Netherlands

Indonesian Amsterdam

I had visited Amsterdam when I was living in St. Andrews, and remembered it as being a fun city. Good museums, good food, and friendly people. I wanted to go back, and do some photography.

I woke in Paris, and arranged for a taxi to take me to Gare du Nord, where I'd catch a train to Amsterdam. I had a first class ticket for Thalys service, with a reserved seat. (Not as extravagent as one would think, the difference in cost between first and second class was less than 20%.) The seats are a bit wider, and there is a bit more space, per person, for luggage.

The seat was facing backwards, then again, I think every seat on the train was. It took just over four hours to complete the journey. The food was expensive, and the server behind the counter was quite slow. We arrived late, due to some work on the tracks near Rotterdam. I was later to learn that the work was due to a collision between a train and a truck the previous day. On the trip, I saw a lot of herons, a few kestrels, and thousands of sparrows. In Brussels, a thermometer was visible from the train, and it read 32 degrees (89.6 Fahrenheit). Very warm.

At Amsterdam station, I lugged my luggage to the taxi stand, and caught a taxi to the Eden Hotel. I checked in, and the room was a bit warm. Large, probably 150-200 square feet, but with a tiny window. I was on the inside of the bend of an L-shaped building. By the time I checked in, it was just past 4PM, and the museums were closed or closing.

Amsterdam is a great city for walking! I decided to just walk around the city (in spite of the heat). Amsterdam has many miles of canals, with roads parallel. It's laid out like a spoke and ring system, so it is very difficult to get lost. The Eden Hotel is on the Amstel Canal, which is one of the wider canals in Amsterdam.

I found my way to Leidesplein, where I went to an Indonesian restaurant, cleverly named "Indonesia," for dinner. I had a rice table for one, which consisted of many different small dishes of varying levels of spice. I recognized several, including beef rendang, but some were new to me. Stupidly, I forgot to write down the names (But maybe that means they'll be new to me again, next time I have a rice table). The sodas were 3.90 ($1.95) each, and I drank a good bit, as well as drinking almost half a gallon of water. It was hot and I was very thirsty.

After dinner, I walked four more miles, just around. I guess I walked maybe 6-7 miles total.

It was Mother's Day, so I called my mother.

I also called Winnie Meyer-Ricard, whom I'd met electronically, and who was going to show me around some birding sites the next day.

I tried to sleep. I had a fan running full blast, but it was so hot and humid, that it did not have the desired effect. I tossed and turned all night, and seriously considered taking my pillow and a sheet, and sleeping on a bench by the canal. It couldn't be that hot outside.

Turns out the corridor was cooler, and the outside was much cooler.

Natural Amsterdam

Breakfast was none too impressive, coldcuts and cereal. No water that I could find. The shower was strong, but the temperature was not very consistent. Nothing like a blast of cold water (which actually felt good following the heat of the night) followed by a blast of scalding water.

After breakfast, I went to rent a bicycle. (No, I did not take any pictures of me riding a bicycle, so you'll just have to use your imagination.) It was a standard one-speed bicycle, and cost roughly $5 to rent for the day. I took it on the Metro out to Gein station, where I met Winnie. We picked up some water, and headed out towards Naardermeer.

Our bike trip out to Naardermeer lasted maybe 2 hours, but we made a lot of stops to observe. I saw my first lapwing, there were several cavorting in the fields. Also saw a buzzard, briefly, but it was too far away to photograph.

Naardermeer is the equivalent of a National Wildlife Reserve in the US, but without hunting being allowed. A lot of trees and grass, there were very few buildings. Basically, just a few blinds. The problem was that it was so hot that not many birds were flying. The daytime high was 35 degrees (95 Fahrenheit). At about noon, we parked and locked the bikes, and hiked into a pair of hides. While the lake there looked like it had potential, we did not see as much as we'd hoped. We did see reed warblers, great reed warblers, a sedge warbler, and coal tits, but not in great numbers. Winnie identified the Chiffchaff from its call, and we also heard a cuckoo calling.

The highlight, visually, was a pair of great crested grebes, who put on a couple of displays for us. This grebe is quite interesting to watch. At one point, a cormorant also buzzed the blind.

A buzzard soared over the lake, but was too far away to photograph.

After the hike out from the blinds, we biked around the fields neer Naardermeer. Biking helped cool me off, as it helped evaporate the sweat on my forehead. Yes, I had developed another sunburn.

