Number 23 and 24

To get to Belgium, I had to sneak across the border. Well, sneak is not really true, but I did get a ride from Breda, Holland. I flew to Amsterdam instead of Brussels to keep a Belgium stamp out of my passport. In the old days I traveled around Europe for six months in a row, working around as I went. There were no border controls so I did not rack passport stamps up in my passport and it seemed I could stay in Europe as long as I wanted. But there is something called the Schengen Agreement, a treaty signed in 1985, designed to abolish border controls between member states. So landing in one member state (Netherlands) is like landing in another (Belgium) and I only get a total of 90 days as a tourist in all of them combined. When I worked here before it was since 1985 (I'm no that old) but I think as the years go by, they get more and more cooperative about enforcing it, so 90 days it is. If you want to know more about the treaty, go to Wikipedia at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

My path to Belgium though was from San Francisco to London by plane, London to Amsterdam by plane, Amsterdam to Breda by train and Breda to Oostende by car. The flights from San Fran and London were flights number 23 and 24 that I have taken in a little over three months time. Its been a busy, globetrotting three months. I spent a night in London visiting friends from Trek America, some of whom I lived with/worked with when I was in the UK in 2001/2002. There were drinks involved. I also spent the night in Amsterdam with a friend from high school that lives there, Chris Parker, and who incidentally is about to get married. Drinks, actually were not involved. So I am looking forward to staying put for bit as I capped off my string of airports that looks like this:

MCMCHCAKLLAXSNALAXLHRBRULHRSFORNOSACLGBLAXPHXPVRGDLLAXMIAUIOARQ
JULCUZLIMMIALAXSEARNOLAXSFOLHRSTNAMS.