Amsterdam and going home...

Centraal Station Amsterdam

Street in Amsterdam

Our adventures in Europe ends with a return visit to Holland and this final week of our time here is both strange and bittersweet: on one hand I love being welcomed by the generous hospitality of our Dutch friends, but I are also feeling the rapidly approaching end of this amazing experience.  In the past 6 months I have gotten to know many corners of Europe in greater depth than I had ever imagined, and this extended time together has also deepened Bruce and my relationship in a way that is less possible with the daily distractions of our life in Minnesota. Six months can be a long time to spend with only one other person and we had a good time learning how to be with each other throughout.  Overall, this time has been occasionally challenging, but most of the time it has been fun and exhilarating. 

Canal and houses

But to return to Amsterdam:  The fast train from Paris takes about 3 hours to arrive at Amsterdam's Centraal Station. Suddenly we are, once again in a new world.  Although we have, in the past, spent time here it has generally been as a transition to someplace else. (Amsterdam is an easy city from which we can jump to other places in Europe the Middle East or the Baltics, and it is always a treat to reeconnect with our friends who live here). However, this is the first time we have had time to actually explore the city in more depth. 
And explore we did:

Public Art Installation

Children and Utopian Turtle sculptuer

We started with re-acquainting ourselves with the city and its magical rings of dikes.  We wandered - zigzagging between typical tourist areas and less well-known ‘ethnic’ areas of the city. We drank tiny cups of coffee (our American preference for large cups of coffee often meant 
drinking several cups in a row). We wandered the Albert Cuyp outdoor market- one of the large local ethnically diverse markets in the city, snapped photos at the ‘famous’ Dutch bulb market -well Bruce did- I just took pictures of bikes near the canal,  (factoid- tulips originally came from Turkey), wandered through local parks and explored Amsterdam Chinatown.  We attended a free dance concert one evening in Vondel Park- a large local green space in the middle of an already green city.   I even got to meet with some local Dutch dance/ movement therapists, (one from Russia and another from Rumania) who were studying in Rotterdam.


 On another day we explored a nearby street lined with public sculptures and watched local school children happily sketching in their large work books. (I continue to be struck by the importance given to all forms of art, everywhere we have traveled in Europe.  It is often a core part of children's education here, and also available publically for free or very little cost- quite sad that American doesn't seem to share this view.)    On Shabbat, we visited a local modern synagogue, where our friends are active members and leaders.  It was a lovely music-filled service, and ws called up for an aliyah to chant the blessing before the Torah reading. Most amaxing is the building itself, set overlooking a quiet canal.  Inside -the synagogue is spacious, filled with light and color.

Town Square- Haarlem

Old windmill in Haarlem

One Sunday we took a road trip to Haarlem, about 15 minutes away by train (gotta love public transportation here. It is a bit expensive, unless you live here or are around for an extended time period, but it works, is fast and generally easy to use).  


Haarlem is a small, picturesque and probably more typical Dutch town.  Different from ‘Sunday rhythm’ in Tallinn, Haarlem is quiet on Sunday morning as if everyone is holding space for Sunday Church services (I am not sure they are actually in Church, but Sunday morning is not a commercial time.   We arrived too late to join services in the towering old stone church in the middle of town but we can hear the organ music and energetic singing outside the locked (to keep camera snapping tourists out) heavy wooden doors. 


We continue wandering and enjoyed the sun and clear sky.  On the many small canals lining the streets of the town, we see families and couples in small boats with picnic baskets reading to enjoy the good weather. A man beckons us to enter a building near the church (where the the oldest men’s choir in Holland rehearses), and tells us he is waiting for other choir members were will be joining him for a Sunday bike ride. The pace is relaxed and laid back.

Strand beach

Old and New Den Haag

Chinese Bridge in Den Haag

 A few days later, we take another train to Den Haag, the governmental capitol of Holland as well as the location of the royal palace (always described as a ‘working palace’ by everyone to whom we talk).  For me, it seems that the immigrant community is more visible and less assimilated that in other cities so far. In our explorations we passed markets selling taro, cassava and plantains and playgrounds with children and moms of all colors and types of dress. 

Korans and prayer beads

Memorian to Holocaust

Mithrab

We visited a Turkish mosque with a beautifully tiled mithrab (prayer niche), complete with older men sitting outside smoking, drinking coffee and hanging out (a typical Turkish mosque sight, no matter what country we have been in.) 

Flowers and self portraits ala Escher

Our wanderings take us both to these poorer areas of town and also to tree-lined homes nearer the palace.  A highlight for me was a visit to the Escher museum, which has many interactive, kid-friendly exhibits explaining the mathematical and mind-bending worlds in his drawing. I have always loved Escher’s work, as well as the metaphysical focus of his works. The museum (set in an old palace for the royal family) helped to demystify how he achieved the optical illusions in his works.

Final Meal in Amsterdam

There is much more to talk about, but I want to leave some for Bruce.  Our last day was cool and rainy. We went to the Amsterdam Historical museum, an excellent museum that focuses on the growth and development of the city. There is so much more to see and explore, but we have run out of time. We celebrate our last meal in Europe at a small Indonesian deli near the Albert Cyup market and have one of the best meals of our time in Amsterdam. The food is spicy, with all sorts of flavors, served by two older women who smiled at our futile attempts to figure out what we were actually eating. They did understand our requests for sambal (spicy pepper sauce) and readily brought us a dish full. 

More later, but we are now home, adjusting to the 7 hour time difference and the radical increase in temperature and humidity. We arrive to hear that our governor has found a way to settle the state shut down. Welcome home.