Thursday - May 21
A 15 minute train ride took us from where
are staying in Haarlem to the central train station in Amsterdam. A
whispery quiet ride which may be just like Amtrak, to be fair. And our
train didn't take any 50 mph speed limit curves at 106 mph as the latest
Amtrak commuter did just before it folded like an accordion.
In
Amsterdam we bought tickets for the "Hop On - Hop Off" bus because it
was the best way of combining seeing the sights with dropping off in
parts of the city we wanted to explore. Plus, buying the bus tickets
got us discounted tickets to the Rijks Museum - one of the bus stops was
right at the front door.
A beautiful museum inside with huge stained
glass windows in the main hallway. However, instead of being religiously
themed, which we have seen much of already, the figures are secular,
from famous philosophers and scientists to artists and writers.
The museum is vast, with a trove of over a million works of art. Of
course, only a small portion are on display at one time but they range
from paintings to many exotic treasures obtained by the Dutch East India
company which in its trade empire heyday spanned the globe, with
Amsterdam its very rich nerve center. Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" is
here and it is enormous - photos, unless in a context to show scale,
don't at all do it justice.
Hmmmm...Norm liked this one quite a lot too:
Accuweather had predicted sun with clouds for the day. Well, it was
sun, sun, sun from beginning to end. Still a bit chilly at first but by
the time we took a beer break sitting in the sun overlooking a canal
definitely called for a hat in addition to sunglasses. Norm had brought
his, Pam had not thought to bring hers. In gentlemanly fashion Norm
offered her his, but perhaps it was the obvious salt residue from dried
sweat that caused her to wave it away. At any rate, we did agree that
beer without something to nibble on was impolite to our stomachs. We
called for a double order of fries with mayo and ketchup on the side. We
further agreed that these were the best, most savory "pommes frites" we
had ever eaten, particularly when spelled in French. Then the girl
sitting to Norm's left at the table next to us lit a cigarette and
casually dangled it in her right hand. Holy Indian reservation casino,
Batman! Norm wondered to Pam if perhaps he should ask the girl if she
would take offense if he peed on her sneaker. If the girl replied "of
course!" he could point to her cigarette with a dramatic flourish and
shout "Aha!" Pam gave Norm a look similar to the one she'd given his hat
so Norm fumed in silence, but still continued to munch "pommes frites".
In late afternoon, walking back from the Haarlem train station Pam was
feeling a bit shaggy. She saw a shop that offered "wassen, knippen".
Norm told her it was something to do with a surgery procedure, probably
unpleasant. She took a chance and came out with a new do - actually,
much like usual cut back home except from now on it's called a
"knippen".
Tonight we had tapas and beer at our new
friend Paul's restaurant - Pincho Tapas Bar. He was a big help
yesterday in showing us the ropes of navigating through Haarlem and
invited us to join him for dinner. Wonderful tapas and afterward we
took a stroll around the Grote Market before heading back to our hotel.
It's a friendly environment with everyone sitting outside in the
cafes.
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