Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1: In Search of Tulips and Windmills – April 30, 2026

Where We Take A Walking Tour Of Arnhem And Discover Its WWII History

Followed By A Visit To A Great Art Museum

There were two starting times for the walking tour of Arnhem and we lucked out with the later one. I’ve never heard of Arnhem before booking this cruise. It turns out that it was the site of an important battle during WWII.

This is the John Frost Bridge. It was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times during WWII, most recently in 1949 after the war was finally over. The battle of this bridge is depicted in the 1977 movie “A Bridge Too Far” (which I’ve heard of, but never seen – war movies aren’t my thing).

We were in the “leisure” group, which meant we were walking more slowly and would see a lot less of the town; that was fine by us.

We walked towards the city center and came to the remaining gate from the old city walls.

The city center is fairly small. We saw St. Eusebius Church right in front of us after entering through the gate.

Here are some photos from around the outside and inside the church.

Statue of a tartegrade by Arno Coenen to blend science with traditional religious iconography

Near St. Eusebuse Church is St. Walburgis Church. We didn’t go inside this one. This church dates back to the 14th century

Our tour guide, Rob, had mentioned in passing about an old synagogue on the street behind the St. Eusebius church. Surprisingly, there were several Jews in the our group, and we all wanted to see the synagogue. So we did.

Rob didn’t know the current size of the Jewish population in Arnhem, but it seemed that the synagogue is still in use.

We also saw stumbling stones

Time was running short – we didn’t have much time between the end of this walk and the beginning of our next excursion, so the group headed back to the bus.

Shortly after lunch, we boarded a bus to take us to the Kroller-Muller Art Museum and Sculpture Garden. The art collection was donated from the private collection of Helene Kroller Muller. During WWII, the entire collection was hidden in a bunker and managed to survive. There was a fabulous collection of Van Gogh, Monet, and other very famous artists.

Van Gogh is my favorite painter. We saw paintings that I’ve never seen before in person.

There was a room where we could take our photo as if we were sitting in the cafe in Arles as depicted by Van Gogh.

There were a couple of nice pieces showing pointilism:

These are some closeups to show the dots of paint in The Orchard.

We went outside to view some of the sculpture garden. It was rather large and we didn’t have enough time to walk through it all.

Driving through the park on the way out, we saw this hunting lodge:

Everybody on the bus was drifting off – it had been a long day.

Tomorrow: Kinderdijk and more windmills!

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1: In Search of Tulips and Windmills – April 29, 2026

Where We Stand In A Tulip Field and Have A Photo Op With A Windmill

Today we are in Enkhuizen. The morning’s excursion was a walking city tour. I decided to opt out of it to let my knee rest a bit. But Andy went.

Here are some of the photos he took. It looks like a nice town.

Andy is eating a herring. He said it tasted good.

After lunch we went on out “Tulips and Windmill” excursion. This week is the very end of tulip season in the Netherlands. You can tell – the tulips are starting to wilt.

We drove about 40 minutes to a commercial tulip farm. Our guide told us that for most of the tulip flowers have been removed from the tulip plants at this point to encourage the bulbs to grow large and healthy. But we did see a couple of tulip fields along the way.

At the farm we first had coffee/tea and cookies (the cookies were very good), followed by a presentation by the tulip farmer’s wife. Today was the last presentation to a Viking cruise for the season. She walked us through the tulip production cycle including producing bulbs for sale and cut flowers. There are machines for most everything, but there are steps in the process that still must be done by hand. They hire seasonal workers – most of them from Poland – and provide them housing on the farm for the season. As of tomorrow, her husband and his crew will drive through the tulip fields with a machine that will harvest all the flowers and leave the rest of the plant to nourish the bulb.

We were able to walk into the tulip fields, which is a rare opportunity. Even though you can tell that the flowers are wilting, they are still spectacularly beautiful.

Here we are posing with the tulips. We are crouching, because the person who took the photo wanted to make sure we in the photo with the flowers. You can tell it was a windy day, because my hair is all over the place.

On the way back from the tulip farm to the ship, we had a photo op with a functional windmill. The mill wasn’t working while we were there, but it can and does grind wheat into flour.

So we have seen tulip fields and our first windmill.

A couple of sunset shots:

Tomorrow: Arnhem

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1 – In Search Of Tulips & Windmills: April 28 (Our Last Day In Amsterdam)

Where We Tie Up Some Loose Ends Before The Ship Leaves Amsterdam

In the morning we had the included canal cruise, which was rated as “easy”. However, it was a 15 minute walk to the canal boat AND entry into the boat included an incredibly steep tiny ladder. Even people with good knees were struggling, and of course, I managed to wrench a knee when my foot slipped of the last rung. Spoiler alert! Said knee seems to be cooperating this morning, though yesterday it let me know it was not happy.

One really important factoid we learned on this cruise: the term “Holland” applies to two provinces in the Netherlands. There’s the North Holland province (where Amsterdam is located) and the South Holland province. This has always been confusing – learning as a child about a country called “Holland”, only to find out the real name of the country is the Netherlands. Apparently the Dutch are confused about this as well, so it’s a legit confusion.

