Amsterdam

Welcome to the Netherlands… Nederlands… Holland… whichever… anyway we have arrived in Amsterdam and even after a 9 hour train ride it is impressive at first glance. Our hotel was one the edge of the famous Red Light District, very near to the big town square called Dam Platz, and no it is not quite as seedy as all of those rumors you have heard.

I actually enjoyed our hotel quite a bit. It had a bar situated downstairs which had pretty good food, cheap beer, and of course sports and music (you thought I was going to say something else didn’t you…). Our room was… odd… but that was ok. We actually ate in the bar after wandering around for a bit. There are tons of idiotic fellow Americans (as there has been all over Europe) most seemed to be high school seniors here for spring break… wow that’s a scary thought, but is sure as hell beats my last several spring breaks.

Wow, this city is really a blur to me, we walked most of the city on the first day, and really had a bunch of fun. We started in the University district not too far from the Dam Platz, had café at really cool streetside café, and then wandered on up to Rembrandt Platz for lunch (here they had a cool sculpture based on a really famous Rembrandt piece that I can’t remember at this point). From there we walked on down past the Zoo and the Botanical Gardens, to a couple of nice parks.

Perhaps one of the most notable things about this city, and really this whole country, for those you who have not been here, are the bicycles, and all of the ramifications they have on a city. Imagine if you will that for every ten cars you see on the road next to you, seven of them are now riding on bicycles… different isn’t it. I don’t Jeanne-Marie has yet learned to look for them before she starts to cross the street, but I haven’t let her get hit yet. My favorite thing about this city may yet be its modes of transportation. Between the bicycles, the scooters, and the usable canals you have plenty of fun options besides that gas guzzler in your garage. Of particular interest to me were all of the shared streets, I guess Steve Luoni has warped my mind that much at least.

That night we ate in Amsterdam’s Chinatown area, although it had as many Argentine restaurants as Asian ones. The following day we went out to the newer parts of town and tried to go to another park, which, again, was closed for remodeling… grr, what is it with me and these damn closed parks! We also took a canal ride… I fell asleep… it was that boring, I mean I can make it through hours of Tech lectures, and Bam! Twenty minutes into a 1hr boat-ride full of French high-school students… I snoring like a log… at least Jeannie found it amusing. We passed Ann Frank’s house (sad), Renzo Piano’s Nemo (ugly), and the West 8 planned Borneo Island (not done yet, but what’s built looks great). That night after we had grabbed some food, we sat down in the bar/hotel, watched some cricket (woo…), watched some soccer (much better), drank beer, and played on the wireless internet… man I like this hotel. We had done this each night and it was really nice to relax and take it easy.

Can’t believe this one is so short… but it is not a long train ride to Rotterdam and our lovely… boat hotel… yea… sounds fun… well at least it did in December… oh boy this should be fun.