altitude sickness

One obviously has to be reasonably fit to hike anywhere 5-18 hours per day for 8 days; it is altitude sickness which most often forces people to turn back. I will be crushed if I have to do that.

The highest I've ever been is Dead Woman's Pass on the Inca Trail: 4,200 metres. I felt fine at that. We pass that level before the end of day 3. Kilimanjaro's highest peak is 5895 metres.

I've been reading a lot about Diamox and have decided to take it in preventative measures rather than if I begin to experience any uncomfortable symptons. There's a cut-off period where if you haven't taken it already, you can't start so it seems a bit risky to me. Apparently it makes you pee more. As I already have to get up twice in the night, I am seriously considering a women's pee funnel!

Amsterdam

I hate to dwaddle on my way home but a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam seemed to be messaging me "go into the city and check it out for crying out loud." I also thought if that damm volcano popped again, at least I would have a bed. So I booked one night at the Hotel Brouwer:

Located on the Singel canal in the heart of old Amsterdam, the hotel has been run by the Brouwer family since 1917. The historic building, dating from 1652, recently underwent a four year renovation to restore it to its orignial 17th century splendor.

I sure hope the view from my window looks like this:



And I also hope I am awake enough to soak it all in.

It is walkable from the train station and has good reviews on TripAdvisor.com. I was surprised when I was able to reserve with a single email - no deposit required.

I am making the train station my "base" for this short stopover. I'll be coming in from the airport and going back out again through there (20 minutes, ticket $5.80 one way). It'll be a bit of a rush but really there's only 3 things I want to do there: a bike tour, as Amsterdam is the city of bikes, the canal tour and of course because I love trams, ride a tram somewhere.