Here are some assorted “standard” canal views, as we sailed along at 3 kilometers/hour:

The building in white is extremely narrow, dating from the time when people were taxed by the width of their houses.

Anne Frank’s house (No, we didn’t visit during this trip: Andy went the last time we were here, and I went in 1977, which was more than sufficient).

Claude Monet painted this scene

The port-a-potties in this photo was for King’s Day. These served as bathroom access for people who were out and about in little boats too small to have onboard bathrooms.

If you look closely, these buildings are tilting to the side. This is the result of the wooden piles they were built on rotting away. We were assured the wooden piles have since been replaced by concrete. But the buildings still lean.

Other interesting things we saw along the way:

Amsterdam seems to be more interesting every time we come!

After lunch we decided to finish up our Jewish quarter tour by returning to the Jewish museum. We decided to ask the front desk to call us a taxi that would guaranteed drive down the cobblestone ramp to the dock and pick us up right at the ship. Uber drivers might not do that, and require us to meet them up on the street, which would mean I’d have to hobble up the cobblestones. Not ideal.

The taxi worked perfectly, though twice the cost of an uber. We figured on the way back we could guide the uber driver where to make the turn down the ramp to the dock.

If the Portuguese Synagogue represented the Sfardi Jewish experience in Amsterdam, the Jewish Museum showed also the Ashkenazi (eastern European) Jewish experience. The museum building itself is the old Ashkenazi synagogue.

Navigating the multi-floor building required using the convoluted elevator system that seemed to work when it wanted to. We needed museum staff to get us started via the handicap entrance. The staff member had to badge the elevator several times to get it to go, and then he had to meet us on the next floor. It was confusing as to exactly which floors contained the museum itself, and first we needed to buy tickets: our ticket for the Portuguese synagogue included entrance to the Jewish museum, but we lost those tickets, so we figured we had to buy another ticket. The ticket guy told us we didn’t need to pay again once we told him the story, which was nice.

The entrance ticket included the free audio guide like the Portuguese synagogue, though this time we knew what to do. My device spoke in English from the git go.

The first floor we visited was labeled “Religion” that displayed the religious aspect of Jewish life in Amsterdam before WWII.

These are meggilot Esther – hand written scrolls containing the book of Esther. The illuminations were beautiful.

This is a sefer Torah (Torah scroll) set to the Priestly Blessing – at the bottom of the middle column. Perfectly legible and easy to read.

This is a display case containing assorted religious objects, including a huge Hanukkah menorah and Torah covers with silver crowns. The big silver bowl in the lower left hand corner is a bowl to hold water for the Kohanim (men who inherit the priest role from their fathers) to wash their hands before they bless the congregation with the Priestly Blessing (as seen in the sefer Torah). It’s a little hard to see, but to the right of the bowl is a “laver”, a pitcher the Levi’im used to pour water over the feet of the Kohanim before the Kohanim bless the congregation.

This is the original bima (kind of like a little stage) in front of the Ark that holds the sifrei Torah (Torah scrolls) that you can see behind the glass. The menorah on the bima looks like another Hanukkah menorah. A standard menorah would have 7 branches; this one has 9. Up on the wall to the right of the ark is the Ner Tamid – the Eternal Light that would normally be continuously lit in an active synagogue. Before electricity the Ner Tamid would be lit with oil. It represents the continuous presence of G-d.

These are other religious or ritual items.

An interesting shofar – we’ve not seen one like this before. The Shofar is blown on Rosh HaShannah (Jewish New Year)

The next floor described the history of the Jewish community in Amsterdam from its origins in the 1600s as Sfardi Jews arrived to escape the Spanish Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, as well as Ashkenazi Jews fled the pogroms and dire poverty of Eastern Europe. One remarkable note: Jews were given full Dutch citizenship in 1796 with all the rights and privileges as non-Jews. This is a momentous occasion – most of the time, Jews were second-class citizens in the rest of Europe for much longer than that.

More than 2/3 of the Jewish population in Amsterdam were murdered during the Holocaust. There are now about 60,000 Jews in Amsterdam, but most of them live in the outer areas and not in the central part of the city.

When we were finished with the museum, we took an uber back to the ship. We were able to show the driver where to turn to drive down the ramp all the way to our ship. Success!

Tomorrow: Enkhuizen, where we meet our first windmills and tulip farm

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1: In Search of Tulips and Windmills – April 27

Where We Get To Experience The Dutch Version Of Amok Time

But Found Some Tulips

April 27 – King’s Day

April 27 is King’s Day in the Netherlands. For a full explanation of King’s Day, take a look here. Briefly – it’s a national holiday to celebrate the birthday of the Dutch king, Willem Alexander. Everybody has a day off, and the country goes just a smidge meshuganah for a day. Oranage is the color of the royal family, who has connections to the Orange area in France from several hundred years ago.

Festivities had already started the evening of April 26. It was a bit of a challenge for our uber driver to work his way around the already closed streets filled with partiers to get us to our restaurant. This included a food delivery truck that parked at an odd angle one of the super narrow streets. The driver saw us in the uber car, and just continued on his delivery of fresh fruit and vegetables into an apartment building. Our uber driver gave the delivery guy and earful when he finally surfaced.

