By We left Amsterdam for Zaandam, a sleepy Dutch town. There were two options for tours this morning – either a visit to Zaanse Schans windmills or a tour of a Dutch Dairy Farm. Rick Steves wrote that the Zaanse Schans was bit on the touristy side, so I opted for the Dairy Farm. The farm, called the cow hotel, is family owned and operated. We started the tour by sampling cheese, yum. Then we got to see the cows and how the farm is run. I was fascinated by the automation! The cows have a field they can hang out in as well as a barn to eat their meals and sleep. And they have a backscratcher, which clearly is a hit with these girls. When a cow is ready to be milked, she lines up to the milking machine. The machine reads her code and knows entirely too much about her. How much milk she produces, when she was last milked and all sort of data. The cows get a special treat when they’re milked (that’s how they train them)…but since the machine knows when they were last milked, it will shoo them away if they try to get in line again too quickly (which I thought was hilarious).
I found out more about the dairy business than I ever knew. A cow produces milk for about 10 years….and no more was said by the guide about ‘and then what happens’. Apparently dairy cows don’t make good meat. I’m afraid to google about this as I’ll find something out that I’m sure I don’t want to know. The other grateful thing is that they separate the calf from the mother within a few hours of birth. This is done for the farmer’s safety, but I have a soft heart and feel for the calf. As luck would have it, a baby had been born recently, so you’ll see a few pictures.
We left mid-day for Amsterdam and spent Sunday afternoon and night in Amsterdam. At this point, my mind was focusing on the reality of returning home and of being sick. Amsterdam is a big city and I wasn’t in the mood for a big city. I’m sure this is because I wasn’t feeling well. We had an evening Canal crew that was okay but not my favorite. And then it was time to pack up.
Monday was my flight home. I woke up and knew that I was sick – such an awful feeling. I got to the airport in plenty of time, courtesy of Uniworld’s shuttle service. I was flying Premium (not Delta One) and could have accessed the KLM lounge, but I couldn’t find it. I was worried after my last security experience in Schiphol, transferring from Budapest and almost missing my flight. This time around it was superbly easy. And bonus round, I got a stamp coming into and out of the country.
The flight home…was not good. I had the unhappiest crew of flight attendants I’ve ever experienced at Delta. Now I’m cutting them some slack as I’m sure the outage from the prior week had a horrible ripple effect to business and morale. Still, for premium seats, the service was poor. Like running out of meals poor. And service poor (not refreshing drinks). And the plane layout was such that the premium seats had to walk back to economy to use the bathroom, which I think is wrong. It didn’t help that I was sick.
Atlanta was a breeze – no lines at custom/border control, so I was able to grab my bag and go. My sister was there to pick me up. She’s a saint.
Normally I try to stay up until 8 pm so I can get back onto the time zone. I was so sick and exhausted that I believe I went to bed (without picking up Mavis from her sitter) around 4pm and slept.
Overall trip was great…I would recommend it to anyone – especially if you go in the Spring and can see the Tulip fields blooming.
Time to plan the next adventure!