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Amsterdam 1998
Friday: Oakland
| 12:00 PM: |
Discover that our 5:30pm flt, on Martinair, is delayed 2.5 hrs. Check-in is still @ 1:30. Oh well, 6.5 hrs in the airport. |
| 4:00 PM: |
Explore the OAK International terminal and discover:
- fresh flowers vending machine -$10 for a small bunch, $20 for a large bunch.
- Extra large portable fan, approx. 4' x 4', which appears suitable for use in wind tunnels and for blowing small children away.
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| 4:30 PM: |
 In search of cash, discover first an ATM complaining about problems with its dispenser, ala Marvin. Eventually, we are proferred a stack of crisp, brand-spankin'-new, Monopoly-style $20 bills. Ooh! |
| 5:00 PM: |
A sign on the snack stand's hotdog steamer warns, "Caution: hot. Do not immerse in water." (Thanks. We'll try not to.) |
| 6:45 PM: |
Departure now scheduled for 8:45 PM. Meanwhile, we are entertained by a would-be Fred Astaire — a little boy of about 6 years performs some improvised hat-and-cane softshoe along to his Walkman, peeking around to make sure he has an audience. For like 2 hours. Quite charming. |
Saturday: Amsterdam
| 3:00 AM: (PST) |
Wander back to the plane's kitchen in search of water. All eight or so flight attendants are sitting in a circle with napkins taped to their heads, scrawled with little secret messages. |
| 4:00 PM: (A'dam time) |
Arrive in A'dam. Immediately notice innate sense of design in the architecture, and a reasonable approach to safety, in contrast to the typical American safety overkill for fear of lawsuits.
GKIV, who arrived at 11:30am, waits for us at the baggage carousel. That's quite a wait. |
| 4:40 PM: |
The train station is right in the airport. Real trains! Quiet trains! Beautiful trains! On-time trains! Every 7 minutes! |
| 5:15 PM: |
Catch a taxi at Centraal Station. The driver is a neighbor to our host. |
| 5:30 PM: |
Joep Boer, our magnanimous host.  |
| 9:00 PM: |
Dinner at De Zotte, Jessica's favorite Amsterdam dive. Est. circa 1440, floorboards not repaired since. Fantastic food, great coffee. Folks at the next table invite us over to sit with them. Leon and Chatal teach us a little much about the incestuous social scenes prevalent here, as in any small town/big city. Decide we still want to move here. |
Sunday:
| 3:00 AM: |
Awake early in tle morning, not yet accustomed to A`dam time. Putter about until 6:00 AM. |
| 11:00 AM: |
Wake with a start at precisely our scheduled meeting time w/ GK4. Shower, dress, and run downstairs to find GK4 standing at the door, rather than waiting at Cafe Paradox. Why? "It looked closed." Really, he couldn't find it. One must follow one's nose! Turns out Time Out was fibbing about the Enlish fry-up they offer. They'd fry psylocibin for you, but not eggs. Go to Greenwoods instead. |
| 12:00 PM: |
Almost trip over the most amazing, antique footstool in the universe on Prinsengracht. Dream about renting a flat just to have somewhere to house this 16th C creation, decide that the footstool will be the impteus for our eventual relocation. |
| 1:30 PM:
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  Wander around Amsterdam with GKIV in tow. Visit: La Chocolata, Magna Plaza, Dr. Who, Conscious Dreams, and many other assorted shops. Marvel at the hash bon bons, psychedelic mushrooms, and peyote , all available over the counter.
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| 4:30 PM: |
 There are kitties everywhere! One is just outside Joep’s house, sleeping on a motorcycle. Joep invites us to dinner and to see his Amsterdam, the back alleys of the Jordann. |
| 5:30 PM: |
Pop out for a pancake with GK4. Arrive @ the pancake house 10 min. late, squint, and see him standing way downon the corner down the street from the restaurant. After half an hour, he shows up, quizzical. |
| 9:00 PM: |
Dinner is fantastic, enhanced by the presence of a sweet, sweet white cat who sat at our table. |
Monday:
| 12:00 PM: |
Wonderful "sandwiches" on Johnny Jordaanstraat. Restaurant comes complete with a cat and a great big dog.