Getting back to the hotel was equally challenging, because by the time we left the restaurant partiers completely clogged the street and bridge where we needed to turn (which is apparently against one of the 9,324 rules regarding Konnigsdag). Our driver decided to proceed on at 1 mph, gently moving through the crowd as drunken people figured out that they were, in fact, standing in the middle of an active street. We should have gotten some video of that, but we were kinda amazed it was actually happening.

April 27 is the day we transfer from the hotel to the ship, but we had some time in the morning before we go, so we decide to put on our orange shirts and go in search of King’s Day festivities.

We started walking in the general direction of the city center, though we were warned to absolutely stay away from there due to the nuttiness.

We went quite a distance before we found a street with some vendors. One of the Konnigsdag traditions is for people to bring out their own personal possessions that they want to get rid of; the entire country is one giant flea market. As one of our tour guides said, “People sell their junk and then buy somebody else’s junk”. The street we were on had actual stores who moved their items out onto the street. We ended up buying a few things, including some packages of certified-for-import-to-the-US tulip bulbs for people back home. This was a good thing, because the flower market was closed, and I wasn’t sure where else we’d be able to buy bulbs.

This guy was selling unopened/returned Amazon packages. No idea what’s inside any of them.

And then there were the stumbling stones, are reminder of the Dutch Jews lost during the Holocaust.

We arrived back at the hotel just in time for the group photo that hopefully we’ll get from the ship’s program director at some point.

The transfer to the ship was as smooth as always. We were scooted off to lunch immediately upon boarding, while we waited for our stateroom to be ready.

We decided to go on the 3:30 p.m. “Welcome Walk”, even though we’d already been on a walking tour. Our first tour was from our hotel in the southern part of the city. Now we were in the northern part of the city, so we expected it to be different.

Which it was. We walked directly into clumps of partiers, making navigation entertaining.

Other photos from our walk, once we pushed through the parties.

Since our ship was docked next to a bar overflowing with partiers. Our tour guide realized that the bar *could* just move aside one of the temporary fences and let us walk through to the dock avoiding the long walk up the block and then back down a cobblestone ramp. It took some convincing – not sure the bar owner thought we were going to do by climbing through her fence – but eventually she relented. Maybe we all looked pathetic enough, who knows.

Our first dinner was great – we had a fantastic conversation with 4 brits. And this is what traveling is all about.

Tomorrow: Canal cruise and hopefully the Jewish Museum.

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1: In Search of Tulips and Windmills In The Netherlands (April 24, 25, and 26)

Which All Could Have Been One Very, Very Long Day, As Far As My Brain Is Concerned

April 24 Getting Ourselves To Amsterdam

It was all going extremely well – we arrived at the airport, checked out bags, with plenty of time to spend in the Unite lounge. Scooted to the gate, picked up the tag for the gate check of my transport chair. We even made it as far as the door to the plane.

And then the crew came out of the plane and told us we needed to go back to the gate.

Yada, yada, yada, apparently the anti-skid brakes were not working and could not be fixed. Good news! United found us another plane. Not so good news! It was on its way back from Paris. Our flight was originally supposed to depart at 5:30 p.m. The new plane wasn’t even going to arrive at Dulles until 7:30 p.m.

Which it did, but then it had to be cleaned/serviced/checked out.

At one point we were taxiing around the tarmac so long, I thought we were going to drive all the way to Amsterdam. Yada, yada, yada, we finally took off somewhere around 11:00 p.m.

Fortunately, the flight itself was easy, and I managed to get a little sleep. We landed at about noon.

We were hoping to get a glimpse of tulip fields as we came in for landing, but no such luck.

April 25

We found the Viking rep, who found our driver to take us to the hotel.

Months ago I bought tickets to the Rijksmuseum with an entry time of 1:00 p.m. for the special exhibit. By the time we were ready to leave the hotel, it was 1:45 p.m. We arrived at the museum right after 2:00 p.m. So no special exhibit for us (it was free anyway), but we had 3 hours before the museum closed to wander around. I had also purchased the audio tour, which had a “highlights” version. Sounds like a plan.

The last time we were in the Rijksmuseum some eternity ago, everything had been under tarps and scaffolding for renovations. This time, everything was open and tarp-free. In the 3 hours before the staff started shooing us out of the building, we managed to see just about everything on the tour.

The photos below are not in any kind of order, other than whatever my macbook wanted to do.

Though possibly my favorite is this one. This guy saw me hold up my phone to take the photo and stepped right in front of me.

We had dinner in the museum’s coffee shop, for expediency more than anything else.

When we got back to the hotel, we knew we had to stay awake just a little longer, so we went downstairs to one of this hotel’s many restaurants and had some ice cream.

April 26

We got up Sunday morning feeling a lot better. We were scheduled for a walking tour with the Viking group. For long walks like this, Andy drives me around in a transport chair. The only time we have issues is when the streets and sidewalks are all cobblestones. We had already talked to the Viking rep about this, and she seemed to think we would not be able to go at all.

