I'm back from Amsterdam, and courtesy of a sleeping pill, functioning pretty well today. It always seems harder for me to come west than go east - I believe that's true of a lot of people. Though I shouldn't complain.. one of my seatmates was coming back from a lightning trip to Ukraine - talk about jet lag then!
I had a lovely time in Amsterdam - a beautiful city and charming people - everyone seemed quite friendly. and happy to chat. I don't know if it is normal, but everyone took me for Dutch on first acquaintance, speaking in Dutch before English. Perhaps it was the way I dressed, or the places I frequented. I don't know - should I return, I'll have to ask a local what they think.
I haven't yet figured out the city's relationship to cats. Walking about, I saw just one or two, but I did see images of them used on houses (small terracotta-like deisgns) everywhere in old Amsterdam. One wonders if the seafaring nature of Amsterdammers means a long-term relationship with cats - who travel well on ships and get rid of pests that might destroy cargo (like rats). There seems to be very little on this on the Web though.
Didn't choose to go to the Rijksmuseum this visit - much of it is closed for renovations and I thought I would wait to see if I could get back.
All in all, plane rides excepted, it was a fine trip to a fascinating city. I'm back on a plane again Wednesday for the West Coast and then a couple of days later on another plane for Lihue.
How I wish for either the budget for business class travel or for hypersonic transports to be a reality. Eight hours on a plane is really a sad way to spend one's life.
At least the boyz were very happy to see me return - no hard feelings and Brownie woke me up this morning at a decent hour.
Posted by artandscience at March 19, 2007 10:41 AM