The tomorrow's family visit in Newcastle is just too private to have George tagging along. Try to reach GKIV by phone, to suggest even more strongly that he go find his own adventure, no luck. The waitress tells us we can use her phone, but Brendan's out braving the wacky Dutch payphone.
We love Amsterdammers! |
| 3:30 PM: |
George turns up missing as we depart for Newcastle. No sign of him in A’dam at the bus stop, and no sign in the ferry terminal. |
| 6:45 PM: |
On board the boat, George turns up temporarily, offering a gruff hello and disappearing into the boat. We wait for him in the lounge most of the night, so as to discuss his and our plans for the UK; he never emerges. From our window seats in the lounge, we spy another ship in the harbor. It's name is an "only-in-Amsterdam" thing.
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Tuesday: Newcastle
| 9:00 AM: (UK time) |
Disembark Newcastle , and are promptly loaded directly onto a bus. The bus carries us ~50' through the English rain,to the customs building where we're unloaded again. Still no sign of GK4. |
| 1:00 PM: |
 Lunch at an old estate house called The Badger. Delightful English food, amazing bathrooms (which are everywhere in the Benelux and UK called toilets. No euphemisms here.), and candles everywhere, with some 500 years of wax dripings cascading to the floor. |
| 2:00 PM: |
George King IV, ciruitously locating us at Granpa Tom's, checks in from the King George hotel. Excellent! |
| 2:30 PM: |
Shopping in Newcastle. Grandpa Tom, 83yr old war hero, escorts us downtown and points us towards various shops before heading off to the library himself. He is a treasure. |
| 6:30 PM: |
 An evening with Bernie & Steve. Bernie creates a map of Edinburgh for our trip tomorrow, then it’s off for drinks at a very very old pub on the River Tyne. |
| 7:30 PM: |
The reputation of Indian food in England is upheld. |
| 9:00 PM: |
Walk along the River Tyne. There are new (and quite stunning) developments, about 150 nightclubs (including one on a grand ship that is supposed to be the hippest thing in Europe. Looks like it.) |
Wednesday: Edinburgh
| 7:45 AM: |
Grandpa Tom awakens us with a knock on the bedroom door. "Time to get up!" Monumental that he's ok with us sleeping in the same bedroom. He provides a lovely breakfast and drives us (he's a formidable driver) to the train station to head to Scotland. |
| 11:20 AM: |
Edinburgh! First things first: The Castle.  |
| 12:00 PM: |
The castle turns out tobe a bit more like Disneyland than a castle on the inside. |
1:00 PM: |
Discover a groovy old velvet-and-leather pub tucked away upstairs in an alley. Lovely lunch and treacle sponge with custard for dessert. Waitress' name is Jess.
Spy a bunch of hipsters emerging from an adjacent alley and creep down it to Cockburn Street, and have found our niche. |
| 2:30 PM: |
Shopping in Fopp!, a record store with tons of great CDs, cheap, GK4 pops up behind us, makes some ridiculous claim that he thought we'd be there yesterday, and then leaves. |
| 3:00 PM: |
Another great record shop, Urban Ground Control, this one specializing in techno and trance, is just down the street. The proprietors envy us staying in Newcastle, for the club scene (which we had pretty much dismissed. Oops. Next time.)
The locals are tres Goth a girl at a makeup counter has a neck piercing, a barbell that pokes through ala a vampire bite. You can buy inflatable furniture, clear plastic cd storage books with goldfishies in them, funky jivey furry postcards everywhere.
