Now you might just be wondering at this point just how many parts there will be to this endless vacation, and the answer to that is five. So we are getting close now to the end. Our third stop in this journey was Amsterdam. Our friends Rob and Chris Byrne are spending the year there, and our original excuse for travelling to Europe this year had been to visit them. Never mind that we spent three weeks in Europe and only 3 days in Amsterdam - they were very busy and we had places to go and things to see! We packed a lot of great stuff into 3 days.
The flat that Rob and Chris are renting in Amsterdam is fantastic - large, huge really by European standards, and in a very nice part of the city. Lots of stairs per the typical Amsterdam abode - see "The 52 Steps": http://www.silentrobert.com/
The first night there it was our delight to see, in addition to these wonderful OLD friends of ours (payback Rob - and how old are they???), another old friend and a new one. Tom got the chance to meet up with a good friend from his high school years in Brazil, Hanno Boss. Hanno as you might guess from his name is Dutch, and he is now working in Immigration Law in Utrecht. We also got to meet in person our recently adopted online daughter Lotte. Lotte was just as wonderful as we had imagined her to be from facebook and e-mail... Chris made us a wonderful meal and it was a very special evening.
The next day was football day (aka soccer). Rob scored some really great seats at the local venue where we watched an Ajax match. Ajax won, the sun was scorching which surprised us all a bit for early May in Amsterdam, and of course the beer was cold and delicious. We had dinner at Gruters, an establishment very close to the flat and it would appear that the Byrnes are well established regulars there. Very nice ambience and great food. Did I mention that the beer was very tasty?
The last day we took Chris's recommendation and had a massage at "Corpus Rub" around the corner from the flat. Always trust Chris to know where to find a great massage. After so many days hiking , sitting on planes, and sleeping in one strange bed after another, a massage was really a great idea.
In the evening we went to the FilmMuseum and watched an old western ("One Eyed Jacks") that starred and bizarrely enough was also directed by Marlon Brando. Even more strange is that Kubrick had started as director and Brando finished the job. All very interesting, but we mainly thought the film sucked. Still, the company was good and the beer afterwards was very nice indeed. Lekker.
The Byrne's flat is located about a block away from the VondelPark, an enormous and very green and beautiful park with waterways (of course! this is Amsterdam), green areas, coffee bars, restaurants, and lots of trails for running and walking. We walked there every day and it was really great to be back into a land of trees and birds. Nearly all of the birds there were nesting or caring for flocks of babies, and it was a bird lover and photography paradise. My personal fave was the Egyptian Goose - so exotic looking.
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