By 9:30 there were 4 groups set up. The first 3 tour guides said absolutely not, we could not come because of the transport chair. The fourth tour guide said, “Well, if it reaches the point where you can’t continue, you can always stop and take an uber back”. This sounded like a reasonable plan.

Spoiler alert! We made it all the way for the entire walking tour, because there were almost no cobblestones. I’m beginning to think that the tour guide and the Viking rep think “cobblestones” means something different from what we’re thinking. The sidewalks were no problem at all.

We walked along the streets of Amsterdam, noticing assorted interesting things along the way.

The tour ended at Museum Square behind the Rijks museum. Before heading back, there was the pre-requisite bathroom break in a public bathroom, which of course was down two flights of stairs.

Anybody who follows my blog knows there’s always a few stories about bathrooms in our travels. I didn’t think to take photos, but when I finally toddled down the last step and paid my way into the women’s bathroom, I noticed that the doors on all the stalls were crystal clear glass.

Though slightly alarmed, there wasn’t a choice anymore.

Good news! When I clicked the lock closed, the glass frosted over.

When we got back to the hotel, we asked the Viking rep about places for lunch near the Portuguese synagogue. She didn’t have much, so we decided to uber to the area and find something. Which turned out to be a little harder than we expected, but eventually we did find a cafe.

We bought tickets to enter the Portuguese Synagogue. The ticket lady was asking all the men to wear a kippah. Andy had his own with him – she then warned him not to wear it in public (not that he normally does) because of the rampant anti-semitism in the city. Kinda sad.

The Portuguese synagogue was built in the 17th century and is one of the oldest synagogues in Europe. There is no electricity or heating, yet it is still used on a regular basis. It is a Sfardi synagogue, which means the configuration of the sanctuary has the Torah reading table in the middle of the congregation, as opposed to up front like in Ashkenazi synagogues.

Downstairs were the Treasures that were hidden and saved from the Nazis during WWII

We were given free audio guides, but Andy’s wasn’t working and mine was talking to me in French, so both of us missed the descriptions of the treasures, and google wasn’t helpful.

These photos are of the sanctuary. Since there is no electricity, the room is lit with thousands of candles in huge candleabras.

There were more rooms to investigate around the perimeter of the main building.

This is the funeral room, where bodies were brought for the tahara (washing and dressing of the deceased). The sign says “No entry for Kohanim” – men who are a kohen (an inherited priest role) can’t come in contact with the dead, because there is currently no way for them to spiritually purify themselves without a Holy Temple

We sorta ran out of time, again – the synagogue was closing soon. For sure we didn’t have time to visit the Jewish Museum today.

For dinner we went to an Indonesian restaurant recommended by a friend of ours. Getting there and back was a challenge, because the King’s Day celebrations have begun.

Tomorrow: King’s Day and we board the ship.

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1: Tulpen En Windmolen! (Tulips & Windmills)

No We Haven’t Left Yet

But We’re Heading Back To Europe

Specifically The Netherlands for Tulips and Windmills

We booked this cruise two years ago, which is fairly typical for us – especially Viking river cruises that tend to fill up very quickly. The tricky part of this cruise was the timing; the whole point is to be in the Netherlands as close to the peak of the tulip season as possible, so April is best. But we also need to deal with the timing of Passover, which also tends to be in April. In 2026, Passover was very “early” (starting on April 1), which gave us the opportunity to book this cruise for the very end of April through the beginning of May.

It looks like we’ll be sailing on several rivers, though I can’t tell the names of any of them from this graphic. I’m sure we’ll hear all about it once we are on board.

We have a couple of extra days in Amsterdam before we board the ship. We’ve been in Amsterdam several times before; this time we’re taking the opportunity to revisit some sites we haven’t been to in quite a while – the Rijksmuseum for one, and the flower market, where we’ll be able to buy some tulips for a few people back home.

One of the ports is a duplicate – Kinderdijk, with all its marvelous windmills. The others are all new to us. Our stop in Antwerp gives us access to Brussels for the day (top priority: buy Leonedas chocolate). Our day in Middleburg will include a day trip to Bruges.

Happy thoughts for good weather and easy sailing!

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2025 Part 2: To The (Almost!) Bottom Of The World: All Good Things Must Come To An End

January 7, 2026: Where We Have A Few Hours Before Our Flight Home, And We Manage To Get Lost, As Is Tradition

After breakfast, we go back to the room and cram everything into our suitcases. After we check out and store our bags for the day, we venture out to spend just a little more time exploring Buenos Aires.

At the front desk’s recommendation, we take an Uber to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. It is a delightful little museum – all of 2 and a half floors, with a wide range of exhibits: from antiquities, to Impressionist and Modern art.

This guy reminded me of George Burns (z”l)

I liked the iridescent quality of this painting

Hermenegildo Anglada Carnarasa “Los opalos” 1904

These are hair combs – they are HUGE.

Spotted this Dega from across the room.

I felt bad for Jesus in this carving – he’s missing his nose and a few fingers.

Anonymous (Spain 13th Century) “Virgin with the Child”

Here’s the Modern Art

Antonio Berni “Pesadilla de los injustos” 1961

Luis Felipe Noé “Introducción a la esperanza” 1963

And another one that was easy to spot.

