January 13, 2007

• Amsterdam

  From the Alps, we left at 5:30a and cruised into Paris’s airport by noon, making great time so that they’d charge us for 2 days instead of 3, saving over two hundred dollars. :::eek::: From there, we had a train through Belgium to The Netherlands. I wanted to go to Holland, but I thought Amsterdam would be a good compromise.

  

  The first thing I saw there was a guy hitching a ride on a car with his bike!

  

  Riding the tram. Enjoying shooting wide open.

  

  The Anne Frank House museum. Very sobering, very well done. Having visited Auschwitz and the the Holocaust Museum in DC, I felt as though it was coming full circle by seeing a much more personal side. Next door was Rene Descartes’s residence.

  

  It is a biking city like Copenhagen. Another lingering reminder of image to the rest of the world.

  

  We were digging into some excellent Indonesian food when we were treated to watching Amsterdam’s finest target bicyclists. They were riding on the sidewalk or something, but they took it seriously with a six-person team of cops! Then they waved down this clown who was just going loony at the cops who clearly couldn’t care less if they tried.

  

  More scenery. On the tram again with covert photography.

   

  Amsterdam’s famous flower market -painfully devoid of customers. Esther checks out the 0% Sale. Why not!?

  

  One of the many canals with the flower market on the right. I’m picturing which wall in my office this will occupy….

  

  More trams, no apologies. The central train station which looks a million times better than our Amtrak station!

  

  Headshop with mad bubble action. St. Josephs. You find this is the exact nature of Amsterdam – this rare beauty juxtaposed with dirt and garbage (quite literally!).

  

  
  We had a great time in Amsterdam. You could go to see the Van Gogh Museum (which was sweet!) and the Anne Frank Huis, or you could go for the best of the world’s carnal pleasures. They’re wedged together in this beautiful city.

  Speaking of which, most people say Prague is the most beautiful city in Europe, but….. I was turned off by Prague’s commercialism and streets lined with name-brand stores straight out of the States. Not that it’s devoid of McDonald’s, but Amsterdam had a great Old World charm and block after block of amazing homes and buildings.

  They were working overtime to keep it clean, though. My friends had described streets up to the ankles in garbage, but it wasn’t quite that bad. Still, I did see big piles of trash and street cleaning and pressure-washing gangs. I’m glad I went – I never would have if STA Travel hadn’t said it was cheaper to fly out of Amsterdam!

  

  

  
  Of course, it was all over too quickly. She had papers to write back in Durham, and I only have 9 weeks of vacation a year, so we said our goodbyes in Amsterdam for however long….

  I would hope on a plane next to a cute dog named Sasha with a veteran determined to teach this weeks-old puppy to sit and stay between his feet. I heard the word Sasha no less than 500 times before I fell asleep over Greenland. Waking up over Michigan, the rest of the pretty empty plane was snoozing, and I cracked up with Talladega Nights and a couple other movies. Thumbs up for United on international flights. Sure beat Air France…

  

  Oops, the windmills are from the next hop – my 41st of 42 flight segments for 2006! I’m seriously scrambling to catch up with entries! Next is Brent’s wedding and four parties once I got home! Okay, beddy-bye time for me. My cousin has a ceremony tomorrow marking the end of his drug and alcohol rehabilitation and a start of a new life. I hope it goes well. Sunday is the memorial service for my Granddad, and I have a lot of video and photo work to do before I’m ready for that…                

  • 1:43 am
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