June 24, 2019 – Amsterdam, The Netherlands

One thing I have a special talent for is sweating. I mean, I don’t just *sweat,* heavens, no. I also turn bright pink in the heat. I have graced Holland with my own special “lobster-still-dripping-with-cooking-water” look for the past few days. Lucky Dutch.

Today from my bus window I saw a woman wearing an effectively transparent top with no bra. She looked otherwise quite conservative – thick black hair that Asian women are blessed with tied back in a ponytail, cropped white chinos, white boat shoes, hobo purse. I don’t know if she didn’t realize her top was transparent or if it was too hot for her to care. (By the way, congratulations.👌) Anyway, it was the kind of heat that makes the otherwise modest bare all.

I visited the Homomonument, a public square – make that public triangle – that commemorates the struggles and celebrations of LGBTQ people, past, present, and future. Done in a sort of pink granite. Nice concept, and the gentleman in the adjacent information booth was very outgoing and happy to explain it to me.

Walked around looking for Indonesian food, which I was told by my formerly-Dutch neighbor is something to be enjoyed. Took a few photos on my walk. Almost gave up finding an Indonesian place that was open, but spotted one just as I was about to cave to a regular beer pub. As I waited for my food, a South African mother and college aged son sat next to me and started a conversation. (Explaining why I only have a surreptitious photo of my beer and none of my lunch.) He had been accepted to the University at both Amsterdam and Maastricht (where his father, still at home in SA, was originally from), and he was coming to check them both out. I helped them out with the little public transportation info I had mastered, told them about free WiFi on all the buses (they were pleased and astounded), and helped them get onto the restaurant wifi. We said goodbye and wished each other well.

Got on the tram to get to my bus station. The tram driver spoke English to me without me having to ask, and let me ride for free because he said it was only two stops away and he didn’t want me to have to buy another ticket for the bus when it was such a short ride. (This was my second free ride of the day…I somehow managed to get on the train with a ticket that was only supposed to work for bus and tram, which I did not discover until the end of my ride when I was denied exit by the gate. I had to be creative and follow very closely behind a woman with a legitimate ticket in order to escape…) Apparently bus and tram drivers are more friendly on a Monday than on the weekend, because my bus driver willingly spoke English to me and made sure I bought the correct ticket as well. I do understand. I like Amsterdam better on a Monday, too…

Took a few photos on my bus ride home (slideshow below), including a few mundane-yet-somehow-intriguing ones of the GIANT flower growing and shipping area I pass through each day. Hundreds of flower shipping trucks from perhaps as many different companies. There are three or four stops within this growing compound alone. So much for majestic fields of tulips?

A nap, a phone call home, and preparations for departure to Prague tomorrow morning.

A couple of random things that tickled me today...

June 23, 2019 – Haarlem, The Netherlands


Tired from my 15 hour day in Amsterdam yesterday, so slept in, piddled around washing “small and delicates” (or “moderately sized and substantial,” as the case may be), then took the bus to Haarlem for a few hours. Had…WAIT FOR IT …mustard soup (I know, right? Brilliant Dutch people, so delicious), a smoked salmon sandwich, and a beer and enjoyed the breeze and people watching, then went and signed up for a tour of a historic mill. The only other guy on the tour was a recent LSU grad from New Orleans named Clyde. The tour was about what you might expect. The tour guide reminded me of Alyce Beasley, jumped a few times at noises, commiserated with me about the heat. Pointed to the nearby prison and said she used to work there as a security guard for 7 months, now she’s not allowed to work there. I tried not to draw a connection between that and her jumpiness and aversion to heat, so decided something was lost in the translation.

Haarlem prison in the distance…fancy architecture…PS, guide’s grandma lives on the street in front of the prison, guide lives over there (points off to right in the distance)

Haarlem is quiet and beautiful, wish I had more time to explore there. Rode the train to Amsterdam to try and by a bus ticket for tomorrow, couldn’t do it so rode the tram+bus back to Aalsmeer.

Word to the wise: people will tell you that you do not need to learn Dutch before you go, because “everyone speaks English.”. I found this is not as widely true as in Denmark, though most have some, but people are very friendly and will try to help, EXCEPT don’t count on this with bus drivers. While some are helpful, most will let you know in no uncertain terms that they are not here to play tour guide or be your babysitter. (Though one gruff bus driver refused to let me wait at a stop in a junkie haven at midnight last night, and instead made me come on his bus to a safer waiting place, then made sure I felt comfortable finding my connection. Old grump. ❤️)

People, if you learn anything, learn Bus Dutch.

June 22, 2019 – Amsterdam, The Netherlands

It’s interesting how very old buildings smell. You might experience scent memory just from reading that sentence, and if you didn’t, I’m a bit sorry for you.

First morning of summer, morning spent in Lord in the Attic Museum (lots of photos attached) in Amsterdam (only remaining “house church” from the days when Catholics and other religions were not allowed to practice openly, also one of the best preserved 17th century homes in the Netherlands), then walking through suffocating crowds of tourists to find the Van Gogh museum. Photos were not allowed there, but I am not ashamed to say I choked up when I walked into the first gallery of his self-portraits… completely star-struck and moved to see the actual brush strokes of someone who has been such a tragic, creative, and iconic figure.

Besides confirming the commonly held truth about bicycle ubiquity in The Netherlands, I was also struck dumb by a rack of unlocked bicycles. Unlocked bicycles. Where I am from, even locked bicycles are fair plunder.

June 21, 2019 – Aalsmeer, The Netherlands

My AirBnB in Aalsmeer…very peaceful and lovely. Forgot to take photos on the train from London to Amsterdam, since I had a great conversation with a lady from London the whole way. She’s an environmental engineer and has traveled and lived just about everywhere, it seems…figuring out the train+bus ride to Aalsmeer was, uh, an adventure, especially as I had only 2 hours sleep last night, dozed off on the train, woke up in time to see us pulling away from my stop, and had to get off at the next stop to backtrack…

Glad to be back in a land where people understand the culinary virtues of herring… My private summer solstice dinner from the market in my AirBnB. Was too tired to venture back into Amsterdam tonight, so had a peaceful night of eating and drinking and reading and making up for lost sleep.

June 20, 2019 – London

Flower Walk in Kensington Park, Royal Albert Music Hall, monument to Albert and the British Empire, Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, a lake and sculptures. (I took a video and happened to capture a guy standing there with his dog. I said, ooops, I caught you for a few seconds in my video! He laughed and said, that’s all right,you can admire me later when you get home…!) Also, Alfred Hitchcock’s house and Winston Churchill’s house (and for good measure Baker Street from the cab window).

June 19, 2019 – London

Sitting in a pub in Earl’s Court reading a book by Orwell, working on my second pint, having just finished the special of the evening, friend mackerels with horseradish sauce, mashed potatoes, and greens…. a just-right rainy summer evening in London.

My tiny and old but clean and affordable hotel room in Earl’s Court. I love the view from my window.