Amedeo Modigliani “Bust of a Woman” 1920

I’m not familiar with this artist.

The best thing about this museum was how ramps were built into the design of the entire building. There was no need for any steps at all – ramps were everywhere! Unfortunately, the elevator door had some kind of psychological problems – it always started to close as soon as it was fully open, even if you were standing in the doorway.

When we were done with this museum, we decided to find another small museum. Andy had a reference to a “design” museum that was open 24 hours. We suspected it was an open-air museum. Trying to follow Google’s walking directions, we randomly came across interesting things.

A better view of the monument to Evita Perón

After a while it became clear we had no idea where we were nor any idea where this “museum” was. A kind passer-by stopped to ask us if we needed help. Andy showed her his phone and what we were looking for. She studied it for a couple of minutes and then announced: “This is not a real place.”

So whatever that was, it didn’t seem to exist. We gave up.

We found a place to have lunch. At that point it was time to head back to the hotel, but we had *just* enough time to squeeze in one more stop at Freddo’s for ice cream!

This is the last photo I took in the cab on the way to the airport.

Hasta la vista, Argentina! It’s been a blast!

Coming in April, 2026: Tulips and Windmills river cruise in the Netherlands

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2025 Part 2: To The (Almost!) Bottom Of The World: Jewish Buenos Aires

January 6, 2026 – Where We Have A Much Less Ambitious Agenda For Today: Touring Jewish Buenos Aires

Still a bit tired from yesterday’s adventure, we waited downstairs in the lobby for today’s tour guid, Matias, who comes from the same tour company that yesterday’s tour guide came from.

Uncharacteristically, Matias is running late. A quick email to Maximo, and he tells me it was his own mistake. There are two Bel Air hotels in Buenos Aires; he sent Matias to the wrong one.

Jewish Museum of Buenos Aires

Our first stop was the Jewish Museum of Buenos Aires, documenting the Jewish community of Buenos Aires and all of Argentina back to its origins. Argentina has a long history of accepting immigrants from all over the world, similar to the US.

In the 1880s, Baron Maurice de Hirsch developed the idea of Jewish settlements in the Argentinian pampas. Eventually thousands of Eastern European Jews made their way to one of these settlements, where they were initially supported and guided in their new life as farmers and ranchers. This created Jewish Gauchos, Argentinian version of the American cowboys in the US western states.

We continued on through the exhibits, all of them familiar: artifacts from synagogues, a graphic film on October 7 that we opted not to watch (preaching to the choir, here), etc. All in all, a nicely done collection of Jewish life in Buenos Aires and Argentina.

Matias also explained how the Jewish community of Argentina is tightly integrated into Argentinian society: four generations later, Jews speak Spanish, work in every kind of profession – very similar to the Jewish community in the United States.

I told Matias about my connection to Argentina: my grandmother’s brother who came to Argentina in the 1920s after the US began restricting immigration from Europe. My great-uncle eventually made his way to Montevideo, Uruguay, where he grew his family, and I have family there still! I showed Matias the photo of me with my newly discovered 3rd cousin whom we met for lunch back on December 22, 2025 (3rd day of the cruise).

Templo Liberdad – Temple Liberty, Reform synagogue

The Reform and Conservative movements of Judaism came to Argentina in the 1960s. There are Reform and Conservative seminaries in Buenos Aires! The only ones in South America.

Templo Liberdad was built first. Once again, we had to provide our passports to gain access to the synagogue. Security is taken seriously in the Jewish community!

Here are some photos of the interior of the Reform synagogue. The sanctuary is huge, and is still used.

This window is unusual with the Tetragrammaton – not typically depicted

Orthodox synagogue

The Orthodox synagogue felt a little more familiar and closer to what we’re used to in Conservative synagogues. In Orthodox Jewish synagogues, men and women sit separately. In this synagogue, the divider (metchitzah) is down the middle (men on one side, women on the other), instead of a more traditional separation of women sitting up in the balcony.

The stained glass windows are simple, with only Stars of David.

1992 Bomb site

We visited the memorial to the victims of the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy that killed 29 people (Jews and non-Jews).

1994 Bomb site

In July, 1994, the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires was targeted by Hezbollah, killing 89 people – the worst Jewish disaster since the Shoah until October 7. A new building was built. Additions have been made to the building over the years, the latest being the bollards and entrance are now painted orange in memory of the Bibas family murdered after October 7.

The bollards and entrance are orange in memory of the Bibas family murdered after October 7

Garment district/frum neighborhood

Our last “stop” so to speak, was through the garment (“shmata”) district and religious neighborhoods, both of which reminded me of the garment district and Lower East Side of Manhattan (or my old neighborhood in Queens).

Our tour ended with Matias dropping us off at a recommended kosher restaurant. He helped us order. It turned out to be too much for 2 people.

After lunch we took an Uber back to the hotel to rest up for a bit. Lunch was so huge, a real dinner was out of the question. At some point hours later, we decided to walk over to Freddos and have one last ice cream. My personal favorite: Chocolate Doble Tentacion.

