I highly recommend it!

I had to delay things by a day, but I did make it to the air! Next, the flight:

When I started looking through the onboard films, I was delighted to see that the 70s movie Cabaret was an option to watch. Weeks ago, I was actually writing some thoughts about Cabaret to post to this blog, since it’s THE movie that made me excited about traveling to Germany. The history surrounding the movie is really fascinating — it takes place during the short-lived Weimar Republic of the 30s (the liberal government established in Germany after WWI), with a smoky and sleazy club as the setting. I’ll probably finish the Cabaret essay and post it once I’m in Berlin.

Finally, first glimpses of the Netherlands:

As you can see, the land is very very flat. Amsterdam is a port city, and during the peak of Dutch influence several centuries ago, most European trade went through it.

Beyond just being flat, lakes and rivers extend far into the land. In fact, 2,500 square miles of the country is reclaimed land (land created from ocean, lake or river beds), which is the result of water management dating back to medieval times. Man and horse power were eventually replaced by windmills in order to control the water. Today windmills are an iconic symbol of the Netherlands. More than ¼ of the country is below sea level, protected from inundation by dunes and dikes.

I’m really beat, so I’ll save my other observations and first hours inside the Netherlands for tomorrow, or maybe later tonight.