Jess left work at noon, having bought skull-patterned canvas hi-tops at Payless. She caught a cab to the apartment, where Jer and the bags joined her. We went straight to Newark, arriving in plenty of time to check in, have lunch and make it through security. Our flight left more-or-less on time, and we fell asleep immediately, having taken sleeping pills prior to boarding. We slept for about half the flight, then Jess read or played Bejeweled on the in-seat monitor, while Jer watch the in-flight movie and read his book.
We arrived in Amsterdam at 6:00 am. While we waited for the rest of our party to join us, we had juice, tea and pastries at a bakery and wandered around the airport. (Schiphol Airport has a casino! We didn't visit it.) Eventually, Jer's dad and stepmom arrived, followed by the rest of our party (save one woman, who lost her passport in Amsterdam and had to stay to get it replaced).
We boarded our flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport, only to return to the gate for repairs after the crew detected a brake problem while we were taxiing. Finally, though, we did get underway, a little more than two hours late. After an uneventful flight, where Jess chatted in French with a guy who raises and sells fresh fruit and who was going to climb Kilimanjaro, we arrived at Kilimanjaro International Airport at 11pm. We stepped off the plane into balmy 75 degree weather. It was very simple to get through customs, and our guides (Exaud and Shange from African Environments, our wonderful tour company) were waiting for us with a sign. We packed our bags into the Land Cruisers and headed off to River Trees, an old plantation that is now a luxury lodge. We got settled into our room (with a lovely king-sized bed wrapped in mosquito netting), then were served a delicious 5-course meal at 12:30 am! We had shrimp kabobs, fennel-apple soup, fried fish with mushroom sauce, salad (greenbeans, onions and tomatoes) and a sponge cake with marmelade and cream, all accompanied by a lovely South African sauvignon blanc. It was really lovely. We then headed back to our room and sank into the bed at 2 am.