Hint: this was, in fact, not The Last Freddo ice cream of our visit

Tomorrow: Some time to kill in the morning, and then it’s time to head to the airport to come home.

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2025 Part 2: To The (Almost!) Bottom Of The World: Iguazu, Part 3

Where, After Much Trial And Tribulation, We Tour Iguazu National Park.

January 5, 2026 We Are At Iguazu!

For reference sake, here’s a map of the Argentina side of the falls, Iguazu National Park. There are three different “circuits”.

Devil’s Throat (Garganta del Diablo)
Upper Circuit
Lower Circuit

As we’re driving along, Emmanuel is introducing himself and telling us how the day will proceed. I also tell him about my mobility limitations and what Maximo and I agreed we would do when we get to the Lower Circuit.

Emmanuel not having any of it. He insists that all three of us will do it all. There are golf carts that can drive me down to the lower circuit. He will take care of it (contrary to Maximo’s proviso that the tour driver would not take care of it).

We arrive at the Visitor’s Center and take a bathroom break. While we’re waiting, some coatis (a/k/a “ring tailed racoons”) are wandering around looking for human food.

We and board the train towards Devil’s Throat. The ride is not that interesting, in that it’s mostly trees and we don’t see any wildlife. When we arrive at our stop, Emmanuel says the trip up to the falls and back in 90 minutes. He offers to push my chair instead of Andy (contrary to Maximo’s info). What Maximo or any other source didn’t mention is that the walk way is metal grating separated by slats. You can see them in the photo above. This makes for a bumpy ride, and upon occasion the front left wheel of my transport chair gets stuck. Eventually we resort to me walking a bit when the grating is particularly difficult.

Along the way we see a turtle sunning on a branch in the water, and a ginormous catfish.

The views from the Devil’s Throat of the Brazilian falls are as amazing as hyped.

We take a zillion more photos and head back. My chair is really struggling now, even with attempted fixes to tighten the front left wheel. Finally, Emmanuel asks us to sit in the shade at a pull-off spot for a bit. He will go back and grab one of the macho trail wheelchairs (that Maximo said were scarce and that I’d have to find myself).

While we’re waiting, a butterfly found Andy’s red hat attractive.

About 20 or 30 minutes later, Emmanuel comes bounding up with the giant wheelchair. I climb into it, and he proceeds to *run* at top speed with me in the chair, bouncing all the way back to the train station, constantly and politely asking people to move to the side. Andy is somewhere behind us with my chair. Emmanuel is running, because now we’re just a bit behind schedule.

Basically – for the rest of the day, my chair is moved from one resting spot to another, while Emmanuel pushes me along in the giant chair.

We take a short break when we arrive at our next stop. We see this visitor

We take the train to the next stop, which is at the Upper Circuit. From the Upper Circuit we can see where the Brazilian Falls and the Argentinian Falls meet at an apex, and just below that is an island.

The views continue to be stunning. Note: All of these views have names, and I know Emmanuel told us the names, and I also know I remember none of them.

On the right are the Argentinian Falls, on the left are the Brazilian falls, and in the center is the island with a tiny beach.

At least some of the walkway was in shade. You can see the metal grating that I wish we knew about ahead of time.

White ginger lily a/k/a butterfly ginger

After the Upper Circuit, we have lunch while Emmanuel procures a golf cart. The caddy drives Andy, me, and my chair down to the bottom of the long flight of steps that I told Maximo that I couldn’t do.

The path of the Lower Circuit is a smoother concrete path. We walk all the way around, see more views, and watch one of the boats zoom right into the bottom of the falls.

This is the moment the boat enters the falls. A giant NOPE.

We circle back to the bottom of the stairs where we started.

We did it! We did all 3 circuits! It’s late now, and the rangers are coming to start closing the paths. The caddy cart comes to take us back up to where we need to exit. We spend a little time in the gift shop finding an expensive fridge magnet.

As we’re about to exit the park, a crowd spots a toucan. I can’t see it from where I’m sitting in the car, but Andy gets out and gets a photo. Some capuchin monkeys wandering around the parking lot.

It’s a relatively short drive to the airport. As promised, Emmanuel comes with us to the check-in counter and talks with the staff member about whatever the issue is about the chair. He tells her about our experience that morning with security’s odd and annoying behavior, including the security guy’s seemingly endless examination of my passport.

When I asked him to ask her why she thinks he was doing that, she says, “There was no reason for that. He’s an asshole”. Well, yes, that was my thought as well, but she’s allowed to say that out loud.

We never really find out what the issue was with the chair, but with one more unnecessary form to sign to take with us, we have new boarding passes and we are done!.

We say our goodbyes to Emmanuel, who has earned every penny of the large tip we leave him with!

We arrive at our gate (as is tradition, it’s as far away as possible at the very far end of the terminal). We finally take a close look at our boarding passes and realize we’re not flying back to the same airport where we flew from in the morning – we’re flying to the big international airport. Maximo has it all under control – our driver knows where to pick us up.

The two hour flight to Buenos Aires is uneventful. We expected to have to pick up the chair at baggage like we did in the morning, but it’s waiting for me outside the plane door – inside a scissor bus, where another wheelchair person is waiting. Apparently there was a walk down a flight of steps to the tarmac, and the scissor bus rescued us from having to do that walk. This airline seems to be a bit more on the ball than JetSMART when it comes to assistance!

