July 19

We were awake around 6:00am when there was a bright lightning strike followed immediately by a very loud thunderclap.  It was very close by and the power to a section of Amsterdam, including our hotel, was out.  Fortunately the room door locks are on batteries so we could go out.  We had Dutch breakfast (bread, cheese & ham) but no coffee in the concierge lounge.  Even the trams in the area were out of commission.  After 2 1/2 hours the power came back on and we had a sigh of relief knowing we wouldn't have to haul our luggage down the stairways to leave.  We took a taxi to Schiphol Airport and spent a couple of hours in the business class lounge before boarding our 3 hour Icelandair flight to Reykjavik.  The lamb loin lunch was excellent as was the accompanying wine.  We had a 2 hour layover in Icelandair's Saga Lounge where one of their standard snacks is smoked Iceland lamb on a slice of thin tortilla like bread which is chared on a grill.  It is one of my all-time favorite snacks and I indulge myself every time we're at that airport.  On the 5 hour flight to Boston we were served a delicious filet that was properly on the rare side of medium rare.  In other words, we ate and drank our way from Amsterdam to Boston.  We had our first try of using Global Entry through Customs & Immigration and it really is a speedy pass through.  We took a water taxi from the airport to the Marriott Long Wharf Hotel and checked in around 6:00pm.  It was midnight so far as our bodies were concerned, but we walked around and stayed awake until 9:00 to try to adjust to the time change.