Amsterdam
Carrie and I headed off to Amsterdam and Paris for the week. Amsterdam was our first stop. We arrived on Saturday morning before our hotel room was ready. We wandered around for a few hours and enjoyed the quiet of the city. It turns out Amsterdam is slow to start in the mornings. A city after my own heart. We stumbled upon a burger bar on our way back to the hotel. You build your own burger. My suggestion is the fries! Wow! I could have eaten just those. Plus, they have a sink in the bar area so you can wash your hands before eating. (Just a warning, no public sinks/bathrooms have hot water in Amsterdam. Burrr!!!!!) In the afternoon we went to the Rijksmuseum . It was a neat place and tells about a lot of history of the country, but by the end both Carrie and I were so tired that we had a hard time keeping our eyes open and standing up straight. The audioguide played all sorts of soothing music with long pauses, perfect for relaxing to the point of sleep when you've been up since 4 in the morning. Don't go there when you are tired. Cool paintings there included The Night Watch, The Milkmaid, and Winter Landscape. The exterior is beautiful!
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| Rijksmuseum |
The other two museums we saw together were the Van Gogh Museum and the Rembrandt House. The Van Gogh Museum was too overwhelming for me. It was jam-packed! The audioguide does not do a good job of spacing out the selected pieces so everyone ends up crowded in certain areas. The audioguide is also stingy on the details of Van Gogh's personal life. They make tons of comments in passing, but never elaborate on his mental illness or the huge fight he had with Paul Gauguin that ended their friendship. But here is one cool thing I learned: Van Gogh tried to start off his life as an Evangelist. I never knew that and would never have expected it. I also never realized how much he was influenced by Japanese art. We saw more Sunflowers there. There was also a neat special exhibition on Van Gogh reusing his canvases.
The Rembrandt House was more my speed. Entrance came with an audioguide. The whole thing could be done in an hour and was a mix of history and art. It was a visit to a historical house and gave you a glimpse into what life was like when Rembrandt was painting and living. There was a live demonstration on etching. A very enjoyable experience overall.
We spent a long time walking and wandering the streets and canals of Amsterdam. It is a lovely city for walking. The red light district was shocking, even knowing what you are going to see. Seeing people on sale is a strange thing. This was the one thing I could bare to photograph. Beautiful swans and birds foraging in the dirty canal. (By far the dirtiest part of the canals.)
I never ended up going to the Anne Frank house, but did go to the Ten Boom House in Haarlam. I had never heard of Corrie Ten Boom or her book, "The Hiding Place." Again, this was interesting to me because it was a slice of history. The house has been preserved. It focused less on the terrible things happening during the war and more on the joy of life in the house and Corrie's relationship with God. (It was a bit over the top for my taste. Corrie's God and mine work differently. Mine answers prayers much less directly!)
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| False wall in Corrie's bedroom. Jewish people hid behind it and were never caught. |
We also saw an old-fashioned windmill. It makes sense to me now that there are so many in The Netherlands. It is WINDY! Haarlam was a very beautiful city and I hope to go back some day.
Paris
Wednesday came at last and with it Paris. I was super excited to go back since I haven't returned since doing my student teaching in 2008. I was reminded of French rules that drove me crazy. What is different about bureaucracy in France than bureaucracy in Italy is that in France if you follow the rules, silly as they may be, in the end you know the system will work. I was reminded of this when we arrived at Gare du Nord and had to walk through a very long metal barrier/corridor to get a taxi. Instead of just walking straight to the front since there were only 2 people ahead of us we had to walk through the entire corridor. At least there was order, unlike some Italian lines.
We checked into our hotel, a small, unpleasant place on a perfectly delightful street, Rue Cler. We rested and then headed out to meet one of my old friends, David, for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Pramil. It was a fun place. Felt a little formal, but was not too expensive or pretentious. I had a new food, Ficoid glacial. It is a spinach-like lettuce that looks like it is covered in ice. Interesting, but crunchier than I like my lettuce.
Thursday while Carrie, a Paris virgin, went museum hopping, I spent the day shopping and went to see "The Artist." It was an interesting idea and I liked it on the big screen, but I'm not sure it was better than "The Descendants" or even "Midnight in Paris." I went to Bert's, my favorite old haunt for lunch dismayed to find out the food has gone way down. It's not just a sesame baguette with ham and cheese anymore. Everything has been Americanized with too many sauces and ingredients. Not the pure flavor of the fresh foods they used to have.
In any case, la goute made up for it. I met my old French teacher, Julie, at Laduree for a trio of macaroons. Yum! We spent a good hour talking French and I was as surprised as anyone that my French held up that long. In fact, my whole time in Paris, no one spoke English to me. I can tell that my understanding has decreased, but was relieved to be able to communicate the whole time-- a nice change from daily life in Italy. Carrie and I had dinner in St. Germain des Pres and then went to my favorite crepe stand for dessert. Nothing beats a nutella (mais pas trop!) crepe. Yumm!
Friday I spent the day with Sherri, a friend from college, and her fiance Mike. They are living in Paris for the year as she does research on her Ph.D. We spent the whole morning at the Hotel de Ville seeing free exhibits on photos of Les Halles in the 1950-70s by Robert Doisneau and the artwork of Sempe, an artist for the New Yorker, but also the illustrator for my favorite French books, Le Petit Nicolas. We had a picnic outside the Center Pompidou for lunch and then strolled over to my old quartier. A nice stroll down memory lane.
I got Carrie in the evening and we went to Mike and Sherri's place in Belleville for an aperitif. I brought a bottle of my favorite Savinguon Blanc. We all went to dinner at a local joint near Mike and Sherri's. It was fun and nice to be out of the touristy area. I remember going to tasty places near Republic and Bastille when I lived there and I think these are still the best areas to find good restaurants. Both Wednesday and Friday night dinners were there.
Running
Alas, Saturday we departed and headed back to Milan which welcomed us with beautiful weather. Sunday I met up with my running buddies, Kyle and Jeff. Kyle and I ran 16 miles. This was so hard. Dehydrated from the week before and new foods in my stomach, my body rebelled. I had my first blisters from training yet. This marathon training is no joke! Running seems to be my entire life these days. Traveling and training are not the best combination. You may have noticed that I did not go to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. This is in part because I spent my time running. I went for two runs over White week. Two 8-milers in Amsterdam. The first one was a complete disaster. I went out and found Vondel Park which has a long loop that I ran two times, very overdressed. On my last lap, the skies and wind opened up and dumped hail, large, painful hail on the park. I was no longer overdressed, but had a ton of wet clothes on and then proceeded to get lost on the way home. Freezing, wet, and in pain, it was far from a fun run.
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| Training in Opera on a snow day |
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| Frozen shoes from too long a run in the cold and snow. |
I did however have a nice run another day. It was not raining and I ran only one loop in the park and then up and down the canals. A fun run to remember Amsterdam. I didn't run in Paris because it was yucky weather the day I planned to run and have plenty of good memories of running there anyway. Next up Stramilano half marathon. ("An agonistic race" according to the director. Doesn't sound too good huh?) Wish me luck!