Our driver is waiting for us; 40 minutes later we are back at the hotel. We left at 4:00 a.m. that morning, and we arrived back at about 10:15 p.m.

What a completely insane and totally magnificent day!

Tomorrow: Tour of Jewish Buenos Aires

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2025 Part 2: To The (Almost!) Bottom Of The World: Iguazu, Parts 1 and 2

January 5: Where Insanity Manifests Itself In A One Day Up-And-Back Visit To Iguazu Falls

And The Tale Is SO LONG, I’m Breaking It In Two

Part 1: Booking Iguazu

Iguazu Falls National Park is in the very north of Argentina with the border of Brazil. Thinking that this might be our one and only chance to see these falls, we decided we’d figure out how to do it.

Similar to Niagara Falls having an American side and a Canadian side, Iguazu Falls has an Argentinian and Brazilian sides. Many people do an overnight stay to see both sides. This was not going to work for us, because:

By the time of our visit in early January, we will have been gone from home for almost three weeks. We knew we’d be running on fumes. And it would just be time to go home.
The logistics of arriving in Buenos Aires and staying in a hotel, then packing up and schlepping all the bags onto a plane to Iguazu (with no tour guide to help), stay at a hotel in Iguazu, visit Iguazu, then turn around and schlep all the bags BACK to Buenos Aires – well, that sounded exhausting just typing it.
We didn’t want to deal with getting a visa to visit Brazil for one day.

The challenge was finding a tour company who would provide a private an all-in-one up-and-back package. It wasn’t easy, but I found one through Get Your Guide. They, of course, contract it out to somebody else. The somebody else is BATourguide.com.ar.

August 2025

I reached out to BATourguide to begin the conversation. The challenge always is: my mobility issues. For walking long distances, Andy drives me in a transport chair (a wheelchair with 4 small wheels).

The person I was dealing with was Maximo Yedid. The description of the tour said: “Not wheelchair accessible”. I needed to know exactly what that meant, especially since the Iguazu Falls website said explicitly that wheelchairs are available.

Obstacle #1: As in many cases, Maximo said the cars used to transfer people around do not have a wheelchair lift. I said, no problem, I don’t need a wheelchair lift. I have a small chair and it folds even smaller to fit in most trunks.

Obstacle #2: Maximo brought up was the supposed scarcity of loaner wheelchairs, and it would be up to you to get one; that’s not the guide’s job. I said, no problem, I’ll bring my own. {Note: in 20/20 hindsight, it would have been good for Maximo to tell me the surface of the trails are metal slats that are a bit of a problem for a wheelchair with little wheels, but I digress}.

Obstacle #3: the tour guide is not going to push you. No problem, I said, my husband will do that.

Obstacle #4: I won’t be able to do the lower circuit, because it requires climbing down a very long flight of stairs. No problem, I said – if there’s a cafe where I can get something to eat, access a bathroom, and sit in a shady spot, I can wait for Andy and the tour guide to do the lower circuit and I’ll just see the photos later. We do this ALL THE TIME.

Obstacle #5: We won’t have time to do the boat ride. No problem, I have zero interest in this boat ride that takes you right into the falls and you are soaked. Nope, no thank you.

I’m guessing he was concerned about the liability of dealing with a customer with mobility issues. But at this point, Maximo ran out of obstacles. I booked the (non-refundable) excursion for January 5, 2026.

Maximo booked the flights and sent me the info. I asked him if he told the airline about my personal wheelchair. No, of course not, I had to do that. {I was beginning to sense a bit of passive/aggressive stuff going on here}. No problem. I called the airline (JetSMART, an affiliate of American Airlines) and set it all up. Easy peasy.

November 3, 2025

JetSMART sent me an email in early November to notify me that our return flight was cancled and rescheduled for 10:30 p.m. Maximo rebooked us on an Aerolineas Argentina flight instead at 7:30 p.m.. I was able to add “wheelchair assistance” to the reservation via the website. No problem, good to go.

December 26, 2025

We are on our cruise. I receive an email from Maximo regarding an email Aerolineas Argentina sent him asking for information about my chair. The phone interface created a jumbled mess.

The Spanish isn’t even the problem here.

Fortunately, on my computer it appeared fine. I used google translate to make sure my understanding of the Spanish was correct.

They wanted to know whether the chair is motorized or is manual (manual), its dimensions, weight, etc. PLUS they wanted photos of the chair folded up and a photo of brake locking mechanism.

AND they wanted something called a “sworn statement” that supposedly is in the chair’s user manual. The chair’s user manual is in Maryland and there doesn’t seem to be an online version of it. I have no memory of seeing a “sworn statement” in the paper version.

I sent an email to the airline asking what a “sworn statement” was, but I never received an answer. Google said it was a form needed for motorized wheelchairs guaranteeing the battery was safe.

Except there is no battery because this is a manual wheelchair. I couldn’t figure out why they included this requirement in a form for a manual chair. It made absolutely no sense.

