A Lengthy Bike Ride

The next day was also quite fun. We explored the city some more, and on Wednesday afternoon we rented two bikes from our hotel. Now, in Amsterdam, pretty much everyone rides a bike at least some of the time, if not most of the time. Bikes have their own lanes, their own stoplights, even their own roads in some areas. It's really quite lovely. The Dutch ride amazingly fast, with no helmets, often with 2-3 children attached in various ways, and never seem to have any trouble. We were a little nervous about navigating through downtown Amsterdam, so we headed out of town on our rented bikes.


You can see our route here. It was a wonderful ride along the Amstel river through some beautiful countryside. There were people boating, rowing, lots of bikers, and people generally enjoying the outdoors. We saw a couple of windmills, and lots of beautiful farms with all manner of crops and animals. We wound up in the village Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, which is a lovely little town with a beautiful church. We ate at one of the best restaurants ever (really—top 5, at least), De Oude Smidse. We enjoyed all our food in Amsterdam, but this was the best. We had an amazing salad, grouper served on ratatouille, and cherry chocolate cake with white chocolate mousse.

Note all the bikes parked out front!

Then we biked home (with a little detour—our map wasn't as detailed as would be hoped), in time to see the sunset from our room. It was a wonderful day!

A Cultural Day

It's me at Sweelinck's grave.

Amy's paper went well. She had a good presentation, and some tough questions afterwards, but it was good. We had good Italian for dinner, and then wandered the city for a bit before bed. Tuesday was a fun day. While Amy went to a morning session on Paul, I found a good shop for some wetshaving supplies that you can't get in the States, and then we toured the Oude Kerke. It's a massive Gothic structure, although some of it was unfortunately damaged due to Protestant zeal. It was also a little odd as a youth choir/band from Great Britain was there to do a jazz concert of Gershwin show tunes. They were good, but it was just a little weird while looking at a 14th century Pieta. The famous organist and composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck served here just before it switched to Protestant, and he is buried here. There are two beautiful organs, the smaller of which was from his time.

We had a late lunch at a brown café, Myrabelle's, which was fabulous and got to Skype with the kids there (who had just gotten up—7 hours difference is a lot!). Then we walked down to the Rijksmuseum, where you can see many Rembrants, Vermeers, and others. It is unfortunately being renovated, so much of the collection is currently not seeable. It was still about a 2 1/2 hour walk, and the most famous paintings were all on display, the most famous being Rembrandt's "The Night Watch," was was truly impressive, for its size and skill.

We went back to our hotel and changed for dinner, for which we had Indian at a place across from our hotel. Then I got tickets to see a Handel/Vivaldi concert at Het Concertgebouw, one of the premier classical music venues in the world. It was fabulous, even if jet lag still played some havoc with my sleepiness. It was a concert of arias, largely, and the soprano was fabulous. The audience loved her, and she did 3 encores! Concerto Köln was the orchestra, and they too were quite impressive. We didn't get home until about 11:30 from that, and had a fabulous time!

Arriving in Amsterdam!

The Oude Kerke and canal.

Our trip to Amsterdam was so uneventful as to be ridiculous. There was no security line at O'Hare, we somehow got "choice" seats on our plane which meant we got to board first and had tons of legroom, we landed early in Dublin so had plenty of time to make our connection, and landed early in Amsterdam to boot. The train from the airport is cheap and really nice, and once we walked through customs we walked right onto a train which immediately left. Then the city tram was free because it was Sunday, which took us straight to our hotel. We did have to wait for our room to be ready, so we explored a bit around it, and Amy registered for SBL. We tried our hardest to stay awake so we could sleep all night (7 hours difference is quite a change!), so I hung out at a coffee shop while Amy went to the opening session. We had an amazing Indonesian dinner, and went back to our room to decide what to do next.

That was decided for us, as 4 1/2 hours later I woke up in the dark, still in my clothes. We were exhausted! So we slept. I woke up around 3 and started reading, and we eventually got up to go for a walk and find breakfast. This was the only trouble so far—Amsterdam as a city does not get up early. Breakfast places open at 9 generally, a few at 10, and I found one at 8 (but later in the day). We pretty much had the city to ourselves, though, which was peaceful and pleasant. After we showered, we started walking to the University for Amy's first session, and found a pastry/coffee shop that was open. Coffee here is quite good, although small.

While Amy went to sessions, I wandered the city. Most things don't open until 11 or later, I discovered, so I mostly saw the outside of churches and the like. After a lunch of falafel, I napped while Amy practiced her paper. She's given it now, but the session is not over, so I'll go find her shortly. I've been wandering the city and exploring some shops. The internet at our hotel is just abysmal, so I'm sitting at a cafe now. I'll try to update as I can!