Boogie Nights

Our final week in Europe, and the international portion of the trip, we danced. Never has so much sweat been shed onto dance floors in Germany and The Netherlands. Our second to last night in Berlin we met a friend of Maria's at a car dealership - not really expecting to dance. The showroom floor had several concept cars on display along with a space cleared out for a DJ and his accompanying saxophone player. At first it seemed like an odd pairing, but it worked really well. There were a handful of people on the dance floor, but were there as part of a pub crawl so left early. The four of us (Sara, Maria, Nicole, and I) took it upon ourselves to revive the dance crowd. Unfortunately, the Berlin dance community wasn't ready for us, especially Sara and I, and I think our intense style scared more people away than anything.That first night was just an unexpected warm up for the following night. We spent most of the day eating home cooked food and brushing up on our dance moves. Sara and Maria found an online database of verbal descriptions of popular dance moves. We took turns reading the descriptions while another acted out the dance and tried to guess the name of the dance move. The writing was pretty vague and some of the moves were new to me, but in general it was effective training. Before hitting the town we had some hair and make up prep time. Sara provided the hair assistance for the ladies and, for the first time ever, tried out some eye make up. Hot stuff, let me tell you. We destroyed the dance floor again, but, as with the previous night, I'm not sure Berlin was ready for us. I think we made it home around four or five AM. The sun was definitely on its way up.On Saturday we said our goodbye to Maria - an incredibly gracious host; thank you, again! - and drove across Germany to Amsterdam. The drive took a little longer than we expected and we didn't make it into the city until about 8:30pm. By the time we met up with Stephan at around 9 I thought the evening was about over - we were exhausted from two nights of dancing and a long car drive. But we wanted to catch up with Stephan and went out for some dinner. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but the night wasn't over until 5:00am the next morning. We started with a few drinks at a bar, met up with Reinier, and then Stephan took us to a club. We weren't exactly dressed for the club, but Stephan knew the owner and was able to get us in the door. It wasn't the most packed dance floor I've ever seen, but it was probably the hottest and most humid. By the end of the morning we were soaked in sweat from head to tow. Most of the clubs in town were shutting down as we left and the streets were packed with people heading home from a night on the town. The primary mode of transportation in Amsterdam is bicycle - I have never seen so many bikes! - and it was pretty comical watching people try to unlock their bikes and ride home. The sun was just starting to paint the sky a light blue and the city looked incredible in the early light.The next day we rented bikes and rode around the town with Stephan. Just cruising through the streets and canals was entertaining. We did some sight seeing along the way and took a break or two at a coffee shop for some, uh, coffee. Beautiful weather and great scenery. We were hoping to meet up with one of Stephan's friends who had a boat to cruise through the canals, but it didn't pan out so we took a tourist boat cruise. Although growing up in and around Amsterdam, Stephan had never been on one before so it was kind of fun for him, too. It was interesting how much more we noticed from the perspective of the canal. Maybe because it forces you to look up - you see the buildings a lot better and can appreciate the incredibly cramped architecture (one of the buildings was only as wide as a single window). That night we met up with Stephan's girlfriend for dinner and that was about it. We were pretty worn out from the last few evenings and enjoyed a laid back night.Our last day in Amsterdam started out slowly, but ended up being one of the best days of our trip! For most of the morning and early afternoon we just biked around the city stopping at a flea market, cruising by the Heineken brewery, and a couple other sights. It seemed like it was going to be a fairly anticlimactic end to our trip. We planned to meet up with Stephan and Reinier, but we had no idea Reinier was going to offer to take us out to his family windmill! Just to give you a little background on how absurdly amazing this is: there are 60 million people in Holland; about 1000 windmills still standing; only 100 of them are privately owned (most are state owned for historical preservation or tourism); and, according to Reinier, maybe 10 people who can actually operate them. The Reinier Windmill is one of those ten windmills. It was originally constructed in the mid 1800's and purchased by Reinier's Grandfather shortly after World War Two. The family uses it mostly as a vacation house - the inside of the windmill feels a bit like a beach cabin - but have made a huge effort to renovate the structure. Windmills are used for two purposes: pumping water out of irrigation ditches (because Holland is below sea level), and grinding wheat. Reiniers windmill is used for pumping water and accomplishes this using a giant screw turned by the windmill. One of the major renovations the family has completed was replacing the original screw. The old screw, basically a large tree trunk with iron blades mounted along its length, was still on his property and was in remarkably good shape considering it was about 150 years old. Reinier also gave us a tour of the building in which we were able to see how the gears interlock and how to operate the massive sails. He also let me and Stephan climb up one of the sails - very cool view.The surrounding countryside was all farm land - it would have been nice just to walk around that area, let alone seeing the windmill. After the tour we setup a table and some chairs and enjoyed the scenery with a couple bottles of wine. As the sun set we jumped into the river nearby for a quick swim. Unbelievable evening and yet a perfect example of the incredible luck and amazing people we've met along the trip. If you're reading this, thank you both so much for everything! Stephan, especially, for letting us crash at your apartment. Truly, a perfect ending to our trip.The next morning, Tuesday, we were up at about 5AM to drive to Dusseldorf for our flight back to the US. At the airport we were shocked that it was actually coming to an end. Saying goodbye to Sara was really hard - we had such so much fun over the last few weeks and the end crept up on us so fast that I think it caught us off guard. Sara, as with the other friends and family that we have traveled with on this trip (both in America and abroad) are the real reason we have been able to enjoy our time on the road. Thank you, also, Sara for everything. We wouldn't have lasted as long as we did without having Germany to look forward to. Without any doubt, the time together with her was very special and a memory we will always treasure.(I tried to get a nice picture of Sara, but she wouldn't smile....so this is what you get!)The picture below was taken in Dusseldorf airport just before taking off. We wanted to document the bags that we carried since November. Especially note the bag Nicole has been traveling with - it holds everything that she has needed throughout the trip. Impressive, to say the least and, without a doubt, the smallest bag I've seen anyone traveling with on our trip