Amsterdam

Its 3:22 pm EST on Monday July 24^th. I am sitting on a train bound for Paris’s Nord station from Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a stunning town. Why didn’t every city designer include canals in their layouts?

Naturally, when you are on holiday you see the good parts of the city, that being said, I would still strongly consider living there. The first and foremost reason for this is… no, not that, but the predominant form of transportation; bicycles. Let’s start with the fact that Amsterdam is a pretty teeny little city. The first day I was there I walked for 12 hours and covered the vast majority of town. This enables bicycles to be a valid method of transport. Secondly, the place is so old. It’s obvious the notion of automobiles never entered the minds of those who built the place. The cars that are there look like they were designed for Amsterdam and Amsterdam alone. I certainly couldn’t make practical use of one. Finally, and this is the best part, to me, the people I saw on bikes, and that’s the vast majority, just seemed smarter, classier, sexier, fitter, than the rest of the lot. I know this is merely my impression as a bike can really only truly help one with the latter of those attributes.

These are my impressions BEFORE I rented one! Once I was on a bike, I felt that I was part of an elevated class of people. Pedestrians are to serfs as cyclist are to lords. On foot I would have never interrupted a cyclist to ask for directions. When on a bike, you become the equal of others on bikes and it becomes its own social club. “Hi, my names Michael (not Mike, mind you) and I’m cool, I’m hot, I’m happening and a good part of the reason is I use a bicycle to get around.”

Let’s shift this topic slightly and look to the canals themselves. The canal belt as it’s called is lined with old converted barges turned into stylish living quarters. I didn’t get the full story, but the Dutch allowed people to live on boats in the canals and actually ran utilities to them. Others came illegally and have no such luxuries. The end result is a community within a community. I also gazed at countless runabouts, mostly outboard motored containing groups of friends strolling along on a summer’s day. If I thought being a cyclist elevated my class…

Then there’s the town itself. The old churches, Oude Kirk, Newe Kirk, and others were all spectacular specimens of ancient architecture. The quaint little canal bridges, most that lit up at night illuminating the still waters below were a pleasure to gaze at and photograph. Combined with the random steeples which would peek out from atop the tree lined streets and row houses made for an amateur photographer’s dream.

Finally there was the art. Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and a slew of others whose works amazed me for 2 solid days. I thankfully learned how to operate in a museum. Rule #1: ALWAYS get the audio tour, especially for me for I was alone. The wealth of information I learned as a result of the audio tour more than paid for itself. (4 euros tacked onto the ten euro entrance fee) Rule #2: patience! When I got into the Van Gough museum I became annoyed with how crowded it was and felt that I wasn’t going to get my money’s worth. But a quarter of the way into my 5 hour tour, I learned how to maneuver around people, how avoiding eye contact actually improves flow of people around you (shame on me), and how to assess each gallery as I entered it and get a feel for the room before delving into the works. This allowed me to pick a less crowded part of that gallery and get a general idea of how much time I was going to spend in each one.

The train just passed through Brussels on the way to Paris. Amsterdam was a fantastic choice to start this trip with its smaller stature and compressed itineraries. I will definitely take the lessons learned to Paris, and onto Rome!

Back Homes...

So I got back from Dubai. One month to get my bits sorted then back out for 4 months. I was in town for 21 days and accumulated the following memories:

July 1: Leah Redus’s wedding. Leah and I have been friends for 6 years now, making her the person I have known in Baltimore for the longest. And she finally got married. Her and I went from relocated college grads living in the suburbs to city dwelling drinking buddies, to part time Dave Matthews followers (her and I saw two DMB shows together, one in Pittsburgh, one in Central Park), to yearly Fat Tuesday and St Patrick’s day revelers. Now I am an aspiring world traveler and she is an inspiring wife probably soon to be mother.

July 2: Shaq’s birthday. Shaq is another of my long term Baltimore cohorts. The year previous I missed her birthday for lack of sense, but this year I made it out to Bo Brooks for crabs.

July 4th: I ended the night seeing Rose and her husband Stephen. Rose trumps both Leah and Shaq in terms of length of friendship. I met Rose in college when her mother and my Aunt became pen pals on the internet. They got to talking and decided that her daughter was going to the same school as the other’s nephew! So we were put in touch with each other and have been best friends ever since.

July 9^th: JK MRB Day. Julie Keller and I met through a friend resulting from another college friendship, Heather Mills. The two of them are roommates and I am a frequent troublemaker in their apartment. Julie and I hiked around Rock Creek in DC as well as Arlington cemetery and Gravely point where we watched planes land every minute within spitting distance.

July 10^th: HJM-JK-MRB Day. With Heather back in town we set off to central Virginia to tour two wineries and Lauray Caverns. On the way back we drove the final bits of Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Forest.

July 11^th - 13^th: The folks tour, leg 1. Flew up to Buffalo, rented a car, drove to Erie to visit Mom, Grandma, Uncle and home based friends. Met up with Tom and Jay, and also Bill, Ryan, Emily, and Brian in the short time I was there. It was quite fulfilling.

July 13^{th – 16th}: Folks tour leg 2, Raleigh. Drove back to Buffalo, and flew this time to Raleigh to visit pops and yet another college friend Clint and his wife Sara. Dad is in good shape and my sister flew into town and together with his wife Robin we toured the Raleigh museum of history.

The next day Clint, Sara and I drove down to the Atlantic coast and attempted to catch some fish. We ended up feeding them shrimp and catching a heck of sunburn!

Finally July 20th: A going away shindig with my Baltimore crew, its funny, since ive begun

travelling and spending considerable time away from what is defined as home, I see more people when I am home temporarily than I do when Im there permaently!

Those are the highlights. It was a whirlwind tour that ended as soon as it began. Cruel is the person who decreed that good times go by fast.