Amsterdam!

7 September

The Northwestern flight over Quebec, the north Atlantic, and the UK was fine, and we arrived Amsterdam around 7:30. We caught the train into the main station in the city center and arrived at the Golden Tulip around nine but had to wait until after twelve for our room. We napped until three, took a trolley to the Van Gogh Museum where we then spent a lovely afternoon. It shows visually and comprehensively Van Gogh’s very productive life. He documented and intellectualized much of what he was doing in his letters to his brother Theo. There were four original sketch books, displayed behind glass, but a video in the display showed the pages turning so that all the sketches could be seen.

We had a cappuccino in an outside café, watching the many bicyclists (no helmets but many bicycle lanes) and stylish young people. A long-in-the-tooth busker played (and sang one verse ruefully of) “Wild Thing” on the guitar at Kevin’s request. The busker seemed unexpectedly grateful for Kevin’s dollar bill tip.

Then, we strolled through lovely streets, enjoying especially the area around the University of Amsterdam. We ended up at a a sidewalk table at a great restaurant, picked randomly, Kantjil & de Tijger on the Rue de Louvre, specializing in Indonesian food. We ordered a sampler plate and now I understand why my friend Carolyn keeps going back to that part of the world!

We sat next to and talked with two very interesting writers, a father Heere Heeresma, and son Heere Heeresma, Jr. They sympathized with the victims of Katrina and expressed love of New Orleans jazz especially as recorded in the thirties. We look forward to looking for their fiction in the future. The son has a new book in which he fictionalizes the predicament of the Dutch forces working as UN peacekeepers at Shrebinica - coming out soon.

We have photographs but I can’t get my card out the camera. However, I was able to use my wireless card in my computer tonight and get on the internet from our hotel room. Amsterdam is a city where everything works!