Arrived in Portland

What a journey! We arrived sound and well in the Days Inn North in Portland (OR). The adventure began on Saturday afternoon with a three hour train ride to Naarden. Sunday morning the alarm clock went of at 5 AM and after a quick breakfast Bram S. and myself put on our backpacks and headed for Schiphol by train. When we arrived Marcel B. was already waiting for us and not much later Johann S. and Bert van V. arrived. We had checked in the day before via the internet, so now it was only a matter of handing of luggage and going though customs and gate checkup.

For me it was the first time flying and it was quite a adventure. First of all I didn't expect such a gigantic amount of thrust at takeoff. As you can see in the picture below it's quite a earth shaking moment. You get pushed back in your seat and together with the almost vertical takeoff (at least it felt like it) was a exhilarating experience. It didn't take long for us to reach 800+ km/h at 11.000 meters altitude.

At takeoff from Schiphol there wasn't that much to see because of the bad weather. But as the journey continued the weather was quit nice. When we crossed the Rocky Mountains in Canada the clouds were almost entirely gone.

Ten hours later the plane touched down on the airport of Portland. After we were picked up by the hotel truck we could finally relax. I put on my shorts and slippers and we headed for the nearest restaurant (a 100 meter walk) for a typical American meal. A cheeseburger with bacon... hmmm! Of course there were free refills on your beverages if you choose to. Everything big, thats their motto. I really have to pay attention that I don't gain to much weight if I return.

We were only a few hours in Portland and have talked to a dozen people about our ROAM adventure. People see our t-shirts and want to know what it it. I expect that we'll be answering these kind of questions a lot these days. I will try to answer all of them enthusiastically.

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