Europe 2001: A Travelogue
Weekend Hollandaise
Eurodiary, 13 September 2001 (actually, written over the course of the last couple of train trips I've had...)
Sorry it's taken so long to post these thoughts (and I'm even more sorry that we haven't yet prepped the photos for posting). As you can imagine, we've been riveted to our email, cnn.com, and tv. We're very thankful that Vic and Kathy, two close friends in New York, are OK, and we hope the rest of you -- and your families and friends -- are safe as well.
It seems almost wrong, in some odd way, to be writing now of the fun we had last weekend -- like we should be more somber and reflective. Then again, with all the solemnity in the news, perhaps a few bright stories and photos are needed.
So I'll begin the tale of our first weekend in Holland.
Adam knew he had class on Friday morning, and he had learned late Thursday afternoon of a dinner boat cruise for RSM students that was scheduled for Friday night. We had initially made plans to stay with family friends, Doreen and Stephan Pinkus, on Friday and Saturday nights, but Doreen called me at work on Friday morning and insisted that we take advantage of the RSM social activities.
I had thought there would be a "borrel" -- buffet/happy hour -- on Friday afternoon at work, but it's biweekly, and they'd just had one the week before.
So, although I'd initially planned to take the afternoon off on Friday, I worked until 17:00 (5 p.m.), at which time I left to meet Adam at the R-dam train station.
We arrived early at the pier for the Spido (pronounced Speedo, but thankfully no swimsuits were involved). The weather didn't seem like it would be too conducive to river travel, but once the boat took off, it was a fairly smooth ride. We socialized with several full-time and exchange students and watched what scenery was visible at night, including lit-up windmills and, at the other end of the river, the containership ports and cranes.
As we didn't get home until nearly midnight, we didn't bother to set the alarms (we now have two). When we finally awoke around 11 a.m., it was because of the surprising amount of sunlight entering our windows. Sunlight!
We showered, packed, had a quick snack (pb&j) and then headed out. Since it was so lovely, we got off the tram at Station Blaak, an area of R-dam that has an open market each weekend. It's also the area with some of the most original architecture in the city.
We walked through the market admiring all the cheeses, flowers, and breads, amongst the stalls with clothes, purses, and miscllaneous items. Adam and I half expected to hear the stall keepers yelling "Shesh shekel! Shesh shekel!" as we'd heard in the market in Jaffa, Israel. And, as if on cue, we turned the corner and heard "zess guilden, zess guilden!"
(OK, time out here. An accordionist was just playing here on the train, songs you expect an accordionist to play. He was pretty good, but I wouldn't have given him the f1.5 I did were it not for the fact that his medley included, of all things, Hava Nagila!)
Anyway, after taking a few photos of Blaak, we got back on the tram to R-dam Centraal and went to Amsterdam ("A-dam").
We decided that if the weather stayed nice (or, nice enough -- there were intermittent showers), we would simply wander the canals rather than go to a museum -- that's what we would have done if it started raining too much.
A lot of people -- the Pinkuses and my colleagues at work -- later apologized for the horrid weather, but compared to the weather the week before, it was much nicer, and we had few complaints. The sky was often blue, and we were able to walk around much of the western part of the city center. We walked along several canals and then through the flower market, which must be much nicer in the spring. We also went into the Beguinhof, a former abbey that was somewhat recently restored and whose houses are still reserved for single, religious women.
We avoided the red light district until we had to get back to the train station, and we took that street only because it was the shortest route. Even then, however, we discovered an interesting building that was open for Open Monumenten Dag (the one weekend a year when many historic sites and buildings, and some museums, are free and open to the public). It was a hidden former Catholic church that has been a museum since the late 1800s (the building was no longer being used as a church by then, and it was set to be razed, so area Catholics raised money to buy and preserve it as a museum).
We finally returned to the train station to get a train to Naarden-Bussum, where Doreen picked us up and took us to their lovely home in the Amsterdam suburbs.
I'll stop here because I haven't the time to continue, and if I don't post this soon we may lose our loyal readership!
(I would like to add, however, that I picked up our photos today -- the first three rolls of film I've taken -- and they look great. So I shall soon have digipix to post on the site. Just a teaser to ensure that you come back...!)
Hope all is well with you and your families and friends, and thanks for all the messages thus far. You are in our thoughts as well.