From Amsterdam to Reymontowka

Oh, my Saturday got off to a bad start. The cell phone rang at 12:30 -- call from a number in New York. I did not answer it, but was really unable to go back to sleep after that. I went to breakfast about 6 AM and then over to the airport about 7 AM. There another surprise awaited me. I was charged 30 Euros to check my bag to Warsaw. This has never happened before and I was told the only way to resolve this is to find a customer service office for KLM or Delta.

This photo shows rain drops on the window. Yes, Amsterdam was cool and rainy.

On the way to Warsaw I got some nice photos out the window.

I always know I'm over Poland when I see the long skinny fields. It seems every country shapes the farm fields differently. My experience is Slovakia is that they are rectangles, and flying over the Czech Republic is a geometry lesson for there the fields are every imaginable shape.

There are many in the US that think Poland is an undeveloped country. No, that's not right. They suffer traffic jams too, although the highway photo below looks a bit empty. Just remember this is early on a Saturday morning.

Two members had arrived before me. Found them in the coffee shop. Soon a fourth arrived and then a fifth. There are two from California, two from Minnesota, and one from Connecticut.

We made our way slowly through Warsaw -- the traffic was very heavy, and at least arrived at Reymontowka about 3:00 PM. After getting settled in our rooms we enjoyed obiad -- the name for the mid-day meal in Poland. This is the larges meal of the day and using the English work, lunch, really gives the wrong idea.

Then we had a short meeting to get important information such as the password for the Wi-Fi. We observed that Reymontowka was hosting both a small wedding reception as well as a company picnic.

Most of us settled into bed early, dealing with jet lag. We heard a little bit of bass from the music as it resonated through the building, but we were tired enough that is wasn't very disturbing. I myself was rather astonished to hear the alarm sound at 7 AM on Sunday morning, signaling the end to the best sleep that I had had in several days.