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| 3:30 PM: |
Rose street, a pedestrian walkway/commons is in the "new" (16th Century) part of town. It's way too freakin' lovely wandering about here. We sit (on one of many handsome benches provided for that sort of thing) and discover the beautiful view from Rose St.  |
| 4:30 PM: |
Stop in at a cybercafe to check and send e-mail. The proprietor gives us a 2 for one rate as we check out. People are so nice here! |
| 5:00 PM:
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 Dinner at Jekyll & Hyde's, possibly the coolest pub in all of Edinburgh. It's Dr. Henry Jekyll's laboratory, complete with all sorts of animal skeletons, miscellaneous lab equipment, and appropriately dark and foreboding decor. Bathrooms are hidden behind secret panels in the bookcase. Drink special: test tubes! |
| 7:00 PM: |
Back on the train to Newcastle. GK4 appears on the platform but doesn't approach. |
| 8:30 PM: |
A classic black London taxi carries us home to Fenham Chase. |
Thursday: Newcastle
| 8:30 AM: |
Awaken to find Tom has already gone out to take his former housekeeper to the doctor's for a check up. Later, Tom returns and helps us fix another delightful breakfast. |
| 10:00 AM: |
Depart for Alnwick (Ah-nick) Castle 34 miles to the north. The Castle's closed to the public at present, but we're going anyway. |
11:00 AM: |
Arrive at Alnwick. We're stopped by a security guard who refuses us admission-he points out the various parts of the building but says that we can't go in because the Duke of Northumberland is at home inside. Within a minute, Tom has found out that the guard spent 17 years in the RAF (Royal Air Force) and the two of them chat about their respective experiences. Tom asks what the guard retired as — "Redundant!" He then points us down the road to a bridge where we can get a lovely view of the castle.   |
| 12:00 PM: |
Lunch in a small hotel in Warkworth. Two older women sit at the next table and carry on a hilarious conversation, biddies picking each other to death for their biddihood. The more docile of the two leaves her purse on the bar, later tries to take Jess’. They tell each other the same stories over and over again. They remind Jess of nuns from St. Phillips' in S.F.. |
| 1:00 PM: |
A brief stop at Warkworth Castle, a ruin sitting on a slight rise above the town. The castle and town are nestled into a bend of a river, and the castle sits on the highest point. It’s a stunning feat of geometric design expressed in stone.
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| 3:00 PM: |
Tom drops us downtown to do some last minute shopping before we head back to Amsterdam, and we zip into the shops to get what we need — a record bag (covered in black sparkles) and a tea cozy. |
| 3:20 PM: |
We have too many currencies on us. Jess tries to pay the bus fare in guilders (the small change had undetectable differences!) and feels like a stupid American. |
| 3:30 PM: |
A bus drops us on Fenham Hall Drive and we run round the corner to Fenham Chase. Grandpa makes tea for us, tells us one last round of priceless stories, and then takes us to the ferry. Grandpa is a treasure that we must enjoy again, soon. We need more Grandpa-time! Bernie and Steve rule, too. We’ll be back in the Spring, for sure. |
| 6:00 PM: |
 The Admiral of Scandinavia sails down the river Tyne and into the North Sea. We stand on deck watching the banks of the Tyne glide by as the sun sets behind us.   |
| 7:00 PM: |
The toilet in our tiny, windowless cabin doesn't flush. After reporting the problem, we are reassigned to a much larger,4-bunk cabin with a generously-sized bathroom AND a real live window. Hooray for broken toilets! |
Friday: Amsterdam
| 8:00 AM: |
Although the sea was rough in the night, it is very calm this morning. We actually slept some (unusual, this trip) and have to hurry to get dressed. |
| 9:00 AM: |
We're nearly the first people off the boat and are quickly herded into customs. The agent is a bit distracted by our U.S. passports and takes his time, musing, while the line backs up behind us. All it takes is a simple stamp, 10 min. later, and we're on our way. We're then herded straight onto a bus headed for A 'dam. As we wait for departure, the bus slowly fills up. The most delinquent straggler, it turns out, is GK4. |
10:00 AM: |
Back in A'dam, we grab a strippenkaart and hop on a 13 tram back to Joep's. We’re quite proud of ourselves, figuring out this whole tram thing. |
| 11:30 AM: |
Walk downtown to go shopping. Get more! More!! more!!! records, and a barely legal synthetic concoction (untested as of this writing). |
| 1:00 PM: |
 Take a tour of The Royal Palace, the (17thC) Golden Era’s city hall. Lots of amazing classical-cum-gothic sculptures, especially in the High Court of Justice.
