Top Left: Canal as seen through a lock
2nd: Manual drawbridge
3rd: Coolest Vespa in Amsterdam
4th: Canal long shot
The plane flight from Arusha to Amsterdam was like being in a bus full of Black Lung patients. Bob, Tom, and I were coughing relentlessly. Tom, Larry, and Gill had intestinal issues...Tom to the point where he just went back to the toilet and slept outside it on the ground. Other passengers were asking the flight attendents to move their seats to get away from us. Posh hadn't refreshed her make-up in nearly 2 hours. All in all, not a fun flight (like any are nowadays).
After 12 hours or so in the air, we finally land in Amsterdam. The airport there is Schniphaul, which roughly translates into "Shit-Hole"...although it's anything but. Newark could take a lesson from the Dutch...rows of recliner chairs, tons of shops and restaurants, wickedly clean. We deplane and I hustle over to try to find Kathy, who is landing coincident from the US. As we're walking down the hallway we literally run into each other. Me with my usual "head in the clouds" and her with her usual "eyes on the ground". Bamn!
Troy, Larry, and Posh are joining Kathy and I in Amsterdam for a few days R&R before heading back stateside. We're also planning to meet old friends Jack and Rose there who will insure that we regain our wine drinking ability. As I land, my Blackberry goes off...it is Jack telling me that their dog had taken a major turn for the worse (he'd been sick) and that they were cancelling. We're saddened, but life goes on. Well, except maybe the dog's...
Kathy and I take a shuttle into Center City Amsterdam, as we're totally exhausted and need to get some sleep quickly. We arrive, and much to our chagrin, the hotel has no rooms ready. After all, it's only 9am. So we check our bags, and head out for a walk...a 6 HOUR walk, in the rain, exhausted, with black lung cough, several day old clothes, and no idea of the city layout. We visit the Anne Frank house (interesting, but uneventful), the central train station (to get a read on transit), stroll the canals, and find numerous chocolate croissants. (As an aside, whenever I go off and do one of my dopey athletic trips, the thing I always crave the most is chocolate).
We finally get back to the hotel in the afternoon, bed down, and sleep until about 10am the next morning...yes, 19 hours, punctuated only by coughing spells, shivering, and the sound OF THE TRAM WORKERS INSTALLING NEW RAIL DIRECTLY OUTSIDE OF OUR ROOM FROM MIDNIGHT TO 6AM!!!!!!!!!!
Now, I must segue. Jack picked the hotel for us, telling us what a great deal it was. Our room was 5 stories up on the most windy, steep, narrow stairway that I have ever been on. The workers installed train rail every night we were there from midnight to 6am. There was NO BAR in the hotel. And then, then, he doesn't even show up. But I digress...
OK, feeling better now...anyhow, Amsterdam is a lovely city, full of canals and bike. Everyone bikes, I mean everyone. There are dedicated bike lanes on every street, tons of dedicated "bike only" streets, and it's not unusual to see literally hundreds of bikes in front of every commercial building, as that's the commute. Kinda heaven for me.
Making Amsterdam more heaven-like, there are smokehouses (i.e. marijuana) everywhere, and a huge Red Light district (read: legalized prostitution). Now I'm not one ever know succumb to vices, but this place was like a vice smorgusborg. It made Las Vegas look like a church...well, except that Vegas has less pedophiles mollesting young boys. It became a running joke to walk by a smokehouse, hang for a minute, and watch stoners stumble out and down the street, probably looking for a pizza shop or something.
The red light district was very interesting, to put it mildly. (BTW, no pictures are allowed of the red light district, and police actually confiscate your camera if they find you taking one). You walk down literally blocks of storefronts, each about 6' across, with women (sometimes questionable however) waving and trying to entice you. There must have been upwards of 200-300 different storefronts there...every size, shape, color, and genital parts package you can imagine. And everywhere couples, groups of guys, groups of women, and tour groups. Yes, tour groups, as one of the major tours in the city is for former prostitutes to take groups of 10 strolling through the red light district and explain to them the inner workings. Now it's not Ellis Island, but it's a pretty good tour nonetheless.
More Amsterdamdamdam next post
"Red" Lumpy out
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