May 11, 2008

We have arrived - and in one piece - in Romania. We made our way to the designated Marriott Hotel and, since we'd arrived a day sooner than scheduled, had to make our own hotel arrangements.
We opted for the Ibis Hotel very near the Marriott (whose prices were beyond silly).
We had a lovely suite at the Ibis with a separate bedroom, 2 bathrooms and a living room.
Not bad for 120E. Not only that but it was right outside the People's Palace. The People's
Palace is now where the government sits since Ceausescu vacated the place
after the 1989 revolution. The palace is 330,000 sq. meters, 12 stories and 3100 rooms
and is the second largest building in the world. Now, I realize that personal space is very important to some people, and I do like mine, but 3100 rooms?? It really is a fabulous building.
Some of the scavenges in Bucharest included:
- Locate Kilometre 0. Explain it (25)
- Take Metro to Arcul de Triumf and explain it (35)
- Visit the tomb of Vlad Tepes and learn the legend of Dracula. (75)
- Locate at least 2 plaques dedicated to "heroes of the revolution". What revolution? (25)

Anyway, the arch was getting a face lift and was totally covered with scaffolding. We did
visit the Village Museum which gives you a look at a rustic version of Romanian life,
and also found the plaques where students were killed during the revolution, complete with
bullet holes still visible in the buildings.
It was fascinating and I would have liked to see more of it. We completed all we could in Bucharest and hopped a train (yes, though we swore no more trains... ever) and managed a first class ticket to Brasov, Transylvania for a look at the castle made famous by Bram Stoker.
Again, not enough time to really enjoy it, just a quick look, but Romania is somewhere I would come back to. Lots of interesting things to see and the country side was beautiful as well.
Then our usual 9 p.m. meeting to turn in our score sheets and get info on the next destination. It was announced that no points would be issued to anyone for this Balkan segment due to the cheating of some. For those teams that did this entire leg by bus and train, with integrity and in the true spirit of the event, it was devastating. It was a decision that pleased no one except the leading teams ( mere coincidence?? ). This sure made that 20 hour train ride even uglier.

AMSTERDAM - our favourite city in Europe. We arrived about 10 a.m. and caught the train to Central Station - it's so civilized - and our hotel - NH Barbizon Palace Hotel, steps from Central Station. Here some new rules were added, no concierge (we'd started off in Beijing as having 10 minutes with the concierge and when that was abused it was changed to 3 questions), no taxis or hired cars of any kind (that slowed a couple of guys right down) and no more pairing in groups (this question had come up at the beginning in Beijing and had been ok'd by Bill). We were feeling a little dispirited about the "contest", but here we finally had some great scavenging that didn't require deep pockets, and food scavenges that we could actually eat instead of having to worry about tummy upsets. (Being chained to a toilet in Cairo for 24 hours strikes me as being a little more than an "upset tummy")
A real hardship, we had to eat herring, pannekoek and frittes. Not only that but we had
to have an Indonesian rijsttafel dinner, and enjoy something from "De Kaas Kamer". Life just got so much better, we cleaned up and got all the food items (with pleasure), found out that service in the Red Light District cost 50E, went on a canal tour and found the thinnest house in Amsterdam (it's the width of the front door - regular size front door). The captain of the canal boat was kind enough to stop for a minute so we could get pictures of a spot where you can see and count seven bridges. We rented bicycles and toured the city on them, an easy way to see Amsterdam. We also visited the Flower Auction, which was amazing. Every day, the auction sells 19 million cut flowers and 2 million plants, in 12,000 varieties, from 7,000 nurseries, representing 3 soccer fields.

We also visited an old windmill called "De Otter". Originally it was used as a saw mill for boat building and is still used as a saw mill but not for the boat industry.
Some of the stuff on the list we opted not to do as we've been there in the past. Like visiting Zaanse Schans, Muiderslot and Den Hague.

We were sad to leave Amsterdam and volunteered at the airport to stay if the flight was over booked, no such luck. Off to Toronto we go.
We arrived in Toronto late in the evening and checked into the Intercontinental Yorkville
on Bloor Street for 2 nights. Here we used the subway and street cars for our scavenges
as the TTC is the most efficient way to go downtown TO. We visited Honest Ed's and actually bought something for .03, yes - 3 cents, then to the Bata Shoe Museum, to Casa Loma, then had dim sum at a restaurant on Spadina, also stopped at the Hungary Thai, and Kensington Market. We hit China Town, Greek Town and had a snack at a Greek restaurant, then on to Bonjour Brioche, the breakfast place that inspired "DeGrassi Junoir High", then off to Maple Leaf Gardens, A.C. Centre, took the PATH to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Visited the ROM, the Walk of Fame, Gretzky's, The Second City theatre and made it to the CN Tower by 3 p.m. closing time for this leg. We met at Horizons in the tower and handed in our score sheets, had some drinks and snacks and lo and behold, Joanne and I won the Toronto leg - but that was only because we live there (according to Bill). And all this time I thought we lived in Victoria! After the
ceremonies at the C.N. Tower we went back to our hotel and got ready for the final
party of the trip. We had a wonderful dinner, shared stories and memories and said good bye
to new friends.
No more scavenges to do! We now have some time to reflect on our journey, more later...