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| 6:00 PM: |
Dinner @ De Zotte again, and again it is magnificent in its underground vibe and delectable culinary delights. Oh, and the Chimay, too. Except we’re not drinking tonight. Then over to Melkweg to hear some techno and drum n’ bass. |
| 10:30 PM: |
  Milkweg is groovy. There are some seven rooms, including a movie theater (showing Alien). Meet a nice girl named Kate; Jessica runs into old, old friend, Esther. Boisterous reunion, as usual. |
Saturday:
| 11:00 AM: |
Wake up late, found lovely place, De Guyper, for breakfast on Prinsengracht. |
| 12:00 PM: |
Wander downtown and stop in a cybercafe with leaky roof, slow connection, and inability to contact My Yahoo! |
| 12:30 PM: |
Visit the torture museum.  The building itself is almost as scary as the torture devices on display. |
| 1:30 PM: |
Find Body Manipulations, where Esther is proprietress.  |
| 3:00 PM: |
Wind up in Waterlooplein in the freezing rain and decide to take a tram to Albert Cuyp Markt for bread 'n' cheese, mmm… Bon bons followed by bread and cheese back at Joep's. Yeah, this is living. |
| 5:00 PM: |
Tram back to Centraal Station to buy tickets to Brugge, the most Catholic town outside Vatican City. |
| 7:00 PM: |
FABULOUS dinner at Jean Jean in the Joordaan. Just amazing. |
Sunday: Brugge
| 8:00 AM: |
 Train to Brugge! We look forward to the trip, it promises to be scenic. Feel pretty cool as we roll through Rotterdam, gabber capital of the world. Speedy J lives here. He and Underworld are playing on Halloween, we discover. D'oh! |
| 10:30 AM: |
Belgian trains are not as cool as Dutch trains — Belgian First class doesn’t compare to Dutch General, but they leave REALLY on time. In Antwerp we have one minute to make our connection and a really-magnificent-work-of-art train station to run through. |
| 12:00 PM: |
Arrive in Brugge. Change some money and wander out into the rain. Brugge is beautiful, even in the rain, so we wander around snapping photos left and right. Cathedrals everywhere! Discover all kinds of hidden beauty around corners and under bridges.
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| 5:00 PM: |
The sun finally comes out as we're walking to the train station. It makes for a lovely walk. |
| 9:00 PM: |
Back in A'dam, we have a horrifically dissapointing dinner in a very expensive street in Amsterdam, and take giddy comfort in tipping the truly abyssmal service in almost worthless Belgian franks. |
| 10:30 PM: |
The canals are still and reflect a near-full moon. Little lights are strung along the canal bridges. It’s a warm, breezy evening. It’s perfect. Sorry, the photos didn't turn out. |
Monday: Amsterdam
| 9:00 AM: |
Breakfast at De Guyper. Chocolate pie and toasties! Mmmm... |
| 10:30 AM: |
 Wander around Amsterdam again to see if there's anything we missed. (Of course there is!) Find a carnival setting up in Dam Square. The ferris wheel is taller than the Royal Palace. |
1:00 PM: |
Visit the Rijksmuseum, planning to scamper and play in the Napoleonic gardens, only to discover that the y are completely torn up. The back end of the structure is being rebuilt. So much for spending the afternoon garden-prancing. While creeping through the catacombs beneath the museum we find a remnant of times past peeking out of a pillar, readying himself for renovation. |
| 2:00 PM: |
Late lunch at Cafe Ebeling, a restaurant near the museum. It's housed in an old bank; the bathrooms are in the old vaults, with big door-locking mechanisms and everything. The restaurant is done up like a cave, complete with stalagtites and water dripping down into a pool full fish. A very friendly cat wanders between tables saying hello to the patrons and looking for handouts. The food is extraordinary. |
| 7:00 PM: |
Joep takes us out to dinner at an exclusive, circa18thC, club for artists and their supporters. It's a great space conducive to good conversation, esp. bitching about politics, and the food is excellent. |
| 10:00 PM: |
Mazzo is right around the corner from Joep's home. |
Tuesday:
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We leave for home tomorrow — this is our last day here.
We traipse down Prinsengracht searching for an antique shop near Greenwoods, where we had spied the world’s most exquisite step-stool. It’s on Herengracht. We find it — it’s closed. We discover more shops that were on our list to visit but are randomly closed today and today only.
As it happens, about 3/4 of Amsterdam merchants arbitrarily close for chill-out breaks. Café culture is extreme here. They’ve got it all worked out!
Unfortunately, this means that a tight schedule is not one in which you can do everything you may have on your list.
We need another week.
We’ll be back in the Spring.
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Wednesday:
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We pick up some duty-free Besenjenever and Austrian chocolate, then enjoy being between cloud layers.... |
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