There is a scene where Harrison ford is walking down the streets of future Los Angeles and its raining and there are light rail vehicles and people scurring around with backpacks and raincoats and cases. Lots of people ride through this on bycycles and the neon lights of restaurants and sex shops and other electric signs glow with the blur of being wet and everything reflects off of windows and the street.
That was the first thing that hit my mind when walked outside past the taxis through the mass of humanity to reach the quiet streets of where we are staying in the Joordan District. We walk the 10 blocks crossing over canals in the general direction of our hotel as I have pictured in my mind from having looked at all the maps for days. It is very quiet here and the canal water has a lovely rain rippled reflection from the houses lining the banks. We cross left , then right and another left and then over two canals. I think I am close but havent been able to read any street names. A local walks up as we are stNding on the corner looking for our maps and offers assistance. I completely bastardize the name of our street and she looks at me with you gotta give me something better look. i tell her our hotel in which case she shakes her head that it doesn't ring a bell. Joan produces our reservation from which she gets the address, plugs it in her phone, and voila, we are just 1 block from our hotel over the next canal.
We quickly arriive at our hoteL, Sebastians, and are greated with the most joyous smiles and help checking in. We have a room with a canal view located right behind the bar. How convenient.
Our room is wonderful. Modern and comfortable. Amazingly quiet. Travel is such a tiresome event and changing 8 timezones and getting awkward sleep on the 13 hour trip throws ones body into a confused state. To overcome this lag, we go out for drinks and a bite of food. Tanguary and Tonic cures much of what ailes us now.
In the morning we get our for breakfast at Greenwoods for traditional English Breakfast meeting up with Cindy Burke, Joan' good friend from when she was an exchange student in Holland. Breakfast was delicious and we walk for the rest of day with Amsterdam looking at what you would imagine Amsterdam to look like. We walked through part of the red light district with the window women and the "Cafe's" that serve weed. Stores everywhere selling vaporizors and bongs. The order was so strong you could probably get high standing outside the door if you waited long enough.
We also encountered a significant event that was aired with continuous live coverage on TV. We all slipped under the police tape so we could get a closer look.
Seems they were to tear down an old building and protestors had decided to occupy it in protest. The polocie brought in many men and water cannons as the protestors kept throwing bricks down on the police and shouting avt them. Joan and I kept thinking of the French Knight scene in Monty Pythons Holy grail. We eventually had some lunch and continued our walk through old Amsterdam till we finally reached Anne Franks house with a hideously long line.
And we finaly reached Sebastians to relax, chat a while and reminice. A great day out in what can easily be described as cold grey typical Amsterdam Weather. Spotty showers till noon, and the just a cold steel grey afternoon. Glad I brought sweaters, jacket, and gloves.
Had a delightful meal at Max. No relation to our Max. Fusion Indonesian. Delicious and filling. We walked Cindy back to her hotel near Dam Square (fun to slip in conversation; That Dam Square....Ha!) and said our goodbyes as tomorrow we head to our River Cruise and Cindy heads back to Winston/Salem.
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