I filled out the form as best I could and sent it in 5 days before the excursion asking for confirmation of receipt of the email. No response.

January 4, 2026

Part 2 Getting To Iguazu

Maximo checks us into the morning flight and sends us our boarding passes. I have no way to print them off, so the PDFs will have to do.

I was in bed by 8:30 the night before. We were up at 3:00 a.m. We had our backpack packed and our clothes laid out. We were downstairs in the lobby waiting for the driver at 3:50 a.m.

Our driver arrives right at 4:00 a.m. It’s a 15 minute drive to the local domestic airport. The driver drops us off at departures, and we’re on our way!

Because we have nothing to check, we head straight to security. They kinda notice Andy is pushing me in the chair, so they sorta scoot us around to the priority line. We send the backpack, my purse, etc. through the machine. My chair and I go around the metal detector for the manual inspection. A woman security person pats me down. All this is perfectly routine.

And this is where the fun begins.

Suddenly, it’s apparent that I must be The First Person In Argentina to ever bring my own private wheelchair to this airport. This is a major sticking point. They couldn’t believe it. This is yours? Yes, it’s mine. Your personal chair? Yes, it’s mine. Not the airport’s? No, it’s mine.

Mind you – all this is in Spanish, and I’m proud to say that my barely awake brain was able navigate the “This is my chair” sentence as many times as I needed to say it.

The woman security person is now poking at my chair (seriously poking it), looking at my name tags as if they held nuclear secrets, opening the name tags to see the bits of paper in them, and the Apple air tag in one of them. Multiple times, touching the tags opening the tags, looking at the bits of paper, looking at my Airtag.

What in creation is going on here?

Then another security guy asks for my passport. Of course, if a security guy asks for your passport, you give him your passport. This is a non-issue.

He proceeds to examine my passport literally page by page – I am not making this up – holding each page so close to his face I thought he would eat it. Both sides of each page. The whole passport. Every page. Multiple times. Over and over and over again. I sure hope he enjoyed seeing all the stamps from all the places I’ve been!

I’m not saying a word at this point. Nor am I showing any emotion at all. My inside voice is going crazy with all sorts of scenarios, but outwardly, I show nothing.

Security guy continues to hold my passport and randomly look at pages, the dates, the scan code, etc. Many supervisors are contacted. As one supervisor is brought out, that one contacts the next one up, and the next one up, until there are at least 2 if not 3 supervisors involved.

My guess at this point:

Somebody decided to randomly give a 72 year old grandma from the US a hard time for reasons completely unknown. Maybe they were bored.
That person questioned the chair as some security something-something.
Typically, once a low-rung security person commits to something, even if it’s 100% wrong, all the security people up and down the food chain will back the low-rung guy.

It seemed like hours, but I’m pretty sure it was about 10 minutes, when finally a supervisor high enough up takes one look at me in my chair and tells everybody to give me back my passport and let me go on my way.

Still with me?

We go to the gate, which is, of course, as far away as possible, as is tradition. The gate staff show up, and we ask about the gate check of the chair. No problem at all. They put a baggage tag on it.

While we’re waiting to board, I get another email from Maximo saying that he can’t check us into the return flight. He suspects it has something to do with the chair. He says our tour guide will come with us to check in and figure it out for us. Sounds like a plan

Andy and I are first to go down the ramp – to find out that we are taking a bus to the plane! Ok, no problem, we get on the bus to go to the plane. I position myself in the chair in an open space for wheelchairs.

It’s a very crowded bus. Out of nowhere, another security guy in an yellow vest literally shouts at me:

“JOO! What joo doing here!” It’s obvious his English doesn’t particularly exist.

I said, “Going to the plane, why else would I be here?”

“Joo no be here!”, he said.

“How else do I get to the plane?”, I said. I’m beginning to think that the gate staff should have called for assistance to get me to the plane instead of me taking the bus, but I don’t know how I would have known that.

Yellow vest guy disappears for a few seconds, then comes back and says, “Joo OK!”

The bus takes us to the plane. We get to climb up a flight of steps. Mr. Yellow Vest is there and now he’s all concerned. He motions for me to stand in a certain place and tells me when to start climbing the steps. “Joo ok? Need help?”. No, I’m fine, thank you.

I’m halfway up the steps with Yellow Vest behind me (which is fine, always good to have a spotter), and he occasionally asks me “Joo ok?”. I guess he, too, is feeling guilty for plaguing an 72 year old grandma who just wants to get on the fricking plane.

Fortunately, the flight itself is fine. Though what’s weird is when the flight attendants offer food for sale, Andy and I are never offered anything, as if they don’t see us. We’re sitting in the first row.

It’s only a two hour flight, and it’s fine. We arrive in Iguazu. What we didn’t realize is they actually checked my chair into luggage under the plane, and now we need to retrieve it from the carousel.

Finally, finally, we walk out looking for somebody holding a sign with our name. There’s a guy there holding a sign, but the name is completely wrong. Eventually he asks us if we were there for a one day tour, and we say yes, and I give him my name. AH HAH, he finds us, he had looked at the wrong booking, it’s all good.

He introduces himself as Emmanuel, and now the good part starts.