We meet Winnie's partner Fred at dinner. Fred tracks the bird populations in parts of the Netherlands, and he mentioned that there are eight pair of nesting goshawks in Naardermeer. We saw none. We chatted about the differences in birds of prey in Europe as opposed to the US. I was surprised to hear there are no color morphs of the common buzzard; the American Red-tail has a few, and I thought the buzzard would be similar. Also, the ratio of dark morph rough-legged hawks is much greater in the US. We also talked about the gyrfalcon that visited the Netherlands this past winter, it was only the second white gyr in the Netherlands this century.

After dinner, we biked back to the metro. On the way, we saw a long-eared owl in the trees. We also came across a toad. I found out that there are organizations in the Netherlands specifically to help toads cross roads.They migrate towards water, and without the help, it would be a massacre of toads. On first glance, it may seem silly, but it is actually a big help for the entire ecosystem. The toads predate certain insects, whose population would boom without the toads, and the toads feed other animals. Which would you rather do, help the toads, or be bitten by mosquitoes?

When I got back to my room, it was 38 degrees inside (100.4 Fahrenheit) and it was nearly midnight. I swore the next day, I'd change hotels, if I could.

Tropical Amsterdam

I got maybe four hours sleep overnight. My first destination was the central station hotel reservations, where I made some inquiries into hotels with air conditioning. All booked. What hotels were available? Not many, and none seemed like a better option. Ugh.

I went to Rembrandthuis, which was much smaller than I remembered, and seems to have had the vast majority of paintings taken down. Renovation? I don't know. So, I walked to the cental square, Dam, and down the Rokin to Rembrandtplein. (If you know Amsterdam, you know I just went a very long way around.) I stopped by some bookstores, but didn't purchase anything. At Rembrandtplein, I had a quick lunch, a salami & cheese sandwich, and a coca cola light at an outdoor cafe.

One of the nicer aspects of the heat is that the skirts seem to rise with the temperature: 95 degrees, 95% of leg exposed... Made the people watching a bit more interesting.

After lunch, I walked to the Reichsmuseem and the Van Gogh Museem. So many crucifiction pictures all look alike after a while. I guess I should admit a preference for Steen and van Gogh over Vermeer, but I can't explain why. I did like "Flying Fox", van Gogh's painting of a bat.

I walked back to my hotel to get my camera. Next, I walked through the city, taking pictures. Winnie had mentioned some canals that were ideal for bird photography, so I took some pictures there. One was of a family of coots with eight chicks. I also tried to photograph the architecture of the city. Brian got his photo of the red light district. I ended up at Vondelpark (Amsterdam's equivalent of Golden Gate Park), with my feet hurting, and just did some photography of the people walking by. After a while, I headed over to Leidesplein for another dinner, this time at Manchurain. (Any guesses on the cuisine, folks?) I ended up walking maybe 15 miles over the course of the day.

I ordered Hong-Kong duck, which was similar to Beijing duck, but with a sweet bean sauce and the duck is fried instead of roasted. The dish undoubtedly had some nice, subtle flavors, but it was ruined by the tobacco smoke. Amsterdam restaurants don't even have segregation between smokers and diners, and the restaurant was crowded enough that I could not get a table away from the polluters. I just quickly ate and left.

At a cafe, I had overheard some discussion of a "nuclear explosion" followed by a comment about "how will the US respond?" It wasn't clear what had happened, and I could not make sense of the news to see what it was. I called my sister at work to learn of India's nuclear test. Insane.

I went to another cafe to have a soda, and to read, as the evening grew late. The temperature in my room had reached 43 degrees when I picked up my camera. That's 109.4 Fahrenheit. That's way too hot.

I composed the following letter on the "customer comments form:"

While I understand that the weather in Amsterdam has been unusually hot, my room has still been intollerable. My backpack thermometer registered 43C -- 109F. Even with the fan running there is no air circulation or fresh air. I was unable to sleep. Compounding this was the lack of a functional ice machine. In weather such as we've had during my visit, this room should not be used -- even if it means paying to send guests to other hotels.

Additionally, the shower did not provide constant temperature. I'd be scalded, then hit with very cold water, all without touching the controls. I suspect this is due to inadequate water pressure, if someone is using the hot water on the 4th floor, on the 5th floor I'd lose my hot water supply.

Overall, this is the worst hotel experience I have had in my travels. My inability to sleep at night, due to the heat, certainly made it difficult for me to enjoy Amsterdam to the fullest extent possible.

When I return to the United States, I will recommend to my travel agent to avoid the Eden Hotel in future.

I guess due to exhaustion, I managed to get six hours sleep on my last night. The next morning, before the flight, I took another walk for photographs. I managed to get some great shots of grey herons, and this crested grebe. A taxi to Schiphol airport, and then I flew to London.

London calling!