The morning is the same story at the coffee shop, 3rd day in a row with the 3rd different person behind the counter, today a disgruntled guy instead of a girl like the first 2 days. Regardless, the cappuccino is good, the shop is nice, they play both A Tribe Called Quest and Gorillaz on the playlist while there, so if nothing else the coffee & music is solid. I do my writing and walk out of the shop forever.
I head back to the apartment and shower, then get the crew up and we are out the door at 9:20. On the way we pick up the last set of postcards for the kids, and Julia gets a keychain to complete her 4-city set. The guy selling us the stuff can’t keep his eyes off the kids. He thinks they’re going to steal stuff from him. What a jerk.
We grab a waffle for breakfast on the walk to Central Station and it’s yummy. This is our last meal in town and this is a tasty one. I know waffles aren’t exactly rare but it’s nice to be able to walk into a shop and buy one tasting this good.
The train station is easy, and before long we’re at the airport where things are slightly more difficult but we get where we need to go. The flight is delayed but nothing out of the ordinary. We have a little time while waiting so I do my last retrospective on the city we just left.
Reflections on Amsterdam
I think it’s hard for me to really discuss Amsterdam in the same context that I talked about the other 3 cities. Why this is, I’m not entirely sure, but I think there’s some truth to this statement: I don’t understand Amsterdam. At the end of yesterday, it may have become a tad more clear, but I’m not sure. What’s the draw to this town? In talking to the bartender yesterday, he said it’s mellow, it’s relaxed. I think that’s fair and maybe this is a reason to live here, not necessarily to visit here. There’s a stigma to Amsterdam, maybe not a stigma but a trademark to it. It’s that Amsterdam is where you come to legally get stoned. Being that this isn’t something I do, that doesn’t appeal to me.
So what’s the International draw? It’s expensive, that’s for sure. But so are a lot of other cities. It’s quaint and relaxed and has good weather. I’ll grant that. But there isn’t a major attraction, like an Eiffel Tower or Tower Bridge or something that stands out as required. The history is soft, with no political upheaval to speak of, no real war to speak of. The Dutch are a generally non-violent people and prefer to remain neutral when the wars come calling. At least this is what I got out of the tour. As such, there isn’t a compelling history in that regard. I feel like the tour guide shortchanged us here. Because there’s pretty much no location without some local history along those lines.
The Anne Frank House and the Rijksmuseum – most likely the Van Gogh and Rembrandt museums – are worth visiting. It’s not fair to say that there’s nothing at all there, because there is. As noted a few times the abrasive service industry does not make me want to spend money at the establishments, but as I also note, I get why that may be the case. Even though there’s a native language many people end up having to speak English because it’s such a mixing pot of people & cultures & languages. I don’t know what to think of that, necessarily.
I mentioned to someone on the first day here that I was having trouble making sense of the city, and I think in a way that’s still true as we leave. I still don’t understand it, and I’m not sure that thinking about it anymore will change that. D mentioned this would be different if we were here alone, which I agree with. We would rent bikes and be more mobile and maybe explore more of the city fringe and be outside of the 1000s of bikes and crowded streets & canal intersections. I think getting a little further out of the city would help me enjoy this more. I didn’t NOT enjoy it, but I felt like things were a bit aimless, and due to the city being fairly homogenous, every street corner looked the same. As such, no matter which way you walk, you seem to be in the same spot.
This is probably unfair, I’m sure it’s unfair. This was the end of our trip, and we had done a lot, and we were all tired, and some subset of us were getting sick, in fact still are sick now. Having said that, as I leave Amsterdam I think that it was a nice city, but I don’t miss it as we depart. I imagine we’ll come back one day, most likely. And if we do, I’ll better know what to expect, and maybe how better to approach the city. For now, I’ll be content with the idea that Amsterdam eludes me and my understanding, and I’m fine with that. We can’t all be the masters of everything. It’s just the way it goes sometimes.
There’s not much more to say after this. The first leg of the flight is quick, easy. Either I smell or the guy next to me does. In the end, turns out that it’s him, save for the one time I pass gas.
We land in Dublin, where we go through about 4 different checkpoints, grab a sandwich, and immediately get in line to board the next leg. We were scheduled for a 2 hour layover but the initial delay made this pretty dialed in terms of timing. We eat when we sit down on the plane, and the sandwich is excellent. The pilot tells us the plane will be in the air for 6.5 hours once we take off.
I watch Green Book to start, which Sean tells me not to do. The movie is ok, not great. In the end yes he’s right, it’s not really a box office smash but it’s entertaining enough and it goes quickly. Before I took off he told me to watch something with The Rock instead. So for the second movie I select Fighting With My Family, starring The Rock. It wasn’t really very good, and Dwayne Johnson is barely in it. But it passed the time. The fact that they were both based on true stories makes them both more interesting I suppose.
The plane lands early, and since we did customs in Dublin, we walk to the airtrain, take it to the shuttle, which brings us to the car and we drive home without incident. The sky is a flat, dead gray. We didn’t have a single day like this on the whole vacation. In fact, it did not rain once.
The end.
Stay tuned for one last post, an observations & reflections on the trip as a whole.
Traveling Normandy 