Amsterdam

Of all the cities I have visited very few have ever received an "I would live here" rating.  Amsterdam definitely makes that very short list -- Dublin and London are the only other cities if you were wondering.  The combination of fashionable people going about their day to day business on roughed up old bicycles amid a very orderly canal system is rather romantic in my mind.

I definitely enjoyed the distinct lack of gas powered vehicles on the road.  There are bikes absolutely everywhere (and rarely a helmet seen).  Mostly they favour something a bit on the rusty side, cruiser style, with a black milk crate on the front.  Apparently this deters theft as there is nothing worth stealing.  You can also get a very cool version of a bicycle which has a bucket in the front...perfect for the kids!  And, on date night, just have your girlfriend perch side-saddle on the rear luggage rack.  Voila!  Transport for two.  If she is a keeper she'll hop off on the up part of the steeper bridges...run along side and then just hop back on at the top.

My hotel was just around the corner from Anne Frank's House overlooking the Keizergraacht (King's Canal).  I woke up and fell asleep to the same church bells that Anne wrote about so long ago in her famous diary.  The house itself, like anything connected to the Holocaust, is a sobering and grim experience.  Anne's father, Otto, the only survivor of the 8 hideaways, was adamant that the rooms remain empty and I think that makes the experience all the more powerful.  Seeing the pictures of Hollywood stars pasted to the walls in Anne's room reminded me how I did the exact same thing at her age (not actually pasted to the walls...but taped to the back of my bedroom door).

I did a few not-so-serious touristy things too...a tour on a Segway, a cruise on the Canals, and a bike tour out into the countryside sans helmet (which was actually acutely uncomfortable for me having almost scrambled my head in that altercation with the bus a few years ago).  The bike ride was amazing once I relaxed about my lack of safety gear.  We rode south along the Amstel River out into the country side to a windmill and then stopped into a farm.  The farmer was quite a character and I ended up talking to him for quite a while -- Grandma & Brenda you are going to love this bit -- in the barn while we checked out his most recent calf and his herd of dairy cattle.  Who knew the smell of a barn full of cattle held such a nostalgic scent?  He has about 40 head of cattle which produce enough milk to support his cheese making operation.  He is also one of 5 remaining clog manufacturers in Holland and we got a demo of how they make the clogs (from poplar) on these two old German machines.  Other than the milking shed, I don't think I saw a piece of equipment that was less than 40 years old.  His whole "farm" is less than 5 acres and that includes the house, barn, shop, etc. 

There was also some shopping time in the lovely boutiques in between the canals which included the discovery of an artist named Mariska Meijers (http://www.mariskameijers.com/screenprints/) who I got to talking with in her shop before I realized it was her shop.  I now own a copy of her Royal Delft with Apples.  She was a corporate lawyer in Singapore before she gave it up to move home and pursue her art career.  Maybe I'll find an inner artist yet.