20080624 Netherlands, Rotterdam

by Kambiz Taleghani

This all started four years ago when I promised my daughter I would take her to the 2008 Beijing Olympic games if she learned some Chinese before the games.   She did.  So we headed to Beijing – by Car!

We shipped our car from Los Angeles to Rotterdam.  Flew to Europe.  Then started driving East towards China.    We eventually made it to Beijing after 60 days!    This is the story ... (the story gets more interesting after Hungary) ...

Arrived in Amsterdam.   Luggage, and lots of it, did not make it.   Rented a station wagon.  Later in the evening a flight with luggage arrived.  Loaded.  Drove to Rotterdam where the Sportsmobile van has arrived by ship from the U.S. and is waiting for pickup.

Enroute from Los Angeles to Amsterdam,  I managed to leave behind my voice recorder in the airplane at Dublin, Ireland airport!    So much for the record of the interview on the radio which Kambiz gave this yesterday morning, and so many voice recording waiting to be posted on the website!   I’ve been desperately calling Aero Lingus’ Lost &Found number the past two days for any positive new, but to no avail.

Oh, well.  What’s gone is gone.  Now that the website is ready to receive posting, hopefully the impact of a loss such as these audio files (gosh, that was an expensive recorder, too)  won’t be as much.

"One door closes another opens."   Here is the picture of our Bulgarian master mechanic in Rotterdam who, kindly, stayed late at night to make sure the car is ready for its long trip.    A true mechanic.   Could actually diagnose and repair instead of just replace parts hoping that one of them would fix the problem.  A true and proud professional.