Despite that, we made it through the chaos, didn't see any celebrities, and got on our plane to Amsterdam! I had never been to Amsterdam before this, so I had low expectations. I figured it would be drug dens alternating with prostitutes. But I am pleased to say that it was not like that at all. Amsterdam is a very pretty and charming city, full of beautiful people on bikes, who all speak English. Here I am walking across one of the many canals in Amsterdam. Behind me you can see house boats, which people live in and also which can be rented for holidays. We did not stay in a house boat. We stayed in Hotel Van Onna!
Hotel Van Onna is owned and run by the elderly Mr. Van Onna and his sons. Our room was small and bare with no TV or telephone or soap or shampoo, but it had clean sheets, a comfortable bed, clean towels, and, after some searching, we were able to buy soap and shampoo. Each morning the Hotel Van Onna provided us with a complimentary breakfast of bread, one piece of cheese each, one piece of ham each, one hard boiled egg each, chocolate sprinkles, jam, butter, and coffee or tea (or both!). We were a little mystified by the chocolate sprinkles at first, but found that they tasted pretty good on the bread with butter. The hotel is outside of the touristy section of Amsterdam and in the art district. Here is the view from our window, which overlooked one of the canals:
On Friday, it wasn't raining (note foreshadowing), so we headed out first to the Ann Frank House, which was right down the street. It was very interesting and very, very sad. So we cheered ourselves up by going shopping. Here is Jim in the window of one of the fun stores where we shopped. This funky store and lots of others are located on the "9 streets." Jim got a warm and cozy hat before we moved on.
The city was decorated for Christmas. Christmas in Holland is different than our Christmas...there are a few major differences, in fact. First of all, Santa Claus is this angry looking St. Nicholas and he doesn't have elves. He has black men. And the black men aren't actually black. They are white people in black face and gypsy costumes. See pictures later in this blog. And read the David Sedaris essay that gives a hilarious description of the Dutch Christmas (sorry Kristian...it really is pretty funny. If people in the US went around in black face, there would be an uproar.)
I included this horrendous picture because I look like a troll. I have no idea what emotion I was expressing, but I did think the Ernie hat was pretty cool.
For dinner on Friday night our dear friend Kristian, who is Dutch, suggested that we go to an Indonesian restaurant and have the Rijsttafel (rice table). We scored extra points at the particular Indonesian restaurant that we visited because they misunderstood me when I said a friend had referred us and thought that he had referred us to their restaurant and not to an Indonesian restaurant in general. So they were extra nice to us and also had us sign their guest book. Plus, there were some really stoned, loud, and kind of rude Americans at the next table, so we were on a mission to prove that all Americans aren't loud, annoying(and stoned). I think they liked us.
The Rijsttafel consists of small portions of various dishes--veggies, lamb, beef, chicken, and pork--ranging from not very spicy to really spicy. The small portions were served with rice, salad, a started of japanese chicken soup, and dessert (which Jim skipped, but I enjoyed thoroughly. We wore orchids behind our right ears to show that we were married and not availble while we stuffed ourselves.
On Saturday, it rained, so we visited the Van Gogh museum. We had to stand in line for a long time..in the rain, and then, once we bought our tickets, we had to stand in line before going through security. And the museum was cold and crowded. So we weren't super impressed. Jim and I like to breeze through museums, but the audio tour people make it hard to breeze and hard to even see the artwork. So we abandoned the museum and headed off for lunch, where Jim had croquettes (also suggested by Kristian) and I had some delicious soup with bread. We saw a woman painted white, with a big sheet around her and a turban on her head. Occasionally she would take the sheet off and languish in her nudity in the freezing cold and rain. All for the sake of art, I guess. I think I would have chosen a warmer, drier day for nude art.
Another house boat:
We also visited a couple of great markets, which had clothes, electonics, food, music, and colorful people. We were especially impressed with these nuts:
After the market, we warmed up in a very cozy cafe with excellent cappucino and gigantic pieces of apple pie. We were very happy with our coffee and pie and enjoyed not being in the rain (have you noticed a theme with the rain? If it's not raining all the time in England, it's raining everywhere else we go, too! We are getting very used to being wet.)
Many people in Amsterdam ride bikes. In the area we were in, there were more bikes than cars. The streets are very narrow--hardly wide enough for one car to pass through, so having a bike makes it easier to get around. Having spent our past many years in large, automobile dominated cities, we weren't too good with the bikes. We kept stumbling into bike paths (they weren't very well marked) and we got "A-hem"ed and "Ding-a-ling-a-linged" a few times (People actually said A-hem and ding-a-ling). We tried to be careful about not colliding with bikes and somehow we made it through without causing any major problems.
It kept raining, so we went to see the movie The Queen and then we visited the Red Light District. The vibe completely changed from happy stoned people and healthy looking people on bicycles to scary, testosterone driven groups of slimey looking men. We witnessed a man going into one of the red rooms and later saw another man, who looked very much like a pimp, knocking on the door of another room. We got completely mixed up and ended up in the bowels of the red light district with drug dealers pushing hard drugs on us from every angle. They whisper, "exstacy, cocaine, heroine" and they come out of the shadows and then recede when you say no. SO SKETCHY.
Sighting of St. Nicolas and one of his helpers on the street. He was whisked away before we could get a picture with him:
The next day, SUnday, it was still raining, so we went to a couple of more museums. We saw the Bodies exhibit, which, at first I wasn't so excited about. The artist preserved human specimens and then dissected them as a way of educating the masses about how the body works. Somehow I just don't think that the people who donated their bodies to science had this kind of science in mind. I'm not sure I would want my dissected body in display in museums. Anyway, it was creepy, but still pretty interesting.
After bodies, we visited the Sex museum. It was also creepy...but in a different way. Or maybe I'm just modest. ANyway, I was grossed out by how many people were hanging out for extended periods of time in the S&M and Beastiality room, and then I almost fell down the stairs when one of the fixtures on the wall next to me suddenly moved and made a farting noise. So we left and did more window shopping.
We saw this tiny car driving down the street. The driver gave us a peace sign as we took his picture. I bet this car gets excellent gas mileage, but I'm not sure it would survive on the highways. I wonder if they are allowed to drive cars like this on the highway, actually.
Here is one of Jim's arty pictures of me, commemerating my ever present green pea coat. I do have other clothes,besides the pea coat, but I do not have another coat.
And, finally, posing next to another very small car. We had a fun weekend...and now it's back to the grindstone for Jim and to job hunting, laundry without a drier, and flat hunting for me.
